Getting Enough Calories

Learn how to increase your calorie intake to maintain your energy

When you are HIV-positive, it is important to eat enough calories because HIV infection increases your body’s energy needs. A calorie is a way of measuring the energy that food supplies.

It is good to eat a lot of high-energy foods like complex carbohydrates or starches, a food category that includes whole-grain breads and cereal, pasta, potatoes and rice. Fruits, vegetables and simple sugars also give your body quick energy. Fats give you extra energy to burn and build body fat. If you don’t eat enough calories from carbohydrates, your body will break down your muscles for energy.

You may not have an appetite if you become sick; you may notice that you are gradually losing weight. This represents an “emergency” situation; call your registered dietitian right away.

To increase your calorie intake:

• Eat six small meals throughout the day.
• Keep snacks that don’t require refrigeration near your bed or by the television.
• Pack non-perishable foods to snack on when you are away from home.
• Engage in light exercise before you eat to increase your appetite.

Complex starches or carbohydrates are the best type of energy to build and maintain your muscle tissue.

• Eat generous portions of: pasta (whole-wheat or enriched macaroni, spaghetti or noodles), rice (brown or white), barley, millet, tabouli and couscous.
• Choose oatmeal, cream of wheat, rice cereal, corn meal, grits and cold cereals. In addition, breads, tortillas, muffins, biscuits, crackers, dumplings, pancakes and waffles are good.
• Select potatoes, yams, plantains, yucca, breadfruit, corn, green peas and lima beans, which offer special phytochemicals, as do cooked kidney beans, navy beans, black-eyed peas and chickpeas.

Simple sugars give you extra energy to gain muscle and also fat weight.

• Snack on fresh or dried fruit (raisins, dates, apricots, pineapple, papaya and prunes) for extra energy.
• Add jelly, jam, honey, and maple syrup to hot and cold cereal, pancakes and waffles.
• Add honey, sugar, molasses or flavored syrup to milkshakes.
• Top ice cream or frozen or regular yogurt with fresh or dried fruit and syrup.
• Snack on cakes, pies, cookies and candy between meals.
• Don’t let simple sugars replace more important protein- and nutrient-rich foods. If your blood sugars have been high or you have diabetes, adding simple sugars to your diet, such as table sugar, honey, syrup, soda and a lot of fruit juice, are not good sources of calories. Check with your health care provider and registered dietitian or nutritionist for instructions.

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