Lose Weight Even When You’re Injured Using These 3 Tips
You’re injured, and you’re afraid that all of your weight loss efforts are going in reverse. You might even notice your pants fitting tighter. It’s a major concern for a lot of people. And while injury severity varies greatly, you’ll find a lot of motivational stories to keep you on the right track.
There are people in phenomenal shape that have one leg, use a wheelchair or have torn ligaments.
You just need to take the right approach to continue on your weight loss journey. It’s all about effort.
1. Severe Lower Body Injuries – Upper Body Bikes to the Rescue
You’re severely injured. Perhaps you can’t walk, or maybe you’re in a wheelchair and you’re trying to expand on the exercises you can perform. Upper body bikes work much like a normal bike, but these stationary bikes are propelled using just your arms.
ACE claims that you can burn 390 calories in 30 minutes with an upper body bike.
And the good news is that Amazon sells these bikes for around $160, and there are options to use these mini bikes for your arms and legs. So, if you’re trying to rehab your lower body, these dual arm / leg exercisers are a great option.
2. Adjust Your Diet Accordingly
You were an avid gym-goer, but now you’re stuck at home and can’t exercise. This happens to a lot to a lot of people, and they end up gaining weight and eating the same meals. The main issue is that the person isn’t accounting for their normal caloric burn in the gym.
Let’s say that you use the upper body bike five times per week. You would be burning 1,950 calories per week.
You need to account for this in your diet.
Effectively, you need to eat 1,950 calories less now, or a little under 300 calories less per day.
It’s a major adjustment, but it’s one that needs to be done. If you’re at a loss as to where to start in your calorie calculation, a few good resources are:
If you can’t get on a scale, a skin fold caliper will allow you to measure your body fat appropriately. You can see how to use one here.
3. Adapt Your Workouts Properly
Let’s say that you’ve had ankle surgery. Your ankle may need time to heal, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop working your upper body. You can still exercise and lose weight, but you’ll need to adapt your routine.
You might have to do dumbbell workouts or use the machines at the gym, and you can do this even with crutches.
Adapt your workout to get yourself moving. I have seen people that break their arms run on the treadmill to continue on their weight loss journey. You shouldn’t let an injury in one area of your body impact other areas of the body.
But what happens if you’ve blown out your knee?
Well, you can try and find low-impact exercises to perform that don’t impact the knee. Gaining weight will definitely not help.
If you have a shoulder injury or back injury, you can modify your workouts to reduce the stress on these areas while still burning calories and burning muscle.
It’s all about adaption and commitment.