How's it going guys? I hope all of you are doing well. Browngirl and I have been crazy busy with school these past couple of years. The hard work has paid off though and this old fart (gonna be 34 this may) will be starting Med School in the fall. I was supposed to start last fall, but had to push it back due an accident - And thus the reason for my return here.
Last June I was getting ready for deer season and hanging some treestands, when my linemans belt (safety harness) broke and I fell 24 ft. I sustained burst fractures to two vertebra (the bone basically exploded) and jacked up everything else above and below it. I ended up having to have a fusion done from T7 to L3. Prior to the surgery we were unsure if I would walk as I had no feeling below the waist due to pretty severe spinal cord compression.
After several surgeries, extensive physical therapy, and 7 months later - I can now walk completely on my own. I just got off the walker about a month ago. Most importantly, I finally got my TLSO brace off last week and can now wipe my own ass again. Don't act like your not impressed. Bahaha
Pain was bad, but against all odds I'm now completely off all opiates with the exception of the occasional tylenol 4. People with spinal injuries as severe as mine tend to be in pain and require pain management for the rest of their lives.
Of course I would have rather this situation have never happened, but I feel extremely blessed and lucky that it wasn't any worse. It should've been, but somehow it wasn't.
Anyway, enough of the backstory. I need to lose some weight. Over the last 7 months, as you can imagine, I've really put on some fat. The first couple of months, I had absolutely no exercise and I was bedridden for 23 hours a day. After that I slowly increased my walking and therapy time but was still in bed for most of the day. Until about 2 months ago, I was also on a heavy dose of opiates known to severely slow your metabolism. Dilaudid, Extended released Oxycontin, and Norco 10. Opiates of this strength, used for any legth of time will actually slow your metabolism to the point that your bowels eventally slow to the point of severe constipation. You can only imagine what it did to my weight gain. Anyway, between no exercise and severely slow metabolism, I've probably put on 10% bodyfat or so. I'd say I'm currently in the 24-26% range. As you might imagine the additional pounds compressing my spine together (when upright) doesn't feel to pleasant either.
So, as soon as I stopped the opiates I started reducing my calories. To make it easy I went with a standard 40/40/20 P/C/F split. When using standard calculations my TDEE shows to be 2650; however, as I soon learned - nothing about this situation is "standard". I began with 2000 calories (a 650 deficit) and nothing (I was still gaining weight), then I dropped to 1800, and still nothing. 1500....you guessed it, nothing. Today I dropped it to 1200, but seriously....I can't go much lower.
As I mentioned earlier, I just now got my brace off and have only been off the walker a month, so I can do a LITTLE more walking, but my doc doesn't want me doing ANY lifting, and only very light walking - like walking around the house light.
He said we will reevaluate next month and I should be able to resume all daily activities and as much walking as I can tolerate; however, he said it will be at least until Aug before I can do any weight training as well as any cardio with any type of heavy impact (jogging/running). I expressed my concerns about the weight gain and the inability to drop the weight and his response was to eat a balanced meal and give it time. He's a smart guy, but he's a spinal surgeon and likely hasn't studied nutrition since med school or even undergrate.
So, what do you guy have for me? Any suggestions on what I can do to get this fat off?
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Originally Posted by slfmade
