Fractured ankle need help!

mommetime

It's safe to say that I have been under eating for quite a while. I have recently been trying to eat up because I was feeling badly and low on energy. Well I fractured my ankle and have been basically sitting around the last couple of days ( I generally workout everyday with Sundays off and burn anywhere from 300-700 calories a day.) I thought it would be interesting to wear my HR monitor for 24 hours and see what it says I burn doing pretty much nothing. I was shocked to see that it read 2416 calories for a 24 hour period of just living..no exercise. I am wondering:
1. How accurate is the polar HR monitor?
2. If lets say I have been eating around 1500-1900 calories a day for quite a while with a daily exercise burn of 300-600 putting my net between 12-1600 calories a day do you think this would put me in starvation mode? I have recently gained about 10 pounds ( added in carbs was seriously restricting them and having bad side effects..stupid I know!) But now I feel chunky and can't stand the way I feel. I feel better just fatter which makes me crazy! Not sure what I should try and do for daily calories now that I probably won't be working out for a bit. It may actually be a nice break for my body but I think my mind may go crazy! Appreciate any advice. Really do want to try and do this right since I have already gained 10 pounds. In the past as soon as I would start to eat more...but not a ton I gain the weight right back. thanks again

Landi_001

Maybe you should try to keep up/incorporate lifting weights (or any other exercise that won't hurt your ankle) that will maintain lean body mass so your metabolism doesn't slow down too much. I know how frustrating it can be. I bought my polar watch 2 years ago and excitedly embarked on a running program. 2 Weeks later I tore my ACL in a skiing accident. Added to that they could only perform the surgery 4 months later. I was out for a full year (my new watch needed new batteries by the time I was finally able to use it again). I had to get very creative with exercise that wouldn't impact my knee. Good luck!

heybales

1 - Not accurate at all. The formula for how calories burned is related to HR is only in the aerobic exercise range from 90 to about 150-170, and steady-state where the same load is kept for 2-4 min.

So all day is well below exercise level, and HR has no bearing on the amount of your burn. Ever watched a scary movie and HR was beating as you were sitting there? Your body was not burning more calories.

It can be interesting though, so see what the avgHR is all day, how long it takes to go back to resting from say walking around, ect.

2 - Starvation mode in the sense if your deficit is too steep your body will adapt to protect itself, by lowering metabolism upwards of 20% depending on how steep. That's not too bad it sounds like really.
Your main issue will be metabolism lowering from all the expected reasons. The diet burns off muscle mass not being retained now, so it drops. You store less glucose now, and along with attached water is LBM, so it drops.

1 week break is fine, not eating as much of a deficit is great since body is trying to heal bone.
But you can still do all kinds of strength training total body still, if you have machines available for legs. Extensions and curls, calves when you can, but don't do 1 leg only.
Short spin bike with one leg, 20 min perhaps.

For better estimate of TDEE, try the spreadsheet on my profile page.