Department of Nutrition and Dietetics

I have a poor appetite or have lost weight

When a person loses their appetite it can become a struggle to eat enough food to provide the energy and protein to meet their nutrition needs and maintain their body weight. If this happens it can cause malnutrition.

Malnutrition – simply means “bad nutrition”

Malnutrition can cause:

Low mood
Reduced energy levels
Reduced muscle strength
Reduced quality of life
Difficulty with carrying out daily activities
Increased risk of illness and infection
Slower wound healing
Increased risk of falls
If you are concerned about unplanned weight loss please speak with your health care professionals who will be able to screen you for malnutrition using a screening tool such as https://www.bapen.org.uk/screening-and-must/must/must-toolkit/the-must-itself
This tool assesses individuals as being at low, medium or high risk of malnutrition.

You can also screen yourself https://www.malnutritionselfscreening.org/self-screening.html

Here is some information below to help anyone who has a poor appetite:

Little and Often

Eating smaller meals and snacks, and nourishing drinks in between meals may be more manageable.
Try having drinks separately from meals, as these can fill you up.
Try having a pudding once or twice a day such as a full cream yoghurt, ice cream, cake, custard.
Snacks in between meals can help to boost your intake.

Snack ideas:

Sandwiches, fruit cake, nuts, crisps, cereals, soups, yoghurts, finger foods (e.g. sausage rolls, scotch eggs), toasted tea cakes with butter, crackers and cheese, toast + topping (e.g. beans, scrambled egg, butter), tinned fruit in syrup.

Enriching your Food

Choose full fat/full cream foods with sugar rather than low fat/ low sugar types e.g. full cream yoghurts, full cream milk.
Add cheese to soups, mashed potatoes, vegetables, pasta dishes.
Use butter in sandwiches, on potatoes and with crackers or vegetables.
Add cream or condensed milk to puddings.
Add sugar, jam, honey or milk powder to porridge, breakfast cereals or puddings.
Use cooking methods that include the addition of oil e.g. shallow fry, roast or grill but coat or spray the food with oil first.

Nourishing Drinks

Milk is full of goodness. To make fortified milk add 4 tablespoons of milk powder to one pint of milk. This can be used throughout the day in drinks, on cereals, in sauces, to make custard.

Using milk (including fortified milk) to make to make the following drinks is also a good idea:

Hot chocolate or cocoa
Coffee and cappuccinos
Malted drinks
Milkshakes or smoothies

Choose fruit juices and sugar containing squashes.

Powdered supplements such as Complan and Build Up are available from most supermarkets and pharmacies and can be used in between meals.

Other Helpful Tips

Indulge in the foods you fancy
Try not to miss or skip meals
Ready meals (frozen or tinned) are a good, easy to prepare option. Consider adding some frozen vegetables to make a more balanced meal.
It is useful to keep a store of some basic foods in case you are not able to get to the shops e.g. long life milk, tinned meat, ready meals, hot chocolate, tinned or frozen fruit and vegetables, cereals, biscuits.
If preparing food is too much, why not consider meal delivery services or ask friends and family for help in shopping, preparing and cooking meals.
Try to have company at meal times
If food choice and quantity is limited take a one-a-day complete multivitamin and mineral supplement.

For more specific dietary advice including advice for a particular medical condition, or for further advice if you are losing weight please see your GP, who may seek advice/refer you to a dietician.

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Do you think you need ‘Build-up’ Drinks?

In NHS Lanarkshire, build up drinks which are known as Oral Nutritional Supplements (ONS) are prescribed by your Dietitian. This is to ensure that your diet and fluid intake has been thoroughly assessed by a Dietitian and it has been identified that ONS product are required.
ONS drinks come in the form of ready-made milkshake, juice-based drinks, puddings and flavours/preferences can be discussed with your Dietitian.
This is unlike many other health-board areas whereby your GP would prescribe these drinks.
For some patients it may be recommended to prescribe a small supply of supplements over a short period of time when they experience poor oral intake. This may be as a result of an acute period of illness or if they are unable to achieve nutritional requirements from a fully fortified diet.

Other reasons why a patient may be prescribed Oral Nutritional Supplement

Oral Nutritional Supplements/Build-up drinks can only be prescribed by patients who meet the Advisory Committee for Borderline Substances (ACBS) prescribing criteria, have been identified through ‘MUST’ screening AND assessed by a Dietitian.
Examples of patients who meet this criteria are patients with Short bowel syndrome, Dysphagia, Pre-operative preparation of patients who are undernourished, Disease-related malnutrition

If patients do not meet ACBS prescribing criteria, over the counter alternatives such as Meritene™ and Complan™ can be recommended unless contraindicated.

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Patient Information Leaflets

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Department of Nutrition and Dietetics

On this page

I have a poor appetite or have lost weight

Little and Often

Enriching your Food

Nourishing Drinks

Other Helpful Tips

Do you think you need ‘Build-up’ Drinks?

Other reasons why a patient may be prescribed Oral Nutritional Supplement

Patient Information Leaflets

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