It has happened to us all.
We are active and then we get injured.
Because we are injured, we can't exercise or do the active things we enjoy. This leads to weight gain and slowing down of our injury recovery. I have said before to many of my clients who are out due to injury that this is the time to curb your intake to offset the sedentary healing process.
Below is an article from Shane McDavid from the Appetite Control Blueprint. That gives more advice on how to Prevent Gain after injury
I bet you may have been in this situation before.
You're lying on the couch with your feet up watching your favorite television show.
The good news is you're finally catching up on some much needed rest.
The bad news is that the reason you're on the couch and not training is because of a tweaked hamstring.....
......or maybe an injured shoulder
......or a strained lower back
I think you get the point.
Not only are you not working out as much, but I bet your diet is not as strict as it once was.
This is an important time frame in your training cycle that you can't overlook. Gaining body fat right after an injury will only make your recovery time longer. You also have to make sure to get enough micronutrients to help facilitate the recovery process. The downside is that recovering from your injury will lower your metabolic rate.
This means you'll need to stay away from eating too many calories while still providing enough nutrition to help improve the recovery. Unfortunately, that bag of potato chips and cookies on the counter becomes even more tempting to eat.
The only way to not gain body fat when recovering from an injury is to control your appetite. Thankfully, our body has a natural way of controlling our appetite to make sure we get adequate vitamins and minerals, while not getting too many calories. "Boosting" your metabolism doesn't work in this case.
Think about all of the times you've tried to "boost" your metabolism and lost a little weight, but saw all of the weight come back.
See, the food industry has actually made food that makes you hungry even when you're not. Ever find yourself craving something "salty" or "sweet" after you just finished a meal?
3 Ways to Prevent Fat Gain After an Injury
#1 - Lower Carbohydrates
When you're training hard, having a decent amount of carbohydrates improves recovery, allows you to train harder, and refills glycogen levels giving you better leverage for your workouts.
When you're recovering from an injury, lowering carbs will improve insulin sensitivity and keep body fat in check. Your main carb sources should come from non-starchy vegetables. If you're eating carbs in all of your meals, remove carbs from just one meal and then reassess. The more severe the injury limits your ability to be active, the less carbs you'll need.
#2 - Awaken Your Inner Carnivore
You HAVE to eat enough protein. Aim for 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. We do this for a few reasons:
- Improves Recovery
- Suppresses Your Appetite
- Helps you retain more muscle
- It gives you another reason to eat more steak....(probably the best reason in my opinion)
#3 - Get Rid of the Junk Food! I know, this tip isn't what you want to hear. Everyone tells me they'll just buy the processed food and leave it for their family.......(we all know what really happens)
But what if you are married and have children?
You obviously can't deprive them of their favorite snacks. Here's the key: I bet your kids or your spouse have favorite snacks that you don't care for. THOSE are the treats that you keep around the house.
Remember, take this time to really focus on limiting body fat gain. In fact, we've had a lot of our clients actually get leaner during this phase. Their recovery time was shorter and they got back to their normal workouts MUCH SOONER.