Should I do a maintenance break?

jen_092
jen_092 Posts: 254 Member
edited November 18 in Health and Weight Loss
I have heard that injuries recover better when eating at maintenance compared to deficit. Is this true?

I have been eating at a small calorie deficit since November, consistently but very slowly losing weight. I'm 5'7, SW 182, CW 157, so a few weeks ago I got into healthy BMI range but not quite done. My goal is body composition based, and I thought going to 147 or so would be a good plan and then I could start recomp.

So the issue is that in the past few months I feel like my body is falling apart. I was lifting 3x a week in January and February, and sustained an injury to my left hip at the end of Feb. I let it recover and kept doing strength training with my arms, light yoga and stretching, walking once I could. Then once the doctor said I was doing better I began a soccer league this month which is only 1x per week. After one of my recent games my left and right adductors were extremely tight and painful, beyond normal DOMS. In the past few weeks also, my right shoulder and neck are often in pain for no reason except maybe stress. Now, I'm starting to get really frustrated, because after a weekend off exercising, I got out of bed this morning and couldn't put weight on my left foot. For no reason! I had torn a tendon down there maybe 8 years ago during high school soccer but it hadn't bothered me in several years.

Is my body perhaps tired of eating at a deficit? I try to get a lot of protein to maintain my muscle, and my deficit isn't really that much. My maintenance calories are probably 1900ish and I've been eating 1650. Is there something besides protein I should be tracking to keep my body strong? Gym 3x a week or soccer 1x week can't be that hard on my 24 year old body, can it? I'm feeling frail and my friends are concerned there's something medically wrong because I have a new ache or pain every week.

Replies

  • cross2bear
    cross2bear Posts: 1,106 Member
    Perhaps you could ease off on the running and go back to the light yoga, stretching and walking. The issue I see is if you have hurt yourself somehow, you could be in for life long issues if you dont address it now, and take time to completely heal.

    Maybe a physiotherapist would be worth while checking out. The foot issue sounds like (and really, this is just a wild guess, but I have experienced it myself) plantar fasciitis - the not being able to put weight on your foot first thing in the morning, that gradually eases up as you go about the day. Painful as *kitten*, I kid you not. Not easy to treat, but can be done.

    I have also had good results with acupuncture for sciatica, so maybe investigating some of these treatment methods will result in you finding a way to manage your symptoms along with your diet.

  • jen_092
    jen_092 Posts: 254 Member
    @cross2bear thanks! I'll look into all that. My reason for thinking it's the old foot tendon thing flaring up is because the tendon is tender/painful several inches up my leg like it was back in the day. It's one of the ligaments in the arch of the foot. Either way, PT would be good. I currently see a sports medicine chiropractor because I'm a student so it's free to see him on campus and he's the closest thing to a PT they have lol.

    Also I forgot to mention that my whole body is always cracking. My hips especially but also my shoulders wrists knees everything. Every time I move something makes a pop or crack noise. The chiro had nothing to say about it.
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