I am having surgery (on my nose) tomorrow (Wednesday), and will not be able to work out for two weeks. I will be in bed for the first day or two.
I am worried about weight loss during this period, any helpful tips?
I am definitely going to make big shakes (whey/greek yogurt/peanut butter/banana) and chug those throughout the day to get calories down.
Any other tips/things to keep in mind? If I keep a good amount of cals through those shakes, do you think I can preserve muscle gains for the next two weeks?
Obviously, if you manage to get enough calories in your system you should be able to preserve your muscle as well as can be expected, though surgery is typically associated with at least some degree of weight loss due to the trauma.
How “at risk” you are for dropping muscle during your recovery period will be based on numerous variables (e.g., how invasive the surgery is, your body weight, amount of muscle vs fat you are carrying, etc.), though your best strategy during this period is just to get in as many calories as possible.
I’m sure someone will mention supplementing with leucine during this period. While it certainly can’t hurt, it shouldn’t be at the expense of overall calories and complete protein sources.
Im interested in this also, though I’ll be out for 4 weeks due to a hip surgery and after the 4 weeks im not even sure if I’ll be cleared to lift then. While I do not think 2 weeks is that big of a deal (I have done it before for medical reasons and saw no noticable loss), I want to hear what people say.
Honestly though, for you all that’s going to happen is the first couple days back in the gym you MAY be lifting like 5-10 lbs less then you did before the surgery, then after the first week back you will be back at your same levels or above. It’s 2 weeks for a fairly minor surgery (by minor I mean its your nose, not your heart/lungs/organs), your body won’t demolish all your muscle.
[quote]fisch wrote:
Im interested in this also, though I’ll be out for 4 weeks due to a hip surgery and after the 4 weeks im not even sure if I’ll be cleared to lift then. While I do not think 2 weeks is that big of a deal (I have done it before for medical reasons and saw no noticable loss), I want to hear what people say.
Honestly though, for you all that’s going to happen is the first couple days back in the gym you MAY be lifting like 5-10 lbs less then you did before the surgery, then after the first week back you will be back at your same levels or above. It’s 2 weeks for a fairly minor surgery (by minor I mean its your nose, not your heart/lungs/organs), your body won’t demolish all your muscle.[/quote]
That is true
WOW 40 lbs, well eat/train well and youll get it back! Luckily (for me) I may not even need painkillers, which is a plus. For some reason, I was under the impression that painkillers increase appetite. But w/e irrelevant I guess
[quote]eyegainweightbig wrote:
WOW 40 lbs, well eat/train well and youll get it back! Luckily (for me) I may not even need painkillers, which is a plus. For some reason, I was under the impression that painkillers increase appetite. But w/e irrelevant I guess[/quote]
Thanks man, am working on it. Gotta go slow, todays workout reminded me of that. I was/am on pretty high doses of morphine. Which is awful for my appetite. Hopefully you wont need anything that strong.
ryanbCXG wrote:
MODOK wrote:
fisch wrote:
Modok, is there anything recommended nutritional or supplement wise to do leading up to or after surgery? I always have read to stop fish oil leading up to surgery due to blood thinning but other then that I have not read or heard anything helpful to speed up recovery. Im likely going to need to have my hip bone shaved down, a torn labrum repaired or partially removed and I am a naturally slow healer. Would Glucosamine/Chondroditin/MSM be useful in this case?
Which brings me to my next question. I always seem to heal slowly from cuts, bruises and any other injury I can remember, is this just a genetic thing or is there a nutritional deficiency?
You are correct in stopping high dose fish oils before surgery. You can continue to take a small amount (1 cap) up until the surgery as the anti-coagulant properties only kick in at the higher (>1 g EPA) doses.
When recovering from a trauma, your protein requirements will increase dramatically. Scopic surgeries are not tremendously traumatic, but they are trauma nonetheless. I would increase my protein in the first few weeks after surgery up to 2 g/lb, immediately start back on the fish oil at about post op day 3, supplement with the glucosamine, and add in 5 g of vitamin c for the first 4 weeks post op. Vitamin C is very important in traumatic healing. Also, I would eat as many old fashioned bone broth soups as I could. They contain a ton of natural glycoaminoglycans to help you repair the connective tissue they will be cutting on. I’d make a big pot on sunday night and have a bowl all week.
The slow healing could be a myriad of different things. I’d have to look at your diet and also rule out any borderline hyperglycemia, etc to really have a chance of figuring it out.
SO along with that if one was to injure their lower back pretty bad (not really able to walk well because of pain)so lifting for a couple days is out of the question protein intake should be increased? Or is this only for surgery trauma
Non-traumatic injuries are much less responsive to vitamin c and protein increases, due to the fact that, well there is much less tissue trauma. It certainly can’t hurt though and may provide some benefit, but there is no data that I am aware of.
Leucine/Creatine will go along way in persevering muscle mass. I’ll try to dig it up, but I remember a pretty comprehensive study done on creatine in which subjects where bed-ridden for weeks with very little atrophy to Lean Mass.