Serious Stuff


	Stay Healthy & Strong There are things you can do. Good nutrition, exercise, sleep, and proper medical management of HIV and other infections are essential. Talk to your nutritionist and health providers. Learn about the importance of protein, complex carbohydrates, and low fat and low sugar diets. Resistance exercises are best to build muscle. Remember the idea is not to burn fat or loose weight (traditional diets) but to . Get Early Treatment There are many ways to treat muscle wasting. Your treatment should include attention to nutrition, exercise, and management of HIV, other infections, and anything that affects your appetite and ability to eat and digest food. In some cases, even using things like anabolic steroids and human growth hormone can make a big difference in addition to the things already mentioned above.


	Weight Loss is Serious Unintentional weight loss, even as low as 5% of your weight, can be significant and may be a warning sign of trouble ahead. If you are eating well, and doing everything you can to stay healthy, and are still loosing weight, or you feel that your muscles are being replaced by fat, talk to your health care provider. Weight Loss is Complicated Even if you feel healthy and your total body weight is stable, your muscle tissue may be replaced by fat for lots of reasons. As the body struggles to defend itself against HIV, and for factors we don't even know about yet, people living with HIV are finding that their muscle tissue is depleting and, in some cases, being replaced by fat. This can be caused by HIV itself, nutritional deficiencies, and sometimes even the anti-HIV medications used Monitor Muscle & Fat Keep track of your weight and body measurements. Tests, like the Bioelectric Impedance Analysis (BIA), can help you keep track of your muscle mass and fat ratios.