Injury and losing weight

JulieMD

Hi all,

I'm a 5'3" 20 year old girl who was doing pretty well last year with food tracking and exercise. I probably only had 5-10 lbs to lose and some muscle work to do. I was running 3-4 times a week, for about half an hour each time and a 10 min mile pace. I weighed 132 ish and was pretty happy.

Well, I took a job over the summer in my hometown at a local movie theater, and while working there I was required to stand in one spot for 10+ hours for about 30-40 hours a week and to bend and lift 5 gallon coke syrup boxes from the ground to above my head. My back pain started shortly before I quit my job in August 2013, and I spent months going to different doctors and physical therapy, took steroids (when my weight jumped to 145 in a week!), and finally had an MRI. The MRI shows a slipped disc L4/L5 that is causing what I believe to be sciatica,but my doctors refuse to help me anymore, dismissing my slipped disc by saying it couldn't possible be hurting me.

Before I even found out why my back was hurting, I tried to continue to work out and just found that I could hardly move the next day every time I tried. I just recently started counting my calories again, and my current weight is 155-160. I still fit into most of my clothes, but I feel depressed and hopeless all the time due to the pain and weight gain that has made me feel ugly.

My question is if anyone has any suggestions to workouts I can try that has been in a similar situation? I want to try swimming but I am terrified to be seen in a swimsuit, especially since I attend a public university filled with a**holes. It is also very hard for me to maintain a veggie/protein rich diet, since my school only serves sugar-covered veggies or pasta/pizza most days.

ladynocturne

I understand wanting to stay active, but there is no reason you can't lose weight with zero exercise for now while your injury is healing.

Maybe try something less aerobic like yoga or mat Pilates?

If you set your goals to .5lbs per week and really consistently stick to your calorie goal, you will eventually get that weight off.

Is it at all possible for you to bring your own food?

suziepoo1984

First off, please do not ignore back pain? Can you get yourself into some physical therapy? That helped me and my dad a ton when he had back pains!
Secondly, yes, just calorie deficit + walking/yoga/pilates/some dumbell work for strength training etc?

lrmall01

I understand wanting to stay active, but there is no reason you can't lose weight with zero exercise for now while your injury is healing.

My thoughts as well.

Focus on diet to lose weight if you want.

Look into mobility workouts to try and help yourself heal.

You might want to try and pick up a copy of this: http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Supple-Leopard-Preventing-Performance/dp/1936608588

You could also check out the author's website.

Edited to say nice shirt.

JulieMD

Thanks everyone. My only issue is I'm not sure if it /will/ heal. It's been 7 months with no noticeable improvement and I'm scared to make it worse.

Ladynocturne - yoga/pilates sounds great! I didn't even think about it. When I asked my doc what activities I could do he said "don't." Which to me seems ridiculous.

Suziepoo- I tried physical therapy for general back problems and saw no improvement whatsoever. Didn't get better or worse.

Irmall01 - Thanks, haha. Been playing since I was 4. Also, I'll look into it.

Thanks for the responses! How much of a calorie deficit is good in my situation? Right now I'm doing 1430 with walking anywhere from 20-30 mins a day to and from classes. I live in the mountains so it's rough.

ladynocturne

Thanks everyone. My only issue is I'm not sure if it /will/ heal. It's been 7 months with no noticeable improvement and I'm scared to make it worse.

Ladynocturne - yoga/pilates sounds great! I didn't even think about it. When I asked my doc what activities I could do he said "don't." Which to me seems ridiculous.

Suziepoo- I tried physical therapy for general back problems and saw no improvement whatsoever. Didn't get better or worse.

Irmall01 - Thanks, haha. Been playing since I was 4. Also, I'll look into it.

Thanks for the responses! How much of a calorie deficit is good in my situation? Right now I'm doing 1430 with walking anywhere from 20-30 mins a day to and from classes. I live in the mountains so it's rough.

I'm not a fan of western medicine. Plenty of people will tell you to listen to your doctor, in some cases they are right, but if you are "able" to do yoga and you understand that it's about challenging yourself, where you are right now, and not if you can be as flexible as the woman in front of you... you won't hurt yourself, listen to your body.

Yoga can really help re-align muscles, and in turn re-align bone. It could end up being the best type of self physical therapy you can get. I speak from personal experience, I had a repetitive motion injury in my shoulder that took over 2 years to heal and the only thing that helped was yoga, I saw vast improvements in my level of pain when I went consistently, when I slacked off, I knew why the pain was keeping me up at night again.

I of course understand funds are tight, but it would also be good for you to look into massage therapy. Finding a massage therapist with experience (especially having to do with disc slippage) can definitely help your body repair itself, they will be able to target the muscles that are causing your spine to lean (depending on which way the disc slipped) and advise you on posture to help correct the issue.

Western doctors will most likely keep ignoring you/throw pain pills at you/or suggest shots or surgery.

