Back injury and weight loss post surgery...

[irishgal21 27]

Hi all.

You guys are killing it with the weightloss. I am still going through the approval motions but all going well should be getting date set for early October. Which in the grand scheme of things doesn't seem so far away...

One thing I am doing right now seems to be self sabotaging myself and eating ALL the food for fear of not being able to eat lime this again. Need to get some phsyc consults going before I do serious damage. Either that, or back to slimming world prior to surgery to get down a few lbs.

I also have a back injury (anterior pelvic tilt)... Which makes exercising difficult. Can you all tell me how much excersise you had to do post surgery to see a difference in weight? I know the pain level will decrease once some weight is lost, but I am just scared that this will never improve.

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[ChaosUnlimited 559]

I think that calorie restriction post surgery has more to do with the weight loss than exercise, but every little bit helps. Right after surgery the best thing is to walk as much as you can for exercise while you're healing. (If you can't walk much because of your back, maybe you can look at doing chair exercises, look it up on you tube)

Once I got the go-ahead from my doctor, I started doing floor exercises like sit ups and leg lifts daily, which I think really helped build my core muscle strength back up and improved my back pain. Improving core strength may help with your back pain, but check with your doc who manages your back first.

[CyclicalLoser 155]

I think a great majority of weight loss individuals suffer from an anterior pelvic tilt, even though they don't know it. The weight of the belly naturally pulls the hips down in the front. Nevertheless, and ignoring that specifically, I've had back problems for the last decade, maybe more. I have disc degeneration, spinal stenosis, and disc bulges from L4-L5 and L5-S1. For the most part, I had a dull pain (Maybe 3-5 out of 10) on an average day. If I did lots of physical work (Working on my car, landscaping, building stuff out of wood, working on my home, etc...) then the next day I'd be 7/10 in pain. I would say a half dozen times I "threw it out" and it was a solid 10/10 in pain, I couldn't walk, had to crawl and sleeping was agonizing just to get into bed...

But, pre-surgery, I was told to eat right and consume smaller servings. I don't recall exercise being on the table. Nevertheless, I was doing a lot of walking anyways. Walking is pretty easy to do (Being relative here) and the fresh air (Well, we don;t have fresh air in California, but you get the point) was good for me.

I would think that if that causes you too much pain, you could either concentrate on upper exercises or Water aerobics which usually takes the pressure off joints.

I would say though, more important than the back issues, is to make sure you get your eating under control so that you don't have a huge letdown/withdrawal after you get the surgery. I think it's normal for people to eat a few of their "forbidden fruits" before surgery, but it sounds like this might be more than that. I hope everything works out for you!

[kimberlymi 113]

I have chronic back pain and a chronic pinched nerve. I walk 3 days a week and swim 2 hr a day 5x a week, and started strength training a little over a month ago. I will be having my bypass in October. I have lost 70lbs in the last 5 months and my pain has gotten better but it isn’t gone. My pain management doctor said it will never go away completely .

[MarinaGirl 609]

Weight is lost in the kitchen not the gym.

Too often people add calories because they’re working out and yet they’re not Olympic athletes so they’re not burning up as many calories as they think they are. Where working out is useful is for cardiac health, stress relief, and joint/muscle flexibility & strength. It is also important once you reach goal weight and are in maintenance mode; it does help with maintaining weight loss.. But again, exercise is not criucial for weight loss. The main focus should be proper hydration, filling up with dense Protein (not slider or processed food), and total calories consumed.

As well, you need to address any head issues and resolve your emotional eating habits. And zero food funerals during the pre-op phase, if possible. If you don’t get a handle on the mental aspects of eating/food, then you will have challenges with weight loss and regain long term.

Edited August 19, 2018 by MarinaGirl

[Julie norton 2,850]

Good post... might I add that for me, weight is lost first in the grocery store.
Sad....however if it is not in my home.... I can’t eat it.
Just my system