Nutrition for healing a broken bone

Mouse_Potato

I broke my wrist 7 weeks ago today. Since then, I have been trying to eat at maintenance to make sure my body has the calories it needs. I have been, shall we say "undisciplined," and gone over more often than not. This morning I decided to check the damage. I am up .2 pounds! That includes the weight of the cast, so I've actually probably lost .5-1 pound. How much should I raise my calories to make sure the bone heals? I don't want to undo all of my hard work, but I want even less to have this wrist in its current condition! Thanks.

spat095

I had surgery recently, and for the following 6 weeks I ate at 300-500 above maintenance. I still ended up losing a little, so your body really does seem to need some extra calories when healing a serious injury. Maybe start with 250-300 over maintenance and see how that goes? Feel better soon!

spat095

Also - I forgot to mention, most of those extra calories were protein for me - very helpful for healing. Good luck!

eugenia94102

OP, Cornell University has a BMR calculator for people who are healing/sick. I suggest you use it; if in doubt, ask your doctor.

Mouse_Potato

Thanks, everyone. I did ask my doctor, but I don't think he really knew what to tell me. Also, I made the mistake of starting with "I've been on a 250 calorie cut for a while now" which he interpreted to mean I only eat 250 calories a day (clearly he's never seen me at Chipotle). I corrected him, but I'm not sure he completely let go of the idea. He said "just eat more." I asked if he meant maintenance or above and he just kind of waffled, so I'm trying to work it out on my own.

I tried the Cornell calculator and it recommended 1922 calories a day, but I think "ambulatory" is probably an understatement for my activity level. It's just a wrist, so I am still quite active, getting around 15,000 steps a day. My Fitbit says I burn 1900-2400 a day and I've been eating pretty close to that, with several days of being over by 200-400.

I do take a multi-vitamin and I've added a calcium supplement with vitamin D. I aim for around 100 grams of protein a day. I guess maybe I should aim for 100-200 calories over maintenance and try to hit it every day and see what happens. I think I may have accidentally put myself in a starve/binge cycle by underestimating how many calories my body needs to heal, hence 3 days ~2000 followed by a day or two of 2500+.

Yi5hedr3

100-200 cals day extra. get plenty of Vitamin D (5000-6000 iu daily).

tnsconz

A few years ago, I broke a bone and it was very difficult to heal. I took Viramin D and Calcium like you are. Wasn't monitoring calories at that point, but he did say to avoid ibuprofen/naproxen because it decreases the absorption of calcium. I had never heard this before and healing proved dramatically after I took his advice.

riffraff2112

While most forums are filled with the same dribble, this is a new one to me. I didn't consider this at all. Glad I read this. Learned something today, seems obvious now but I didnt think one would have to eat more to heal.
Hope you feel 100% soon and can kill it in the gym

Mouse_Potato

tnsconz wrote: »

A few years ago, I broke a bone and it was very difficult to heal. I took Viramin D and Calcium like you are. Wasn't monitoring calories at that point, but he did say to avoid ibuprofen/naproxen because it decreases the absorption of calcium. I had never heard this before and healing proved dramatically after I took his advice.

I did not know this! Thanks! I have been taking Advil for pain as I reacted horribly to the painkiller they prescribed. The pain isn't all that bad. I will tolerate it if it means faster healing.

riffraff2112 wrote: »

While most forums are filled with the same dribble, this is a new one to me. I didn't consider this at all. Glad I read this. Learned something today, seems obvious now but I didnt think one would have to eat more to heal.
Hope you feel 100% soon and can kill it in the gym

Thank you. I didn't know either, but I was thinking how the idea behind dieting is to deprive the body of the calories it needs to maintain and a bulk requires extra calories to build more, so... healing? Seemed logical. Then the great Google confirmed it for me.

tnsconz

Mouse_Potato wrote: »

tnsconz wrote: »

A few years ago, I broke a bone and it was very difficult to heal. I took Viramin D and Calcium like you are. Wasn't monitoring calories at that point, but he did say to avoid ibuprofen/naproxen because it decreases the absorption of calcium. I had never heard this before and healing proved dramatically after I took his advice.

I did not know this! Thanks! I have been taking Advil for pain as I reacted horribly to the painkiller they prescribed. The pain isn't all that bad. I will tolerate it if it means faster healing.

riffraff2112 wrote: »

While most forums are filled with the same dribble, this is a new one to me. I didn't consider this at all. Glad I read this. Learned something today, seems obvious now but I didnt think one would have to eat more to heal.
Hope you feel 100% soon and can kill it in the gym

Thank you. I didn't know either, but I was thinking how the idea behind dieting is to deprive the body of the calories it needs to maintain and a bulk requires extra calories to build more, so... healing? Seemed logical. Then the great Google confirmed it for me.

check out this article...I guess it is more complicated than that. Anyhow when I was trying to heal my stubborn bone my ortho told me to take Tylenol instead, as we'll as lots of calcium. In addition to calcium supplement and vit D, I was choking down 2-3 yogurts a day.my case was unusual - I was in a boot for 9 months, but this made a difference for me. Good luck!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3259713/