Injury/Weight Gain

[ACG]

I have a stress fracture in my tibia and a strained hip flexor. I've been to physical therapy and a sports med doctor. I have cut down/oput on my activity, bike riding and running and anything else that puts stress on my legs.

I've gained 15lbs, the 15lbs I recently worked so hard to loose.

I can't really even walk in the the mornings the way I used to on my off days. I can't go to the 3X weekly strength training class, I tried but either I had to skip some routines or be in pain doing them.

I just started a yoga class, plan on going twice a week. I had a trainer customized a work out for me at the gym, so I could at least go to the gym and get a work out of some sorts.

I work full time 9-5, have a family to care for, so my workouts are limited to early morning, I have to be home by 6:30 a.m. and some only one evening during the week, I hit the gym or yoga on Saturdays, cuz that is when I used to ride, right now I meet my bike group for coffee on Sundays, but I'm thinking of skipping that to hit the gym.

I logged on to fitday.com and have been recording my intake of food. I'm only eating about 1500 calories a day. I have a desk job and with my injury was told not to hit the stairs if I don't ahve to.

I'm so depressed about this, the weight keeps creeping up and my workouts are limited.

Venting over, back to work.

[tulip]

I'm so sorry to hear your frustrations!

Now for solutions--what worked for me:

eat an apple every day.
watch out for coffee--lattes and associated muffins and such really add up
make sure you are eating lean protein, and reduce carbs
drink lots and lots of water every day, all day long
do not drink sodas--even diet sodas. Stick with water
and don't forget to eat an apple every day!

Can you do Pilates? Pilates really helped me. I think because my core got stronger, I was holding myself up more, which actually does take more energy (calories) to do all the time.

Finally, take time for yourself and get enough sleep. If you have a partner, he or she can help make sure you are able to do this. If you are a single parent, then it's alot harder, but even 10 minutes alone without interruptions can really help energize a person. At least, that's what works for me.

[Trek420]

(((ACG)))

Do you like to swim? Is there a pool at your gym? When I have a joint injury that's what I like to do.

[NbyNW]

Just want to chime in with some moral support -- it can be so hard to feel like you're losing your hard-earned conditioning while waiting for an injury to heal.

Tulip and Trek420 both have good suggestions. Keep your PT and doc in the loop about what exercise you are planning to try, though. They may have suggestions for working around your specific injuries.

And another plug for Pilates -- it's awesome for keeping up/building core strength while a leg is healing, because for many of the exercises, you are on your back!

There are also a number of exercises you can do in a seated position, which might be worth looking into -- scrunching a towel btw your toes and then pushing it away, arm weights and Magic Circle stuff.

I know it can be really hard to find time for yourself when you've got a ton of obligations. I don't know much about your personal situation, but sometimes something's gotta give. I hope you can find a little time each day to put yourself first, even if it's only 15 minutes. I remember when I was a kid and my mother was sick, we all had to step up a little and chip in to give her the time and space to heal. It wasn't easy, but we figured out how to make it work.

Best of luck and lots of hugs!

[badger]

I was going to suggest the pool as well. You can "swim jog". Put those floatation belt things and "run". Boring as hell, but supposedly a great way to keep in shape while keeping weight off your legs.

[OakLeaf]

Ask your PT, but it seems to me that anything in the water is really hard on the hip flexors. It is to me, anyway.

Does your gym have a hand ergometer? I don't get much cardio from one of those before my muscles wear out ... but it's a chance to develop some upper body endurance, and eventually you would be able to get cardio from it.

[daisylubob]

II logged on to fitday.com and have been recording my intake of food. I'm only eating about 1500 calories a day. I have a desk job and with my injury was told not to hit the stairs if I don't ahve to.

Yuu may need to cut back even more on the calorie intake. SInce being injured and unable to do 2-3 hour rides or 45 min runs, I have had to really watch the calories. 5# can creep on in no time. It totally sucks

[NadiaMac]

swimming with a pull buoy (thing that you put between your leg/knees, gives buoyancy and swimming without kicking easier)? Not sure how this would be for the hip flexor aspect of your injury, but I swam without kicking this way for about a year due to knee injuries and it permitted exercise wo knee strain for me (during a time when I couldn't ride and even walking was difficult). Good luck with this. It;s really really hard to adjust to limited mobility/activity levels when you are used to getting a good amount of exercise.

[KnottedYet]

I have a stress fracture in my tibia and a strained hip flexor. I've been to physical therapy and a sports med doctor. I have cut down/oput on my activity, bike riding and running and anything else that puts stress on my legs.

