Diet after Hip Replacement

donjtomasco

So my doc and physical therapist told me to make sure and not cut my calories during recovery since my hip will be needing lots of nourishment. What I had not counted on was how many calories must be burned while just walking on my hip and doing the exercises I am given to do, and just the normal getting around on a new hip.

Surgery was 16 days ago, and my weight shot up 11 plus pounds after surgery, lot's of water retention in the massive swelling. So I have pretty much been eating to my maintain calories if not being over on some days, and under on a few, and even with this higher caloric intake I have been slowly losing getting back down close to my weight pre surgery.

I guess the important thing learned is to not be dieting while recovering from a major surgery.

gesundundmunter

Thanks for your post which shed some light on my issues, too.

I had total hip replacement surgery last August. My weight before was 216 (I've been working on taking off weight from initially 260 in Jan. 2014). Three months on strict hip restrictions, not able to work, delayed start of PT, and stress of starting graduate school resulted in me not weighing/logging and up to 236 in Jan. 2016. Been logging since and down to 227.2 today.

While I can't say that the water retention due to the massive swelling was the sole culprit, it certainly weighs in. Patience is in order. Maintain and heed the hip restrictions not to dislocate the new joint. It took me 6 months to feel fully functional (minus running, jumping, high impact which doc said would affect lifetime of prosthesis). I still do the PT exercises every morning. My left thigh/hip still feels tighter/swollen when I do the hamstring exercise, it might still retain water.

Good luck with your recovery!

donjtomasco

Gesund, did you have anterior surgery or the other (in other words, did they cut through your muscle)?

I had pretty much given up on losing weight till after the surgery, but then I got back my various tests required pre surgery, and my cholesterol was high, and I was up to the same weight I was at last year when I started to lose weight when I started MFP, right around 215. A month before surgery I decided to lose as much weight as possible since I knew it would be hard post surgery. So I got down to 198 (the first weight was just a ton of water loss since I my diet was so bad before I started this new play), then boom, 11 pounds added.

Good job on getting to 216 from 260, then from 236 to 227.2. That is awesome. It sucks not being able to log actual exercise calories burned, but I guess we are still burning calories while our hips repair.

I guess my logging of my calories is accurate since I really have not lost any weight since surgery since I am a little over where I was pre surgery. But I don't want to limit the calories my right leg needs, and my physical therapist yesterday went into a pretty thorough discussion in explaining all of the muscles that went through trauma and are being repaired. Plus my doc (on my post surgery check up) told me that they "really beat the hell" out of my leg during surgery, so soreness and pain is quite common for awhile. All I know is that I am very exhausted pretty much 24/7. And what you are telling me is what I read, which is that this can be expected to be the case for months.

Thanks for your comment, this helps me to not worry about trying to hurry things. Like you said, we have to have a lot of patience, and patience takes a lot of work for me. 6 months, wow. But you might be ahead of what most people experience.

gesundundmunter

I had to look up the procedure in the surgery report as I had already forgotten lol - anterolateral approach. No mention of cutting through muscle but complaints about cutting through subcutaneous adipose fat tissue (I'm 56, female). I had internalized the hip restrictions for posterior approach as those were presented in my pre-surgery info session/pack, so I was maybe a bit more cautious afterwards than warranted.

I really like that the physical therapist takes time explaining the physical trauma to you. Mine attended to the scar tissue where I was having some weird intermittent pain. I started driving again at 5 wks because I had to, not having in-home caregiver and a bus strike on top of that. It hurt though, so I would not recommend that. 6 months had been predicted by the physical therapist and it's true that around that time, I was not thinking about my hip anymore at every movement. I still think of the correct leg stepping up and down a curb. Have only done few stairs since. Altogether it has vastly improved my quality of life of the past 2 years of increasing pain and limited mobility (pain referral to the knee, so I was hurting at every step I took, even stationary bike and thus not able to lose more weight pre-surgery).

So with muscle repair, you probably want to focus on protein intake. And could work on upper body in the chair if needed.