Time to lose weight gained after ACL injury and surgery

first steps are the hardest. 

I have found the "myfitnesspal.com" to be helpful in tracking what I'm eating.  Eye opening on what I've been consuming.  The first 6 weeks I lost 13 pounds by only watching what I eat.  No special diet.  Just made healthier choices and curbed the quantity.  I haven't lost much more but I haven't been trying.  I started becuase my cholesterol was too high and they wanted me to take medicine that doesn't let you consume alchohol.  F that!.  I gave them the meds back and changed my diet.  Coming in under the caleries isn't that hard.  Coming in under the "over 50" sodium level of 1500mg is quite challenging.  I go over on sugars all the time too but that is mainly from natural sugars in fruit and I'm not concerned about that.

 

So I'm now wearing pants that I couldn't button 3 months ago; lost 3.5 inches on my waist.

 

My plan is to be about ten more pounds lighter by the start of ski season.

 

You can do this with or without any apps but it sure does make it easier.  And I did discuss it with my doctor because of the cholesterol issue ahead of time and she is in full support.

 

Have fun,

Ken

I just lost 22 lbs in 15 weeks. Started at 194 ended at 172. Waist started at 36" and is now about 33"

The way I did it?

Lots of exercise and a very limited diet. Probably about 1500 calories a day.

No grains, no cheese (except low fat cottage cheese.) Of course once in a while I did eat something "wrong" and more calories to cycle my body and not let it go into starvation mode.

I was never hungry, although I missed certain foods (like pizza) but ate plenty.

I ate plenty of carbs, but all from fruits and veggies. Ate almonds often.
Typical day would be low fat cottage cheese and a banana for breakfast.
Lentil or white bean soup for lunch - or a large salad with chicken breast. (Hold the pita and crackers please.)
Chicken breast, salmon or scallops for dinner with vegetables. Lots of vegetables.
Ate fruit freely (yes it's sugar, but who cares, and I lost weight.)
Ate almonds as a crunchy snack. They are high calorie and high fat, but seemed not to hurt. Probably ate at least 20 per day.

Exercise: 5-6 days a week, 7-8 workouts a week. Weight training, swimming and lots of cardio. The cardio was mostly interval style either on a treadmill alternating walking, running, fast walking - and a stationary bike alternating speed. Also did some road and mountain biking. Roughly 7 hours a week of exercise.

Stick to a program like this and the weight will fall off. It gets easier and easier as the weeks go by. Make a plan, write it down, keep a log - hold yourself accountable to your plan. Monitor your weight and your waist. Be prepared for plateaus (I stalled around weeks 8-10, then started losing about 2lbs a week after that.)

Good luck! It feels great to do it, and the feeling of accomplishment and the feedback you get from others makes for a very happy person! I'm in my week off now and then doing another 12 weeks trying to get my waist under 32 by ski season.

Yes, I use a program called "Calorie King" only tracked for a few weeks, but it gives you a great idea of how many calories you're eating and what foods are calorie dense. A slice of bread for example packs too many calories for the amount it fills me up.

Remember 3,500 calories per week = 1 lb. Cut 500 calories a day and that's a pound a week (and easy to do.) Exercise 7 hours a week and that's 1/2-3/4 lb. per week.

Eating 3,000 calories a day is easy. Cutting that to 2,000 is also easy!

A good way to eat is a balance of fats, protein and complex carbs. (see your doctor) A very simple example is about 50 grams of protein per meal (that's 6 oz of lean meat or fish), a 1/2 cup of whole grain or other complex carbs at least 1-2 meals per day. Eat hand full of almonds and some dried fruit as a mid morning snack, yogurts are good, EAS carb-lite drink is also great.  Here are some suggestions and of course others will disagree but this is a simple pretty wildly accepted eating guide. Some say drop all carbs which is good to cut weight initially but not in the long run. 

 

SUGAR: avoid it! try to cut it out where ever possible

 

Soda: again, all sodas are horrible. Cut them out.  Seltzer with lime or lemon.

 

Alcohol is just horrible, and beer will bloat your gut. Not that I don't drink a few! it really messes up your body's ability to process nutrients so it stops its regular processing to handle the alcohol and stores the rest. - stored- weight gain......

 

salads: salads are fine as long as its not iceberg lettuce and of course, you can't put on sugary-fat laden dressings!  no more than a tablespoon of dressing or try a drizzle of olive oil (good fat) and some lemon, salt and pepper.  We love arugula salad with grilled chicken. you can put avocado or some diced up raw veggies.  A little bit of shaved parm is good too.

 

water-drink a ton of water, I try to drink a gallon a day and I do include coffee in that although it will dehydrate you.  I need coffee.....

