Surgery.. no exercise for at least a month

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wishforwings

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Hopefully this is in the right forum.
At the end of April I have to go for a laproscopic surgery that may turn into a laparotomy. In any case I was told 4 weeks no exercising/lifting for laproscopic, laparotomy would be a longer recovery all together.

This is going to be really hard for me. I haven't gone longer than a couple of days in a row without exercise in over a year. I used to be overweight, I never want to feel unfit again. Exercising has beomce a major hobby. Also I always have an abundance of energy, I don't expect to feel drained for very long.

I normally do various exercise videos, swim and jog.

I am sure I am looking at being out of work for 4 weeks rather than the usual 2, because my job involves a lot of lifting. I will be losing a lot of physical activity in that, my job is labour intensive and puts my on my feet 8-12 hours a day. This is going to be a big lazy change.

So I'm wondering how much muscle strength and cardio endurance I can expect to lose? Is there anything I can do to keep the muslce I have? Like should I be eating a lot of protein, or is that only when building muscle? I'm a vegetarian. On top of it I am worried about keeping my eating habbits in check, through boredom and burning less.

I'm a 24 year old female. Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)
 
wishforwings said:
Hopefully this is in the right forum.
At the end of April I have to go for a laproscopic surgery that may turn into a laparotomy. In any case I was told 4 weeks no exercising/lifting for laproscopic, laparotomy would be a longer recovery all together.

This is going to be really hard for me. I haven't gone longer than a couple of days in a row without exercise in over a year. I used to be overweight, I never want to feel unfit again. Exercising has beomce a major hobby. Also I always have an abundance of energy, I don't expect to feel drained for very long.

I normally do various exercise videos, swim and jog.

I am sure I am looking at being out of work for 4 weeks rather than the usual 2, because my job involves a lot of lifting. I will be losing a lot of physical activity in that, my job is labour intensive and puts my on my feet 8-12 hours a day. This is going to be a big lazy change.

So I'm wondering how much muscle strength and cardio endurance I can expect to lose? Is there anything I can do to keep the muslce I have? Like should I be eating a lot of protein, or is that only when building muscle? I'm a vegetarian. On top of it I am worried about keeping my eating habbits in check, through boredom and burning less.

I'm a 24 year old female. Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)
Click to expand...

Someone else can chime in on muscle loss, but I think it would be minimal after just 4 weeks. You must:

1. Do what the medical staff orders, including, whatever restrictions they place on exercise. You may be able to do some weights with medical approval. Be assertive and ask them what you can do.

2. Control your eating during this down time. You should determine your basal metabolic rate while recovering and not exercising and make sure you don't eat beyond it. With muscle healing, your body will need some repair protein so I don't think you should decrease it, but do decrease the total number of daily calories to keep from getting fat.

By the way, I am not a medical professional so ignore this post.
 
As g8r80 said, diet is going to be your one and only tool in keeping the weight off during your recovery period. As for your muscle loss, there's no way of preventing it, but it's typically a couple weeks before substantial muscle loss occurs. However, you've been training for a while, so I think that you will have enough of a base that you don't have to worry about becoming completely de-trained during the period of your recovery.

That being said, you will face some muscle loss, so when you come back to resistance training, you will have to adjust your resistance levels accordingly.

Best of luck.
 
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they are so right.... Diet Diet Diet! That is what is going to be key for you. I have been limited in my exercise because I have to get my umbilical hernia fixed and they are telling me 4 months! I have put it off because the idea of not being able to do anything for 4 months is just horrible :(

But what I have been working on is my diet. I had to lower my calories to balance the amount of calories I burn now. I'm about to go in and get my surgery, and when I do, I will adjust my calories again because I won't be able to exercise at all.

But I will work back to my regular routine, and my diet will adjust to fit it again....

The fact that you have been working out, will help your body when you start again. Yeah, you may lose some muscle, but you will get it back :)
 
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