I'd say 1460 calories + 20-30 of walking is enough to lose half a pound a week. The only thing is you are going to need a lot of patience. There are a lot of things that can mask weight loss and 2lbs a month sometimes can feel like a snails pace.

YorriaRaine

When you say "your doctors refuse to help me anymore." Have you tried going to a different set of doctors, slipped disc pain is very well known. If this is something you had done 7 months ago, maybe you should pay them another visit and insist to get it checked again to see if the condition worsened.

However, as others have said, you can lose weight by diet alone if need be. If you can walk at a slow pace and it not hurt the next day you should maybe take up walking as your primary form of exercise until it heals up.

Most slipped disc do heal up on their own but some do require surgery.

nels2233

i think you need a new doctor. this one does not take you seriously. i hope you filed for workers compensation? i also have a bad back, due to lifting at work, had several rounds of PT which then moved into exercise therapy which was a life saver as i now know the correct form and how to take care of myself. a good physical therapist will teach you, or at least let you know forms of exercise that are good for you. me, i am now aging and every time i turn around i have a different injury but continue to move - just have to improvise and switch up sometimes

notwithoutsalt

Julie,
I agree with the previous post. Go see another doctor. What you have is very well known and, physical therapy is the key to help it heal. without exercise it wont get better.
In addition, The weight of your body will press on your back and make the pain grow stronger.
You will be able to control your daily calories intake even while eating bad food. BUT, you will starve. not sustaianble plan, Try to find ways to eat veggies and fruits. buy it fresh and just eat it up just like that.
here is a suggestion:
Breakfest: Fruit, yogurt,
Lunch: eat half the plate of the crappy available food. avoid fried stuff. (try to get meat and rice)
Snack: fresh Veggies and almonds
Dinner: Soup form store (some of them are low calories) with fresh veggies, deli meat.
In bad days, dont build guilt, and no matter what, avoid sugary stuff and fired stuff. it will help.

Can you go a public pool? where the a**holes are not hanging out? swimming help your back muscle hold your body. it helped me when i was injured. and i am injured again, knee this time.

Sueb1420

The doctors told me that with my back and foot issues that I would never walk more then a block or two without pain. My foot was diagnosed as permanently damaged by three doctors who said they would do what they could to make me more comfortable. The fourth doctor was a marathon runner. He said “lets get you up and moving” and he did just that. The doctors treating my back told me everything from slipped disk, nerve damage, and of course sciatica. After months of therapy and no improvement I did my own research and went back to them asking “what about piriformis”? Yep that was it. I decided to stop therapy and worked with a really good personal trainer plus a chiropractor. They actually worked together to get me going. Today I do krava maga which is a mixed martial arts style self defense, zumba, low impact aerobics, yoga, and some weights. It took time to figure out what worked for me that I enjoyed.
I asked a doctor once “are you treating me like you would a athletic”? She said “Well No”. I explained what I do and my workout schedule. I told her that just because I do not look like one does not mean I am not one. She completely changed my treatment. My trainer had advised me to have that conversation with her and he also felt that we all deserved the quality treatment a athletic receives. It cut her estimated recovery time for me from 12 weeks to 3 weeks. Big Difference. Another doctor told me I was to old for krav maga. I told him about the doctor that got me up and going and told him he could be like that doctor or like the ones who said it would never happen. He now treats me to keep me up and going.

sad_kitty

I second the advice to see a different doctor and consult a physiotherapist. There are exercises you can do with back pain and a physio would be the best person to help you figure out which ones would benefit you the most. I also think gentle/possibly modified yoga/pilates would also be a great way to work on strength and flexibilty and swimming or aqua sports are fantastic when you have injuries as it is pretty much no impact fitness. When I did a physio-rehab to return to work (my core muscles are damaged from surgery, but many folks in my class had prior back and knee injuries), we did aqua fit and water running at a local pool. It's worth inquiring if your pool has the belts for water running. They're basically like a noodle type device you use around your waist that floats up under your pits and you just run laps back and forth across the length of the pool. It looks ridiculous, feels goofy, but it's a fantastic way to get cardio with some resisitance from the water, with no impact that might jar your back. Just ignore (or can you report?) any jerks you might encounter at your pool. It's there to be used for fitness, not for making people feel unwelcome.

Good luck!

JulieMD

Thanks so much everyone! I just did an unnecessary bone scan, so I have to revisit the same doctor a few weeks from now. If he doesn't help I'll go back to my general practitioner and see if she'll refer me elsewhere. I'm also going to try to see if my school has a yoga class.

Does anyone have experience with decompression therapy? I've been told by some family friends to give that a go but I'm skeptical of chiropractors due to personal experience. Also, I didn't file for workers' comp because I couldn't pinpoint an exact time that I hurt myself. The pain was gradual at first and it took months for me to get diagnosed with a slipped disc.

I'm glad to know 1400-ish is a good range, too.

Thanks to everyone for the responses! I can't wait to try yoga to see if it helps!