 

My breakfast every AM is 2 scoops of EAS whey protein with a banana or other fruit wit 8oz of skim milk.blended up with a good quality 1-a-day.  Snack is a serving of Greek yogurt Chobani plain with 1/4 cup of natural granola, lunch is 6 oz of grilled turkey chicken or fish; grilled with just salt and pepper or other spice. ( I make our lunches twice a week and bring to work) with 1/2 cup of Farrow, quinoa, or brown rice, and a plain steamed veggie.  Afternoon snack could be almonds dried fruit, EAS drink , apple or a like. Dinner is 6oz of meat/fish veggie and sometimes 1/2 cup carb.- NO AFTER DINNER SNACKS! tea or decaf coffee,

 

It really depends on your size, goals and exercise output

I gained 20 pounds when I tore my ACL, and haven't really been able to go back (was 190, and usually 205-210 now).  I've been to under 200 a few times, the formula is simple as a few posted already - better diet and exercise.  It's tough to find time to exercise every day, but whenever I do get dedicated I find that I mix of weights and 20 minutes on bike/elyptical 4 times a week works great.  My sweet tooth and love of carbs kills me.  I have also found that too much weight lifting makes me gain weight.  This is not just the muscle weighs more than fat, but lifting a lot makes me want to eat the whole fridge...

 

 not bragging, I didn t gain any weight; but I care more about percentage of body fat than weight. I started workouts with my upper body and core within 3 days.  Cut back on carbs, no alcohol and amped up proteins  I was loosing muscle in my legs as you know so I was trying to gain muscle weight.  You want to eat because your body needs fuel. this is too deep but your body will start to eat your muscle if it can't get carbs for fuel. Eating the right foods will trick or guide your body to burn what it should and build muscle and help heal faster.; while not feeling hungry.  Simple sugars burn fast, spike insulin leaving you feeling even more hungry. Just think "is this cake, cookie, ice cream" really worht it? or just buy or take a very, very small serving on the smallest plate you have and then stop. you may crave more but within a couple of minutes, your brain will cancel that craving.  Its not just as easy as eating better and excercise. that's a very simplistic view and it will work to an extent but its not sustainable if you are an active person.

 

You can do a very good workout in 20 minutes if you have the discipline and desire. pushups, situps, planks dips, curls, shoulder raises, wall sits, squats, calf rasies, jumping rope, lunges, pullups can all be done with back to back sets (different excercises of course) and varying the days for muscle groups with very good results. you don't need a gym; a couple excercise bands (5 bucks each) will do. that's basically what P90x is.

Good on ya, Finn! Wish you were here to be my work-out/accountability buddy. Thinking I may ask for a number of sessions with a personal trainer for my b-day. Even though I know a lot of the stuff the trainer says/does, I usually need someone or something to hold me accountable until the habits are re-formed. I was always really good about attending classes and things like that. Not so good at just showing up at the gym or doing the work at home. Says a lot about my own (lack of) self discipline, I realize. It is what it is.

 

Of course, I will be checking with my physical therapist before I do any of that . . .

Some people just do better with more structure. It would be cool to have the extra cash to hire a private trainer. My wife is in great condition but prefers to be pushed as well. Kind of a waist now for us though since we (fellow ACL alumni) can't go all out with a trainer (yes, PT people would FREAK!) I am still doing basic rehab stuff on shoulder too so in time..... in time..... 

 

I love working out!  I can't wait to be able to get back to P90X. loved that. 

When I am in the groove, I love working out, too. It just takes me time to get INTO the groove. That's when I need to be pushed. And then again sporadically.

 

When all parts are functioning properly, I enjoy working out with the high school girls I coach. Partly because I am competitive enough that working out with a group is really good for me. Also, because I like to hold it over their heads when I can outlast them on endurance stuff (when, by all rights, they should be kicking my a$$). I also have a thing about not making them do exercises that I can't do myself. Obviously, I've had to curb that this year.

 

Btw, it's really humorous to watch someone who can't jump coach volleyball.

YEAH BABY!  it won't be long....  (this is the worst part of this recovery isn't it?) 

 

I found this very helpful and especially using the online tools.  Some of them make it so easy it is ridiculous; like using your smartphone to scan the bar code and it uploads everything for you.  What also helped was though when I first started doing this, I was losing almost a pound a day (don't point this out to your wife - they get pissed!), I wasn't eating the healthiest for "me".  The most significant was the sodium level.  I never had an issue with it but I had decided to go by the guidelines of the American Heart Association and USDA.  I'm sure there are pro and cons to this, but I figure it to be better than going by my previous guide which was based on "that looks yummy!".  The point was that by using the online tools, I quickly saw the soups I was eating at work, that were marked as healthy choices, were pushing my over the AHA and USDA recommendation of only 1500mg of sodium each day (I'm in the over 50 group).

 

That's one example of many.  I never paid much attention to what is in what food so the tools was able to educate me also.  Sort of a eating healthy for dummies.  I could also load something in before I even ate it to know if it was worth it to me.  Or my wife would tell me what we're having for dinner, I could copy it from her profile (she's a wonderful woman) and make a better decision at lunch based on dinner.

