Being sick/sedentary for a week

jessemason240
jessemason240 Posts: 2 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone,

This is my first post here and I know it's probably an overdone question, but it's always helpful to hear other experiences.

So long story short, I was a competitive athlete for ~10 years. Last year my body totally gave out from overtraining syndrome and my endocrine system was destroyed. That meant a lot of undesired weight gain from hormones and I was also trying to get my period back after 5 years (which I was successful! 7 periods in a row now).

After 10 months my body finally got "back to normal", I'm nowhere near as lean as I was when I was competitive but I'm at a happy place. The last week I have been sick and I haven't been able to workout at all. I have also been hungrier than usual and while my diet is very "clean" (I hate that word) I have definitely been eating mostly comfort food...oatmeal, rice, peanut butter. Not really worrying about measuring my portions or worrying too much about it.

My question comes from *finally* getting to a place where I'm comfortable and I don't want to fall back into a pattern of overexercising. Will a week of being sedentary and eating ~2500 calories totally derail my progress? Or does it take more than that? I mean I always try to plan a rest week and it's been a long time since I've had one. But with that is coming a bit of a break for my diet too.

Sorry for the long winded explanation but I really appreciate the help!

Jesse

Replies

  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    edited January 2018
    One pound of fat is 3,500 calories. You would have to eat this much over your maintenance to gain one pound. Also, your body is probably using extra calories for healing. You may lose a little conditioning in a week with no exercise but you have your whole lifetime to gain it back. Don't worry, and get well soon.
  • kenyonhaff
    kenyonhaff Posts: 1,377 Member
    A week of being sedentary is really a blip when you aren't an elite athlete in training. Most of us have to take a week off due to a bad cold, work, back issues, etc now and again.
  • ccsernica
    ccsernica Posts: 1,040 Member
    It depends on what you mean by "totally derail". It also depends on what you were trying to make progress toward: You say you're in a happy place with your body, so I don't know if you were trying to lose, gain, or were in maintenance mode.

    But in general, when we're ill is not the time to be worrying too much about weight management. Your body doesn't need the extra stress of a calorie deficit while it's trying to fight off an infection at the same time. If we gain more than we want at those times, just resume eating in a deficit once you feel better. You'll get back to where you were soon enough.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    It's just a pause, then you continue moving forward when you feel better.
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,996 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Sounds like you were sick and hungry. Even though I got more woos than likes in another thread for staying so, when sick or injured the body often requires extra food for optimally fast healing. And denying such does not optimize the healing. So it sounds like all is good in your world as you provided your body with what it needed!

    You got woo'd for that? I always thought that when ill or injured the idea was to eat at maintenance to help heal faster...
  • jessemason240
    jessemason240 Posts: 2 Member
    Thanks guys. This is really helpful and it helps put things into perspective. I have been able to reconcile with taking time off from exercise especially after so many years of being a competitive athlete and having "rest weeks" more frequently than not that were built into my training from coaches. It's just the eating that messes with my head when i'm not training.

    @poetrywise: right?! I think I had 3 bowls of plain oatmeal yesterday, haha. So bland but so amazing. I'm glad to hear you're feeling better, too! One month in the big picture isn't even that much and I think the fat gain is totally marginal. Our bodies are smart and if we were taking good care of them before getting sick they won't hang onto that much weight. Honestly, too, in my experience, that extra food (or maintenance calories) while being sedentary if you are super active can give the body a breath of fresh air.

    Thanks again all! Feeling better today, but going to stick with going for a walk and some stretching.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited January 2018
    In the big picture, a week is pretty meaningless. People get sick...people get busy...life happens...nobody I know who is into fitness is "go" all of the time...people take time away all the time...it's normal.
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