Injury Help

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wsbrown176
wsbrown176 Posts: 6 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I was injured a year and 8 months ago and put on over 100lbs. I was finally able to start an exercise program in December of 2011. Since this date I have lost 70lbs with walking, TRX, physical therapy and diet. Now comes the harder challenge I am about to go through surgery again for the initial injury and don’t want to gain any weight back. I will be in a hard leg cast for at least 8 to 10 weeks and then I will be fitted for a new Ankle foot orthotic brace. For the time that I am in the hard leg cast, I am looking for some ideas or ways that I can continue to lose weight and burn calories. I still have a total of 45 more pounds to go to get to my goal weight.

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  • Game8
    Game8 Posts: 442
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    As long as you're at a caloric deficit, you will lose weight. Even if you're not active. However, I wouldn't recommend going on a diet after a surgery. Your body needs a good diet to recover quicker.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
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    If you are going to be laid up for 8-10 weeks, there is benefit in doing some arm ergometry, like a Sci-Fit 1000, or even and old Schwinn Air Dyne, using only the arm cranks. It takes a while to build up the muscle endurance in the arms to work hard enough and long enough to get real benefits, so I normally don't recommend it for a 2-3 week layoff, but in your case, it would work. Just keep in mind that arm work results in a significantly higher heart rate for any given workload, so if you are using an HRM, it will overestimate you calories by at least 30%.

    You might still be able to do some upper body work with TRX, otherwise a cable functional trainer will provide options as well.
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
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    I bet your doctor or a physical therapist can give you sound advice with your specific restrictions in mind. My guess is it is safer to ask a professional who knows about your body's needs for recovery.

    Also, someone else said this, but you do not n eed to exercise to lose weight; caloric deficit works just fine. But I think you are right to want to continue being fit while you recover.

    Best of luck to you!
  • kepirus
    kepirus Posts: 79
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    If it helps, I had massive knee surgery in March (straight-leg brace with no weight bearing for 6 weeks), started MFP in April, and have lost 35 pounds through calorie restriction alone. And just had another surgery on the same knee last week, so still not able to exercise.
    I'm going to use the recovery time to focus on arm strengthening like pp suggested, and take comfort in knowing I started this without exercise, so as long as I continue to count/log, I'll be okay, it'll just be slower. Make sure you change your 'activity' level to 'sedentary', so mfp calculates your calorie goal correctly.

    Good Luck and Quick Healing!
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
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    I gained most of my weight during a similar period where my knee, Achilles, shoulder and knee again required surgery in rapid succession. Serious complications from one of the surgeries kept from exercising for an even longer period. I used to blame the injuries for getting fat.

    In other words, I used to lie to myself. Injuries didn't make me fat. Eating like a pig did. All I had to do was cut back on the pizza, pancakes, burgers and fries and I would have lost muscle tone and definition, but wouldn't have gained the 60 lbs of pure lard.

    Don't fall into the same trap that I did. You may not have to control of your injuries or your rehab time, but you have 100% control of your weight. Take control.

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