 

I almost always go over on sugars.  I talked to my doc about this and she said as long as it is from fruit or foods naturally, don't worry too much about it.  The benefits of the fruit were better than filling up the calories with something else that would put me over for something else anyway.

 

I also recommend you don't try to fix things overnight.  Took me 52 years to get like this so I'm willing to ease into it.  I surprised it has lasted this long (since mid April).  You also need to look at the bigger picture and not sweat going over here or there on things.  It's OK to go out and have a nice dinner and not feel guilty because over all, you are eating better and are trending in the right direction.  I also found that with easing into to it, I didn't shock my system and it didn't feel like I was quitting cold turkey.  Now I don't eat things because it isn't worth it to me instead of it being "forbidden".  Had a big ol' piece of cake at my dad's 89th birthday party.  It's OK because I don't do that everyday.  I kind of view things like that as going on vacation.  It isn't how I live but is a nice treat.

 

As previously mentioned by others, I eat stuff that I like but wasn't eating that much of, i.e. nuts.  I buy 5 pound bags online of a mix that I like (pick) and is good for me.  Pretty good deal.  I get them from nutsonline.  There's another site called "My husbands nuts" but my wife won't get those because of all the jokes .

 

 

Ken

Edited by L&AirC - 8/4/12 at 1:42pm

Don't know what your commute is like, but perhaps you could start doing it on a bike.  I've been riding to work three times per week for a month now, and my legs and knees have never felt better.  In any case, keep up the good work.

 

I've found that taking a day here and there is good.  Your aren't prisoner doing hard labor.  This is for you and controlled by you.  You own what you do and the results.  Though beer doesn't help the issue, I've found that it is good to enjoy one or two here and there.  I've also found the longer I do this, the less likely I'm going to want something.  Especially now as I've stepped up the working out.  Friday I go get my blood work again and though I won't know the results for a couple weeks, I'm rewarding myself with way too much Australian licorice.

 

Swimming with music now and it is so much better.  Still have a few kinks to work out but it's a great work out.  I'm already wanting to go to bed and it's only 8:40!

 

I found a new exercise this morning.  I have an inversion table and while hanging upside down, I flexed my ankles and knees to pull my body up.  Whew!  Those are hard.  Did four and I was feeling it.  I guess we mainly use those muscles to push so pulling was a chore.

 

Ken

A workout in the sand is better than what you can do in the gym.  The sand will push your blance and stability far more than weight machines (why I don't use them)

 

squats  1 & 2 leg

lunges- front and lateral

running place- high knees

jumping in place (plyo)

standing on repaired leg for 2 minutes or longer

 

of course, pay attention to strict form watch the track of the knee.

 

 and yes P90x rocks!  Cheers!

You may find a relatively new book, The First 20 Minutes, worthwhile. It is a quick read. It is not a weight loss book but it doesd stick to proven research regarding exercise and diet without any preconceived positions like comparing  types of exercises or carbs vs fats vs calories. The author covers some aspects of life style, weight loss, types of exercise and variations in diet. The author presents best practices methods that debunk several pieces of conventional wisdom regarding pain relief, stretching, hydration and exercise while acknowledging the psychological benefits of some of these activies, regardless of the lack of a proven physical benefit. She also has some very interesting research about injury causes and and recovery, particularly joint injuries.

 

YES!  do it first. allow yourself a little break in between.

 

GREAT JOB! 

 

Journaling is a very effective tool and you are right, you start to think a lot more about what choices you make.  are you weighing/measuring portions?  you will really be amazed once you do that.

Edited by Finndog - 8/3/12 at 2:02pm

Thanks DAWG!!!  good to hear from you;

I've been struggling terribly with my weight after a fully ruptured Achilles, then a rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis... Lots of steroids that make me puff up and increase appetite.

I get alot of exercise - alot... Not tonnes of cardiovascular, but biking, golf and teaching the Taekwondo to kids. It's my eating habits. Too many calories.

I use Livestrong on my blackberry to count calories, but I read an article on WebMD today and the math is easy: 1400 calories per day of healthy food and then exercise. That's it. Control caloric intake and exercise (but watch closely - from your posts I suspect you may be pushing hour knee too hard, too fast. Watch for overuse injuries - better to go slow than risk a slowdown. Also, don't push the leg until the weight is off!

7 calories per lb of body weight per day of healthy., low fat, low Fibre/starch, lean meats + veggies and the weight will come off.

BTW, the above sucks. I'm hungry, lol!!! Now I want a waffle cone!

Weight loss happens mostly in the kitchen. My wife and I have been eating Paleo for over 3 years.. It works. I also suggest my gym members do it as well.

We have numerous 50-65 year old members that look and feel years younger. 

The link is for the "Primal Diet" which is similar.

Make sure you read the links at the end as well.

 

 

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-to-the-primal-eating-plan/#axzz22ocFXHuA