Recovery from operation

drmwc

It looks like I will have an operation next month, and there is a one week period afterwards where I'm strongly recommended to be very sedentary. The operation is heart surgery - closing my PFO to make scuba diving less risky.

I am currently pretty active - I average 15,000 steps a day, go climbing 4 times a week, and do a lot of other moving around stuff (scuba, swimming, weights, rowing machine, yoga etc.).

My activity level means I can eat a lot of calories and not put on weight. I estimate maintenance is probably around 3,200 calories per day.

Following the operation, presumably I should decrease my intake a lot to avoid putting on weight? For example, if maintenance falls to (say) 2,200 then 3,200 per day is a surplus of 1,000, which would equate to around 2 pounds of weight gain over 1 week. I'm not sure how long it will take me after the week off to fully get back to fitness.

My plan is to cut back to (say) 2,200 calories for the week, and then slowly build back up to my current level as I regain fitness. Let me know if this sounds sensible.

sijomial

Yes it sounds sensible to reduce your cals to a sedentary maintenance level.

Beware one confounding issue may be water weight gain following surgery and during recovery so your scales although accurately tracking weight may not be accurately tracking any fat gain.

I recently gained 5lbs in a couple days following a severe back injury for example, clearly not a 5lb fat gain.
My step counter on my phone is also not recognising all my steps as I'm moving so slowly and carefully - one day it thought I had only managed 97 steps!

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

kiddycat73

You should eat at maintenance while you recover. I had 2 spine surgeries back to back in July, and I was told not to restrict calories for 8 weeks while I was healing.

lynn_glenmont

Sedentary and healing is not the same thing as plain sedentary. I don't know what your surgery entails, and how much actual repair to tissue injured as part of the surgical process is involved (i.e., are they actually cutting into you, or is everything being threaded through blood vessels?). Best to ask your surgeon what you should do about beating during post-operative rest.

drmwc

It is not open heart. They insert a device via my groin, manipulate it into place and open it remotely.

cupcakesandproteinshakes

I’ve seen other posts suggesting one needs a slight surplus for optimal recovery after surgery. Ask your doctor what to do.

ecjim

drmwc wrote: »

It is not open heart. They insert a device via my groin, manipulate it into place and open it remotely.

It sounds like you wil be getting a stent or angioplasty in a coronary artery. the calories needed for recovery would be minimal , there should be little tissue trauma --- But I'm not your Doc - Check with Him---

drmwc

It is a PFO closure, which is neither a stent nor angioplasty. The device is like a cocktail umbrella. It is moved to the hole in my heart (which is more of a flap) and opened there.

It has very few health benefits, other than making scuba diving a lot safer. As a diver, I am keen on this outcome.

ecjim

Oh OK I'm not familiar with that proceedure

NovusDies

I see no reason why you should not just eat your sedentary maintenance calories. Chances are if you have been getting 15k steps your NEAT will probably not be as low as sedentary anyway.