help.... severe sprained ankle

Do you have access to a hand bike? That is some exercise that doesn't involve your leg at all. You could maybe do some upper body free weights. But I'd talk to your doctor.

As long as you are eating at or under maintenance calories, you won't put on weight.

Make sure to follow doctors orders on taking care of your ankle

You don't need to work out, but assume you are sedentary for the next several weeks and lower you calorie intake accordingly. Nothing crazy maybe 200-300 less. You won't gain any significant weight as long as you watch what you eat even if your calorie target is a bit off. Let's say you burned 500 calories on that walk. You do not adjust your food and you are now eating +500 every day. You would gain about 1lb per week.

If you always had an afternoon snack, or a sugary drink, just cut it back for a bit.

meditz wrote: »

thanks for the input... i am driving myself crazy.... i have cut back on the sugar just to be on th safe side... i switched to stevia in my 4 cups coffee instead of sugar....

Are you reading any of my posts?

Stevia, sure, use it if you want to keep your calories down. But you don't need to cut the sugar if you fit it into your goals.

meditz wrote: »

i am reading your posts... i know it's calories in/ calories out.... but i am a very active person just in general... i do not sit down when i am home ever, always cleaning cooking baking... doing something....i am not a sedentary person at all. and right now i am a couch potatoe...

rbiss wrote: »

You don't need to work out, but assume you are sedentary for the next several weeks and lower you calorie intake accordingly. Nothing crazy maybe 200-300 less. You won't gain any significant weight as long as you watch what you eat even if your calorie target is a bit off. Let's say you burned 500 calories on that walk. You do not adjust your food and you are now eating +500 every day. You would gain about 1lb per week.

If you always had an afternoon snack, or a sugary drink, just cut it back for a bit.

Because I am completely out of shape, I went to You Tube and found some pretty good exercises for (forgive me) elderly people and Zumba done in a chair.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL7250B07011CDD848

This is a link to my exercise playlist. I hope it helps.

It's a good time to take up strength training.. you can do a lot of exercises that don't involve standing/loading your ankle.

Check out the lady in this success story: Down 85 and counting

She had serious surgery, started with upper body work, than laps in crutches around the block. (The story is on her profile page). If she can do it, you can, too! I have had severe ankle sprain in the past, yes it may take months to heal but it does heal and it doesn't have to be anything more than just an obstacle to go over. You can!

Someone already gave you some good advice about workouts for sedentary people. I just wanted to chime in that when I took a boxing class a while back I noticed that punching routines made my arms really sore and they actually left me winded. It was a real boxing class so I was going for real punches with strong jabs. You'll have to sit in a chair, but it's still a great workout. Work on your upper body by bringing out those hand weights and doing push-ups. I've sprained (and broken) my ankles several times, unfortunately, and I know exactly how you feel. It's especially difficult when you feel your weight maintenance is contingent on your activity level. For what it's worth, I never really gained more than one or two pounds when all was said and done. Try to find an activity to substitute for your workout time: knitting, reading, learning to code, catching up on Outlander or other t.v. shows, or something more active like gardening or housework. Make it something that solely substitutes your workout time. The one consolation is that your other leg gets really strong and muscular, giving you a sense of how good your legs can get with heavy lifting.

My dad couldn't walk and did very active chair/couch aerobics by doing the top half of exercises like jumping jacks and moving his legs around while seated. It's actually exhausting.

Using crutches can be a great workout!

utube and pinterest have a ton of videos for things you can do in a chair. I tore my Achilles tendon and had to go that way my self. You can do bicep curls, most arm exercises with weights, if you don't own weights use soup cans, or water just filled with appropriate weight, you can twist in chair or do crunches in chair. Plant legs on ground sit on edge off chair lean back , use abs to pull up, repeat. If you can move your legs you can march in the chair bringing legs up one at a time. Good luck!