Nutrition and AIDS
Why Is Nutrition Important? ...continued
Good nutrition means getting enough macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients contain calories (energy): proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. They help you maintain your body weight. Micronutrients include vitamins and minerals. They keep your cells working properly, but will not prevent weight loss.
Good nutrition can be a problem for many people with HIV. When your body fights any infection, it uses more energy and you need to eat more than normal. But when you feel sick, you eat less than normal.

Some medications can upset your stomach, and some opportunistic infections can affect the mouth or throat. This makes it difficult to eat. Also, some medications and infections cause diarrhea. If you have diarrhea, your body actually uses less of what you eat.

When you lose weight, you might be losing fat, or you might be losing lean body weight like muscle. If you lose too much lean weight, your body chemistry changes. This condition is called wasting syndrome or cachexia. Wasting can kill you. If you lose more than 5% of your body weight, it could be a sign of wasting. Talk to your doctor.