Weight fluctuations after surgery

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crowleyed72
crowleyed72 Posts: 247 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Last Friday I had a hernia surgery thought it was one but the found four in there. It’s been a tough week. My weight has had a lot of fluctuations before surgery it was 259, went up to 263 an today it was 253. I know my body had trauma, an sodium can make you retain water an give you weight fluctuations. Should I take the 253 an be happy or give my body another week of healing. An if anyone can think of some exercises I can do that don’t use my abdominal muscles it would be greatly appreciated. All I’ve been doing so far is a little walking. Kneeding dough uses your abs.

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  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,964 Member
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    I don't understand why this is presented as an either-or. (1) Take the 253 and be happy, AND (2) give your body another week (or more if needed) to heal.

    I can't think of any kind of vigorous or intense exercise that would be safe to do with a restriction on engaging your abs. That's your core, and you should be using it for pretty much everything.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,070 Member
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    Your body retains extra water weight after surgery, and it can take a longer time (compared with water weight from eating extra sodium, say) to drop off. I'd predict it will take much longer than a week, for surgery that major. (It was longer than that for even my very minor laparoscopic gallbladder surgery).

    Please do not be eating at a calorie deficit right after surgery. (I did; it was a mistake. Fortunately, my body prioritized healing, but I got weak and fatigued, and it took several weeks to recover.) It's a better idea to eat at or near maintenance calories for several weeks right after surgery, and make your healing go the best it possibly can, while keeping your strength and energy level high.

    As far as exercise, follow your doctor's orders. If walking is allowed, walk. (That's what I did for around a month after surgery, frustrating though it was to give up a regular exercise routine that I love.)

    Healing is job number one: Best wishes for a fast recovery!
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,605 Member
    edited June 2019
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    And don't be a no-brain like I was to go out and walk your "normal" 15K steps days after hernia surgery. The nice round fluid sack stayed with me for more than a month and I was already normal weight when I had the surgery (so walking was not much of a stress)
  • ginnytez
    ginnytez Posts: 1,331 Member
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    I've had three surgeries since 2016 (two hips and a small neck tumor). Healing priority for all three. I did, over the course of three years, slowly put on 17 lbs. I also didn't log food for most of that. Looking back, if I had understood what I was doing better, I would have just logged maintenance during recovery. And walking, slowly, is good post surgical exercise (with doctor approval). It takes awhile to completely clear anesthesia out of system, etc.
  • grinning_chick
    grinning_chick Posts: 765 Member
    edited June 2019
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    You need to be eating at a minimum of maintenance level calorie-wise for a minimum of until you are fully healed - 2-12 weeks (non-specific, generic range), depending on what your surgeon says based on what s/he did to you surgical technique-wise. And only engage in the physical exercises your healthcare team approves you can do. If they are being wiffly-waffly (unresponsive/non-committal), advocate for yourself and push the issue until you get detailed complete responses or a referral to PT, whichever comes first. Surgical revisions due to delayed healing, surgical site breakdown, and/or wound dehiscence complications are always worse than the original surgery and applies doubly so when it comes to hernias. As such, I advise avoiding it if you can.

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