gaining weight and can't run need your help

Elliptigo?

Hope you get better soon

Don't do any drastic starvation-dieting, it can exacerbate your injury by decreasing bone density, and will make you feel like crap. Just try eating right, good amounts of veggies, fruit. Swim to replace running. Once you get the hang of it, do workouts to simulate running workouts. It'll strengthen back muscles, too. If it doesn't hurt, I see no drawbacks.

collegesoph wrote:

Don't do any drastic starvation-dieting, it can exacerbate your injury by decreasing bone density, and will make you feel like crap. Just try eating right, good amounts of veggies, fruit. Swim to replace running. Once you get the hang of it, do workouts to simulate running workouts. It'll strengthen back muscles, too. If it doesn't hurt, I see no drawbacks.

I have to be honest, swimming is awfully boring. It's hard to swim a lot because the boredom, plus I injured my rotator cuff in yoga and it make swimming difficult still. I love vegetables but my body doesn't respond well to fruit and I'm not fond of it.

Probably a good idea to ask XFit Guy. He isn't around much anymore it seems but when he gives his input, there is usually some wisdom in it.

You say you're not eating a lot, but you are eating too much. Runners have a skewed view of what eating a lot is. You can't run right now, so you need to reduce calorie intake. Don't crash diet, but do diet. Be reasonable, but reduce food intake. Being overweight, even just a little, makes osteoarthritis much worse.

Whatever exercise you can do, do it regularly. I couldn't run for two years due to injuries and I kept my weight in check by dieting and riding a stationarey bike an hour a day.

You can't keep eating like you're still a runner.

I was out for most of the winter with an injury and started putting on weight rather quickly. I cut down drastically on the number of carbs I was eating to start. I also hit the gym everyday and done some high intensity interval type work.

I would usually start my workout with 45 - 60 minutes on a bike or elliptical trainer just to keep my aerobic fitness somewhat. Even on the bike I would do hard 1 - 2 minute intervals to get my heart rate up. I would follow that up with 20 - 30 minutes of the high intensity interval workout. For this I would do kettle bell exercises, squats, push-ups, some core, lightweight dumbbells etc... I would do 45 seconds of each exercise as quickly as I could and move on to the next exercise with minimum rest, less than 10 seconds. Not sure what this is called but I've attended classes called Tabata that operate like this. I'm sure there are others. As a runner, I do appreciate the non-stop intensity of the exercises.

It isn't as enjoyable as running for sure but I wanted to retain as much fitness as possible.

If you hurt your back doing yoga, I am skeptical of your arthritis diagnosis. The is some evidence of minor arthritis in everyone's spine over 40 years old. I would see another doctor, strengthen your core and get back to running.

asdfghjkl wrote:

You say you're not eating a lot, but you are eating too much. Runners have a skewed view of what eating a lot is. You can't run right now, so you need to reduce calorie intake. Don't crash diet, but do diet. Be reasonable, but reduce food intake. Being overweight, even just a little, makes osteoarthritis much worse.

Whatever exercise you can do, do it regularly. I couldn't run for two years due to injuries and I kept my weight in check by dieting and riding a stationarey bike an hour a day.

You can't keep eating like you're still a runner.

I have the strangest metabolism. I'll bet that I can gain weight on less than 2000 calories a day. I dunno why but that's the way I am. My body is somewhat carbohydrate averse I would say. Bread and rice and pasta don't do me any favors. I can get by on maybe 30 min of swimming but my shoulder is too messed up for more than that I'd say.

Yo Momma wrote:

If you hurt your back doing yoga, I am skeptical of your arthritis diagnosis. The is some evidence of minor arthritis in everyone's spine over 40 years old. I would see another doctor, strengthen your core and get back to running.

I have my CT scan and got three opinions. The CT scan was very good and they said that and MRI wasn't necessary because the scan was really good. One was from a sports doc at OSU who sees their athletes. The doctor said exactly that. I have minor arthritis and that for my age and activity level my spine looks great. He said that the only problem is there is no correlation between a radiograph and pain. The problem I have now is that the pain is so great, the core strengthening stuff really aggravates it. What core exercises would you recommend? It's in my lower spine.

A note about yoga. I have had back problems since my late 20s. Running doesn't hurt my back. I'm unable to play basketball or do any exercises that involves bending over. I have lived with back pain since then and sitting really aggravates my back as well. For example, if I were to sit in my chair at work for five minutes and then get up to get a drink of water, when I stand up I'm crooked and then as I walk for a little my back will release and then I straighten out. Well, after doing yoga about four times a week for two months my back pain subsided. I could sit at work with no pain and was pain free and my back was straight. I was even considering playing basketball again. I couldn't believe it. After about a month or two when I was coming up into warrior one I could feel a little weakness and pain in my back. That went on for a few weeks and then one time while I came up my back gave out and it's been that way since then. Very frustrating.

Also skeptical of your DX...not that you don't have it, but it wouldn't keep you from running if some days you can and some you can't. Also people with arthritis in the spine have difficulty with the spinal extension it takes to stay in the freestyle swimming position for periods of time. I would get a second opinion. Pain in the lower back bending forward or returning from the forward bent position is almost always muscular. This might be a good check. If your back hurts bending forward and is improved by bending your knees, it is likely hamstrings or sacrotuberous ligaments. You can find an ART practitioner to do a functional evaluation to see if it is something other than arthritis.

Sorry to hear about your plight. Can you post up what a typical day of eating looks like for you?

I can really sympathise with you. I attempted to run a half decent marathon recently and with the training volume the need to watch what I ate simply vanished. The down-period that followed however, not so much.

get used to it. wrote:

Also skeptical of your DX...not that you don't have it, but it wouldn't keep you from running if some days you can and some you can't. Also people with arthritis in the spine have difficulty with the spinal extension it takes to stay in the freestyle swimming position for periods of time. I would get a second opinion. Pain in the lower back bending forward or returning from the forward bent position is almost always muscular. This might be a good check. If your back hurts bending forward and is improved by bending your knees, it is likely hamstrings or sacrotuberous ligaments. You can find an ART practitioner to do a functional evaluation to see if it is something other than arthritis.

I've had three opinions, two of whom I trust greatly so I'm confident in the DX. As I said the one doc is a spinal doc at OSU who deals with all of their athletes. The other is a neurosurgeon who also sees things like tbis all the time. The third was the ER doc. The arthritis causes muscular problems so yes there is a muscular component but the root cause is the arthritis. I used to get relief standing or lying down but now I don't.

As far as what I eat I nirmally have a wheat bagel thin w peanutbutter in the mornjng and 14oz of milk. I don't eat again til the evening and that could be rice a curried beef and vegetables or something like that. I may have a glass of chocolate milk later if I'm hungry.

lend a hand please wrote:

As far as what I eat I nirmally have a wheat bagel thin w peanutbutter in the mornjng and 14oz of milk. I don't eat again til the evening and that could be rice a curried beef and vegetables or something like that. I may have a glass of chocolate milk later if I'm hungry.

The purpose of milk is to grow baby mammals. If you are not a baby mammal looking to grow you might want to rethink how much milk you drink, especially if you have a very low level of physical activity.

Curried beef and vegetables sounds good. Fill your boots.

How old are you?

1. Write down everything you consume except meds and water.

2. After dinner (which can include dessert) is over, consume nothing but water until breakfast the next morning.

3. The biggie: when you're in front of a screen (TV, computer, movie), consume nothing but water.

will do. Thanks

UK Limey runner wrote:

The purpose of milk is to grow baby mammals. If you are not a baby mammal looking to grow you might want to rethink how much milk you drink, especially if you have a very low level of physical activity.

Curried beef and vegetables sounds good. Fill your boots.

Aren't bagel and rice the worst things OP is consuming?

The bagel? Cereal flour products are crappy food sources but not everyone has problems tolerating them. If OP had a problem with wheat it should have showed up when he was exercising and not just when he became inactive. Rice is usually pretty inert.

UK Limey runner wrote:

The purpose of milk is to grow baby mammals.

This might be true--were it not for three different mutations in Northern Europe, South Asia, and East Africa, which have enabled large portions of those populations to digest milk as adults.

Different people can handle different foods, of course, but who am I to reject the genetic legacy of my mutant forebears?