Should I count calories while recovering from surgery?

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truckdriverjeremy
truckdriverjeremy Posts: 28 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
May be a stupid question but I'm having wisdom teeth extraction Friday. I'm 14lbs from my goal weight and set my goals to lose a pound a week. Should I move my calories up to just maintain?

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  • SteelySunshine
    SteelySunshine Posts: 1,092 Member
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    I am not sure you can predict what the surgery is going to do. I am having similar the Tuesday after yours. So, my plan is to have it done come home I will probably not feel the pain yet at that point so I will have a liquid meal then possibly go to bed and sleep. I know when the pain meds wear off I am in for a world of hurt. I just hope it's over in a day and doesn't take a week to get over. In any case I am going to log all my liquid meals. I hope I don't go over on calories, but I am not going to be terribly focused on that. I am going to focus on what ever I need to do to recover and never go through this again.
  • truckdriverjeremy
    truckdriverjeremy Posts: 28 Member
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    I guess what I'm asking is will I recover better if i eat more? Not overeat, just to maintain?
  • herblackwings39
    herblackwings39 Posts: 3,930 Member
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    I had my wisdom teeth cut out when I was 18 and not trying to lose weight, but by the second day I was eating fairly normally. You may or may not be able to eat more. I would suggest avoiding rice and straws. You really don't want to get anything stuck under your stitches or end up with dry sockets. Eat what you can and keep tracking and just try to stay between your deficit and maintenance number.
  • Ready2Rock206
    Ready2Rock206 Posts: 9,488 Member
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    I wouldn't personally for wisdom teeth surgery. When I had my wisdom teeth out the pain medicine made me so sick (always does) and it's hard to eat anything anyway. I wasn't on MFP plan then but the 3 things I could eat were spaghettios, sourdough bread slices and cheddar ruffles (sucked on them until they melted). I probably didn't even come close to my calories though.

    I'd say just eat what you can, be healthy where you can and just jump back into tracking when you feel better, unless you feel up to tracking. It's hard to know how you'll feel - people react differently to it.

    I'm having surgery on the 20th. Not mouth involved. I guess I'll see how I'll feel when it happens as to if I'll track or not - as I mentioned pain killers make me so sick so not sure how my eating will be.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
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    Nothing wrong with tracking. I personally think that you should eat at maintenance to assist recovery if you're concerned about it. It's not exactly major surgery, however, and I doubt you will feel like eating that much either. So honestly, do whatever you feel like. The recovery should be fast, maybe a week for the most part so it's really not going to make any difference either way what you do.
  • BeachIron
    BeachIron Posts: 6,490 Member
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    Having had 4 impacted wisdom teeth removed, I can assure you that you will be eating most of your food in the form of ice cream or smoothies. Make sure you ask for extra pain pills and sleep for a couple of days. I'd rather have my ribs gleefully broken by ornery dwarves with pick axes than go through that again.
  • justwanderful
    justwanderful Posts: 142 Member
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    You'll be sore and may not want to chew very much.
    If you have one, fire up your Magic Bullet Blender.
  • airangel59
    airangel59 Posts: 1,887 Member
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    I had two out at once years ago, ate soft/lighter foods for probably a day or so. Took one pain pill. Was pretty good to go after that.
    Your journey thru it may vary.
  • Ang108
    Ang108 Posts: 1,711 Member
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    I guess what I'm asking is will I recover better if i eat more? Not overeat, just to maintain?

    When I had my wisdom teeth out ( all of them at once ), I was not able to eat much and relied on liquid foods, as did most people I know who were in a similar situation.
    I don't think that as far as surgeries go that having one's wisdom teeth out is a very big deal and does not require a very long recovery time. I would probably make sure that I only eat high quality food, but would definitely not force myself to eat more if I did not feel like it. Either way I would log my calories.
    When I say high quality food, I mean real food. Like ice cream made from real cream and not from milk powder and chemicals, or shakes made from fruit, maybe ice cream and milk instead from a packet or can.
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
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    Man I would be thinking YAY great timing this wisdom tooth removal might get me to goal! Yay for me. Think positive, sir, you may just have found the magical ticket for those last few pesky stubborn pounds everyone's always complaining about. :flowerforyou:
  • Uselessly_Irrelevant
    Uselessly_Irrelevant Posts: 58 Member
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    I'd rather have my ribs gleefully broken by ornery dwarves with pick axes than go through that again.

    How eloquently put! I'm with this guy. I probably wouldn't worry about calories. I'd track just to keep myself accountable and not get out of the habit. I was in so much pain afterwards that I didn't hardly eat, and what I did was jello or ice cream. I ended up having lock jaw for about a month afterwards (could only open my jaw about half an inch) so I was limited to the size of food too.

    Just worry about your recovery - unless you're blending up big macs by the dozen to suck through a straw you probably won't go over your calorie goal.
  • watfordjc
    watfordjc Posts: 304 Member
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    I had my four (second?) molars out when I was younger. Can't remember what I ate, but would assume it would be OK to ignore the goal and eat what you can manage if you have trouble chewing (assuming the ratio of soup to ice cream is OK).

    Out of curiosity I just looked at the database for IV drips for if I were nil by mouth... saline would not be good for my sodium intake and dextrose appears to have 0 grams of sugar (surely wrong?)

    If anything, if you eat less and track you can at least not feel bad if after recovery you eat a bit more as you can average out the week.

    ETA: The deficit/maintain thing... I would personally go with a smaller deficit or maintenance but I wouldn't force myself to adhere to it.
  • gertudejekyl
    gertudejekyl Posts: 386 Member
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    You might need a little extra to eat. Keep count tho - don't stop tabulating !
  • kimosabe1
    kimosabe1 Posts: 2,467 Member
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    I had my wisdom's pulled last month and I tracked.......
  • sunman00
    sunman00 Posts: 872 Member
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    I had 4 impacted wisdom teeth taken out under general years ago; neck & jaws swelled to 3 times normal size for a few days & tons of bruising down neck 7 chest
    not meant to scare you as it soon all passes, but chewing steaks will be the last thing on your mind!

    lots of painkillers & a cupboard full of delicious soups will see you through, good luck
  • ragazza1
    ragazza1 Posts: 25 Member
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    I'm switching to maintenance at the end of this week as I'm having major abdominal surgery next week.I am used to eating back loads of exercise calories too...it's going to be hard and I may end up back where I started by the time I can exercise again
  • nucgirl13
    nucgirl13 Posts: 56 Member
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    I had my wisdom teeth out a couple of years ago (they weren't badly impacted, just needed to come out). Had a nice beef and onion pie with gravy which I promptly threw up due to swallowing a lot of blood during surgery so I would suggest taking it easy for the first day or so even if you feel up to eating a full meal. That aside I wouldn't consider wisdom tooth removal a major surgery so you should be fine eating at a deficit to recover.
  • truckdriverjeremy
    truckdriverjeremy Posts: 28 Member
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    Thanks everyone

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