Out of Commission

Johnson1012

I have just had surgery and am unable to exercise for the next two weeks. I am currently 120 lbs. and 5'3. I workout 5 times a week for atleast half an hour. I am FREAKING OUT that I will lose all my muscle mass.

Someone please help me! What should I do? Eat less?!

gimpygramma

Eat well. This is not the time to deprive yourself of essential nutrients that you need to heal. Assuming that you were overweight to begin with, you didn't get that way in two weeks. You aren't going to lose it all in two weeks either.

jeme3

You should relax and follow doctor's orders.

Eating less will not save muscle mass. It won't all go away in two weeks, and what you do lose will come back quickly when you are clear to exercise again.

Eat healthy, don't get carried away with either pigging out or trying to eat less. You need to eat good healthy foods to heal.

Take care of your self.

Robin_Bin

What was your calorie intake when you could exercise?
Are you currently trying to lose weight? Maintain?
If you're worried about muscle loss, don't eat too little.

Oh, and good luck with the surgery. I hope it goes smoothly and heals the problem as desired.

JoniBologna

You will definitely lose muscle mass if you eat less. Eat at maintenance. Take care of yourself.

Johnson1012

What was your calorie intake when you could exercise?
Are you currently trying to lose weight? Maintain?
If you're worried about muscle loss, don't eat too little.

Oh, and good luck with the surgery. I hope it goes smoothly and heals the problem as desired.

Honestly, I am trying to lose maybe five pounds. But during this time of being inactive, maintaining is ideal. I generally eat about 1800 calories with exercising if not MORE. I can pretty much eat a lot as long as I workout hard.

kjfrance

My best advice would be to take it easy and care for your body to give yourself the very best recovery. You don't want to risk a setback or possible re-injury. As I was recovering from ankle surgery, it was hard to not be active at all and I'll be honest, I did lose muscle in my legs (but my off time was 8 weeks so you should do much better) - but by following my doctor's orders to "lay low" and rest, I got a great surgery result and was able to get back on track when I was healthy and strong again! You'll get there...take care!

rml_16

I have just had surgery and am unable to exercise for the next two weeks. I am currently 120 lbs. and 5'3. I workout 5 times a week for atleast half an hour. I am FREAKING OUT that I will lose all my muscle mass.

Someone please help me! What should I do? Eat less?!

Not in two weeks, you won't. Don't stress about it. Focus on healing and get back to exercise when you can.

natalie2355

After I had surgery and was out of commission for a few weeks I did a lot of pilates :-/

californiagirl2012

I have just had surgery and am unable to exercise for the next two weeks. I am currently 120 lbs. and 5'3. I workout 5 times a week for atleast half an hour. I am FREAKING OUT that I will lose all my muscle mass.

Someone please help me! What should I do? Eat less?!

You will not lose your muscle that fast. Enjoy the time doing other things that you usually don't have time for. It feels like the end of the world but it's not. Within the last 5 years I had two injuries, one took me out for 6 months (my shoulder but I still did Karate with my arm in a sling, even sparing! Hey you never know if something will get broken in a fight so it was AWESOME experience for me), the other took me out for 8 months completely (my hip, so not even upper body). Both felt like the end of the world and they were almost back to back injuries. Yet I came back fine and strong.

Before you know it, it will be over. Take the time to enjoy doing some other things that exercise your mind (not watching TV or playing computer games, LOL, although enjoy that a little if you like it). In the big scheme of your life this is really no big deal, but you can make it a super great experience of you find something useful to do with it.

icimani

Eat well - you'll much faster if your body has healthy food.

I was out last winter for 2 surgeries (I had both knees replaced) which kept me out of work for 4 1/2 months, and I lost 35 pounds. I wasn't doing any exercising, but I did eat fairly healthy.

It takes a lot of energy to heal so eat well and get a lot of rest. You might lose some muscle tone, but you'll get it back fairly quickly.

fit4lifeUcan2

I have just had surgery and am unable to exercise for the next two weeks. I am currently 120 lbs. and 5'3. I workout 5 times a week for atleast half an hour. I am FREAKING OUT that I will lose all my muscle mass.

Someone please help me! What should I do? Eat less?!

You will not lose your muscle that fast. Enjoy the time doing other things that you usually don't have time for. It feels like the end of the world but it's not. Within the last 5 years I had two injuries, one took me out for 6 months (my shoulder but I still did Karate with my arm in a sling, even sparing! Hey you never know if something will get broken in a fight so it was AWESOME experience for me), the other took me out for 8 months completely (my hip, so not even upper body). Both felt like the end of the world and they were almost back to back injuries. Yet I came back fine and strong.

Before you know it, it will be over. Take the time to enjoy doing some other things that exercise your mind (not watching TV or playing computer games, LOL, although enjoy that a little if you like it). In the big scheme of your life this is really no big deal, but you can make it a super great experience of you find something useful to do with it.

I agree!! if your that worried about your muscle mass if you can use your arms use some bar bells to lift over your head while you sit and relax. When my MS was at its worst I had small weights I would lift up over my head a few times a day. Some days I couldn't even get the weights over my head even though they were only 5lb weights but I did bicep curls. At times even using soup cans till I got my small weights. There are so many other ways to exercise. If you can use your legs you can always get leg weights. I have some that I would strap to my ankles and lift one leg at a time while sitting in a chair. It kept my muscles from atrophying on me when I was in a relapse. Then when my relapse would subside a bit I didn't feel like I had jello for legs.

Now is the time to read that book you've always wanted to read but never had the time for.
Eat right and follow dr's orders and you'll be back to your old routine in no time at all.

Johnson1012

Okay... so an update. I have been out of surgery and recovering for two days. I have gained 5 lbs?! Someone please tell me this is not real. I have been eating a lot of ice-cream and italian ice...

Thoughts?!

Robin_Bin

It would have been very hard to gain 5 pounds in 2 days. You'd need to eat about 9,000 calories over your BMR. That's many, many gallons of ice cream. More likely you're suffering side effects of the surgery -- bloating from intravenous solutions including salt, different scale? some people get a bit constipated after surgery, and perhaps any bandages or other water gain from medications. Ironically, the way to lose some of that is to continue to consume lots of liquids.
Focus on getting well!

Hollycat

Let yourself recooperate! And what's with the ice cream? Really? Here's a recipe for avocado ice cream that might be better for you: http://www.vegan-nutritionista.com/raw-ice-cream.html or http://www.adashofcompassion.com/2011/05/raw-ice-cream-sandwich-cookies/

Hollycat:flowerforyou: