2. Exercise and Therapies
  3. Dietitian
  4. Weight loss in Parkinson’s

People with Parkinson’s can sometimes find that they lose weight without meaning to. There are lots of reasons why this might happen including poor appetite, increased energy expenditure, swallowing difficulties or difficulties with preparing meals. Unintentional weight loss can increase your risk of malnutrition.  

Top Tips

Below are some tips for you to try if you find that you are losing weight and do not wish to, or if you have a poor appetite. 

  • Eat little and often: Try eating smaller meals with snacks and nourishing drinks in between.
  • Include small snacks in between meals to help to increase your overall calories, e.g. biscuits, crisps, scones, teacakes, cheese and crackers, crumpets, mini sausage rolls/scotch eggs/ samosas.
  • Choose full-fat/ full-calorie foods and drinks, in place of low-fat or ‘diet’ foods and drinks
  • Try having a pudding or dessert once or twice a day, such as full-fat yoghurt, ice cream, cake, custard or rice pudding.
  • Include nutritious drinks: use full fat milk or full calorie milk alternatives to make milkshakes, smoothies, hot chocolate, milky coffees.
  • Enrich your food by adding extra cheese, butter, olive oil, mayonnaise or cream to your existing meals

This video explains the five steps to a nourishing diet. https://youtu.be/ceBbIc1kL_E

When to seek further support and advice

We recommend that you seek advice from your GP or Parkinson’s team if:

  • You lose more than 5-10% of your body weight
  • You are underweight (BMI < 20kg/m2)
  • If you continue to lose weight despite following the advice above.

You can use the BAPEN nutritional screening tool https://www.malnutritionselfscreening.org/self-screening.html to check your risk of malnutrition. This screening tool will tell you if you are at low, medium or high risk, and give you advice to help you overcome some of these problems. If your result is high risk, it’s important to contact your GP or Parkinson’s team and request a referral to a dietitian for individual advice and support.

Some of the advice above may not be suitable for you if you are experiencing swallowing difficulties (dysphagia).  If you have been diagnosed with dysphagia and are experiencing unintentional weight loss, then please request a referral to a dietitian for individual advice and support.