Be sure your PT teaches you how to stop over-striding so you don't risk another tibial stress fracture and more strained hip flexor fun.

These are classic symptoms of over-striding! If your PT doesn't know what you are talking about, tell him to read some of the papers by Bryan Heiderscheit.

You don't want this stuff coming back! (and it will come back if you don't correct the root cause of the whole problem)

When the PT does a gait analysis, on slo-mo playback he'll see what is up with your stride. There can be a couple things that make a person over-stride, especially for women (we tend to overstride more than men because of the habits we get into with our wide hips and lockable knees) He may suggest a couple things for you to work on, and he might suggest you start wearing neutral heel shoes. (not Not NOT negative heel shoes!) Spend your down time really fixing the mechanical problems that caused your injury. Re-training your body from the belly-button down to move in a better way will burn quite a lot of calories. Retraining patterns is hard work!

ETA: and fergawshsakes, don't wear any of those gawdawful rocker-bottom shoes!

[FH Cyclist]

I am recovering from a broken ankle so I understand your concern. I have 3 thoughts for you

First: I didn't see how old you are but if you are over 35 or have a history of hypothyroidism in your family, consider getting your TSH level checked. If your TSH level is over 3, consider getting on thyroid medication. Many doctors and most labs think you shouldn't get medication until your TSH level is 5 or above but the Ameican College of Endrochronologists revamped the recommendations in 2002 or 2003. Just Google "correct TSH level" and you'll see the information. Current estimates are that, with the new guidelines, 20% of women over 35 are hypothryoid. If you are hypothyroid, it will be difficult to lose weight even when you are exercising and difficult to keep from gaining if you are not exercising.

Second: I didn't see any mention of your size. 1500 calories doesn't seem like a lot to me and your body could be moving into survival mode. Your body may rhino you are starving and so is working to keep weight on you.

Third: consider keeping your intake of processed sugars down to 25 mg a day. There are nutritionists who think processed limits should be a part of our diet, like the salt recommendations. See the Nutrition Action newsletter for a great article on the matter. This can be very difficult to do but personally I am beginning to believe sugar begets the need for more sugar. Prior to keeping my processed sugar eaten daily below this level, every chocolate cookie within a 5 mile radius knew my name and called out to me. BTW, fresh fruits and vegetables do not count in this total - only processed sugar.

I broke my ankle 1.5 weeks ago while hiking and was paranoid that my weight would climb during my recovery. I am not allowed to put any weight on my ankle for 6 weeks. The good news is it doesn't appear that I have gained any weight - yet. However I have moved from doing 120 miles a week on my bike to sitting around all the time with my leg elevated. I'll have to see how this all works out but I am hoping to keep any weight gain within 5 pounds. Curtailing my sugar intake is one of the ways I will try to do this.

[ACG]

Thanks for all your kind responses and suggestions. I decided to start a new thread because of

I'm going to try to respond to everyone's suggestions and try not to be winded, but here goes.

I am 49, so perimenopausal, I don't know. I don't have any wierd symptoms, except maybe the weight gain? Getting my TSH level checked is a good idea, so I'll call my doctor.

Don't drink sodas, processed juices, fancy coffees or other sports drinks haven't for a long time. Do drink pure unprocessed cranberry juice once a day and lots of water. I love apples, so I'll try the one apple a day. I normally eat about 4-5 a week now. Don't eat cookies or candy much. I don't buy it so I can't eat it.

As far a processed sugar, not sure where it would be? I cook from scratch so no processed food here. Grow my own tomatoes, so even manage to make sauce from scratch most of the time. But who knows maybe I'm eating it and not knowing it?

My podiatrist said I have one leg longer than the other and fallen arches, so I have arch supports now. They only fit in my tennis shoes, I bought these shoes at a running store specifically for the arch supports. I have work shoes I bought with arch supports in them and use a lift. For the most part I try to get away with tennis shoes at work, this doesn't always fly as sometimes I need to be in a suit.

The hip flexor injury is on the left side, the stress fracture on the right. If I continually do my stretches twice a day, the hip flexor is kept at bay. The hip flexor is from bike riding. The stress fracture is from running.


I'm not in PT right now, the doctor won't clear me for PT yet, so maybe a few more weeks then when I see the doc again, he'll let me go to PT.

So now I am seeing a trainer and doing upper body on Monday and llimited lower body/core work on Tuesday. I try to swim Wednesdaya and Friday and yoga is Saturday. The doc now lets me ride 25 miles on Sundays.

I'll just putter along I guess and keep an eye on my intake of everything. thanks again