Stop eating. :p There's not much more to it than that.

I crashed 2 years ago. Bad. Clavicle and several ribs. Spent the days in a recliner. And lost a little weight. Lost some muscle mass especially in upper body. I just wasn't hungry and ate 2000 cal a day or whatever a normal diet is.

Does not matter the reason, one can only gain weight, as a guy, if one eats more than one is using. SO so simple. Yep, eat less!!! I am sure having to do this on a daily basis to try and stay at race weight. Yep, not easy, but if you are serious about racing, well, ...

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Dave Campbell | Facebook | @DaveECampbell | h2ofun@h2ofun.net

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Lions don't lose sleep worrying about the sheep

A few years ago I was injured and couldn't train, broken arm, tried to run with that and badly tore my calf, so couldn't do very much, other than hop for exercise. But I was determined not to put on any weight and although it was 2 months before I could exercise again, I didn't put on 1kg. But it was a pretty miserable 2 months, no alcohol and very little food, I was constantly starving. It took me a while to figure out how much food my body needed in order not to put on any weight and it was a ridiculously small amount. 1 weetbix & apple for breakfast, soup and bread roll for lunch, fish and veggies for dinner. Probably a stupid thing to do, I should have just ate normally, accepted I'd put on some weight and dealt with it. But it was an interesting experiment and really exemplified how much we as a society overeat, especially if you live a sedentary life. It did make my return to training much easier though, still being relatively lean.

I'm injured with broken/bruised ribs. I've been biking 1-2hrs burning 1250-1750 kcal during these rides. I'm usually training 18-23 hrs a week so burning more per day than I am now. I have gained about 5 lbs since the accident last Thursday. A lot has to do with your body trying to figure out WTF is going on. You stopped training and your injured. There is definitely some hormonal shifts going on and I bet some is water retention. Are you taking any NSAIDs? They can cause water retention too.

Had 8 or 9 weeks off recently with a broken hand, smashed up foot and shoulder.

Could barely do any worthwhile training.

I put on 4 or 5 pounds "on the scales". But in reality it was more than that - lost muscle (not that I ever had much) and gained fat.

The reason ? I realised my season was over before it had started and that 6 months training had gone down the pan, and I would miss all my "A" races. So I used those weeks to get stuff out of my system - ate and drank too much, put some family time in the bank and generally did all the things I usually stop myself from doing whilst I'm training. I'd spent the last 5 years doing tri's - and had gone from 230lbs to 160lbs in the first 6 months of that time.

I think mentally it did me good to "give up" for a bit. It also reminded me why I didn't want to live like that permanently !

Now I'm back training (for next year now admittedly) the weight is coming off and mentally I feel refreshed.

YMMV !

Good luck,

LG

I actually find the times when I'm injured are the best for re-establishing good dietary habits. When I'm training hard I have a tendency to eat whatever I want (I eat plenty of good stuff but top it up with some crap) as I figure I can always do some more training to burn it off. When I know I can't train then that forces me to clean my diet up, and those good habits tend to stay with me a while when I'm healthy again.

So there may be a silver lining at least! Good luck with the recovery

Try to eat when you are physically hungry, not just bored or because the clock dictates feeding time, relax and heal up and don't sweat the weight gain. Last time I was couch bound due to real injury I was off all training for over a month, it took a while to regain lost fitness but it did happen and the weight I gained did come off. I had put on about 10 pounds, mostly chocolate and ice cream consumed on my couch watching the Spring Classics. It was hard enough for me just being sedentary, let alone worry about weight. Move when you can, rest when you can't and hope you heal up quickly. And Cherry Garcia is good for the soul.

Nope - gaining a pound of tissue (fat/muscle/bone/organ...) a week takes 500 extra calories a day. Unless you're constantly spooning peanut butter into your mouth, most of your weight gain is just water.

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maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD