Forums >Health and Nutrition>Running to heal a back injury - avoiding further weight loss
So I have a gnarly muscular injury in my back. It's stopped me from progressing to full time college attendance for three years. When I got it I weighed about 220 pounds and was sedentary. After six months of flailing about trying to diagnose what was wrong, I found a doctor who told me to start running. Within a little over a year I'd lost 70 pounds and ran a 5K.
I've had to slow down since then to avoid further weight loss. My back injury is inflammatory so I've cut Omega-6 fatty acids (fried foods) as well as refined sugars from my diet and use Omega 3 supplements as well as honey and other staple foods to sort of dampen inflammation.
I've had my back injury flare up again recently. I've gotten admitted into a prestigious university that rejects more applications than it accepts and am slated to start full time this fall. My doctor has said I can fix this and handle this if I exercise enough.
I need to seriously, seriously ramp up my exercise - I'm wanting to do 20-45 minutes of hard cardio (running or swimming) three times a week as well as a few hours of static, hard work in my garden on three other days combined with at least 15 minutes of hard weight lifting and other static exercise. Currently, I'm doing everything but the cardio.
Many of the other members of the household are attempting to lose weight by cutting calories from clean sources and replacing them. I.E. rather than butter, using the omega-6 laden vegetable oil spreads. Sometimes it's less than wholesome - I.E.resorting to junk food and then things like turkey burgers/turkey dogs/stuff that's had the nutrients removed. I avoid junk food so the lean (or sugary/junky) stuff that's just around the house naturally is not working for me. I don't have the time nor money to just flat out do my own diet, so I'm needing to think about supplementing whatever they're fixing.
I supplement with protein powder+frozen blueberry+whole milk shakes and occasionally some of the less-gross protein bars, but they don't seem to be enough and just doing them alone feels like it may be unwholesome.
I've spent 3 years medicated to the point I can barely roll out of bed every day, exercising my butt off, fighting for a career that hasn't even started yet (I'm 24) and I'm tired of hurting. I've been told if I push myself hard enough, this injury will right itself. 5-10 miles a week seems like a good start.
How can I supplement a lean but somewhat clean diet with enough caloric substance to support a highly aggressive exercise regiment?
Thanks!
Faster Than Your Couch!
How do you share the cost for food? Everyone who pays should be able to give some input and get some food they prefer.
Also, your exercise regimen sounds great, but it does not burn too many calories. I wouldn't call it highly aggressive. One hour of exercise every day should burn something like 400-650 calories. Now subtract from that the roughly 100 calories per hour you'd burn anyway, and you'll end up with 300-550 extra calories which will need to be replaced.
If I were you, I'd have two bananas, or some yoghurt after the exercise (200 calories), and if you need more, have a sandwich with some kind of spread, whatever you prefer (peanut butter, cream cheese,...), plus maybe sliced apple or vegetable in it (200-400 calories). That should suffice to make up for the extra calories and protein need.
Also, your body will adjust to the new calorie intake/burn over time, so you won't need as many calories as at the beginning of your long-term workout strategy.
Protein powder and bars are expensive, just replace them with plain yoghurt and natural granola instead. You don't need more than 1 gram of protein per kg (2.2 lbs) of your ideal weight to stay healthy even with heavy exercise.
Run for fun.