Broken ankle and weight gain anyone?

itsmabel

I've always been super active but lacked in a decent nutrional diet, so never really reaped the full results that I could have. During the first lockdown I taught myself loads and got into a really good weekly routine, balancing diet and exercise until early November when I badly broke my ankle. I've since lost a lot of muscle definition and definetly quite gained a few lbs, anyone been here or have any advice because it's tough knowing that all my hard work over the past year is slowly being lost with each day that I have to stay bed bound or stuck in a wheel chair?

stevehenderson776

Did you adjust your diet to compensate for your temporary lack of activity? A lot of people who suddenly stop exercising regularly tend to keep eating similar amounts of food and end up putting on weight.

Theoldguy1

You need to adjust your inflow of calories to match your reduction in movement. It can be done. Personally had 6 shoulder operations and 2 hand operations and did not gain weight.

Good luck.

sgt1372

I've had separate foot and ankle surgeries long ago.

Didn't gain any significant weight after either surgery but definitely lost mass in my rt calf after rt foot surgury after being on crutches and then being forced 2 walk in a boot for about 6 months. Didnt notice that problrm after the earlier ankle surgery on the same side.

On the other hand, gaining wt shouldn't be a problem as long as you count cals and adjust them to your more sedentary activity level.

The possible loss of strength and muscle masson your weak side is unfortunately another matter.

Good luck!

AnnPT77

Can you still do upper body exercise? There are lots of wheelchair exercise videos on YouTube to give you ideas, and if you're thinking all those kinds of exercises would be gentle/easy, you'd be wrong. There are some serious wheelchair athletes; they do serious workouts.

Not much you can do to work the broken ankle's leg while healing, but you might not have to stop activity altogether. Adjusting eating will avoid weight gain, though it may take some experimenting to find the right calorie level. Wherever you are now, try to hold steady, not lose weight: You need calories & nutrition to heal, so maintaining is a good strategy.

threewins

Sorry about your injury, I broke my ankle and know how difficult it is. I'd suggest that you count your intake but also keep track of how much hunger you're feeling. When you're lying in bed all day, your body loses the need to burn food that you'd need when walking around the house or going shopping, or even the energy used when standing etc. Also it can be impossible to weigh yourself. I lost weight in the 8 weeks between my accident and my first weighing, not much, maybe a kilogram.

I'd suggest a combination of aiming for a medium level of hunger, and tracking your intake. Good luck.

heybales

Had a trimalleolar fracture from bike accident.

First few weeks no weight, no range of motion - locked in boot.

Had gym available, that might be impossible now unless you have equipment at home. Did all the circuit machines, which included quads & hams since ankle not engaged, in a 3 set lifting fashion.
Kept the strength.

When 10, 20, ect pounds added to weight limit and a bit of angle allowed in boot - did leg press machine for calves at those limits.
When angle & weight was enough, perhaps 50 lbs don't recall, found I could do spin bike sitting with no boot. Careful unclipping and all was fine, knew what the weight limit felt like.

Kept calories where they should be for maintenance - healing is terrible time for a diet unless you want to drag it out and get bad results.

Day after being released from boot at full weight and angles, did annual 40 mile group ride, thought 80 might not be realistic.

happyness4me

itsmabel wrote: »

I've always been super active but lacked in a decent nutrional diet, so never really reaped the full results that I could have. During the first lockdown I taught myself loads and got into a really good weekly routine, balancing diet and exercise until early November when I badly broke my ankle. I've since lost a lot of muscle definition and definetly quite gained a few lbs, anyone been here or have any advice because it's tough knowing that all my hard work over the past year is slowly being lost with each day that I have to stay bed bound or stuck in a wheel chair?

Hi, I really feel you on this. I broke my foot in April of this year. It sucked. It definitely contributed some to my weight gain this year. It took about 12-14 weeks to mostly heal. But it honestly still hurts sometimes, but I think I'm at my baseline now. I'm trying to lose weight now and get back to maintenance. I'm going to send you a friend request for support.

Retroguy2000

I imagine you'll be limited in cardio choices, but you should still have plenty of muscle maintenance options using benches, such as presses for the chest, shoulder work, arms. For back you should be able to do pull-ups if you have access to equipment for that, also seal rows and pull-overs.

Don't neglect legs either. There's an effect called contralateral training, where working out one side of the body also helps the other side. If you did e.g. Bulgarian split squats on your good leg, you may retain some strength and muscle in the idle leg.

For example:

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00971.2017

Your calorie intake should also be reduced to your current activity level, not your prior activity level.

Good luck.

charmmeth

Can you talk to a physio? When I tore all the ligaments in my ankle (long before I had heard of mfp), it was the physio who was the most help. I had been dancing 4-6 hours per week and doing other exercise on top, but had to stop cold. I tried to adjust my diet to fit the new lower activity. I think I would have lost it again quite quickly had I gone back to the dancing, but we moved house and I changed job to one where I ate more and exercised less, and looking back at it that was probably when I started putting on weight.

missysippy930

Weight gain occurs when you eat more calories than your body burns. You need to decrease your calorie intake to compensate for the calorie burn from your limited activity level, at least until you can do more exercising.
I broke my ankle badly years ago and was on crutches for 5 months, so I understand what you are going through.