Weight Gain & Back Pain

d-redser

Hi all,

I need your advice.

I was involved in a car crash at the end of August and my back has never been the same since.

Before the crash I was alway active. I was in a routine of going to the gym at lunch (cardio for 45mins) and going for long walks in the evening with the dogs and I was loosing a good bit of weight.

But now I can't even go on a 5min walk without being in agnoy and I am piling on the weight. I am bigger than what I was before (I am 5ft 2 weighing just under 13st). I started physio on Tues and yesterday I could barely move, it was so painful. She said there is alot of nerve damage.

Is there anything I can do to stop the weight gain or even reduce it? I am on a low protein strict diet which involes alot of calories and prescribed food...

Any advice??

justsomebloke

ok post up your current diet. You say that you are on a low protein strict diet which involes alot of calories and prescribed food, is there a reason for this? because if you can't exercise you will have to try and maintain your weight through diet alone however if you have been told to stick to a specific diet to help recovery stick to that

Dan133269

how about working the stationary bike, does that hurt your back?

d-redser

jsb wrote:

ok post up your current diet. You say that you are on a low protein strict diet which involes alot of calories and prescribed food, is there a reason for this? because if you can't exercise you will have to try and maintain your weight through diet alone however if you have been told to stick to a specific diet to help recovery stick to that

Yea, I have a metabolic condition called PKU. I don't have the enzyme to break down phenalyanine (sp!) so I have to take it in broken down form. This also means I have to avoid high protein foods and just stick to low pro which are most often high calorie or high carb food.

Mornings: cereal, low pro milk + protein drink (high cal)
Break: apple / banana / or if I am really hungry a scone
Lunch: veg stir fry / yogart / soup
3pmish: crave chocolate so bad usually have a twix (this kills me!)
Dinner: cereal / sandwhich / small portion pizza / beans on toast
9pmish: Protein drink again.

how about working the stationary bike, does that hurt your back?

I cannot extend my legs out very far, sounds weird but to bend down, stretch out is really painful but in saying that I have not tried the bike. I will give that a go and see what happens... I will do anything to start loosing this weight again.

Degsy

d-redser wrote:

Yea, I have a metabolic condition called PKU. I don't have the enzyme to break down phenalyanine (sp!) so I have to take it in broken down form. This also means I have to avoid high protein foods and just stick to low pro which are most often high calorie or high carb food.



I cannot extend my legs out very far, sounds weird but to bend down, stretch out is really painful but in saying that I have not tried the bike. I will give that a go and see what happens... I will do anything to start loosing this weight again.

Make sure before you start any excercise to warm up thouroughly and do some gentle stretches to limber up,dont do it so that its unduly painfull but try to looosen your muscles up and you'll n otice a big difference after a few weeks.

justsomebloke

Ok your diet is a bit crap however as I can't find an online list of suitable foods for PKU I can't really suggest anything (unless you have one), however you really need to look at changing things like your snacks and dinner choices and I generally don't suggest this, as I generally don't think people should really have to do it, but I think you should do some calorie counting as you probably should only be aiming at around 1800-1900 calories a day spread as evenly as possible through out the day.

You should talk to a qualified nutrionist about a healthy diet for you but if i was to make a blind suggestion roughly based on your own current diet (not sure if anything is unsuitable) it would be as followes


7.30ish banana and protein drink,

10-porridge (baiscally stay away from cerals as they ar pretty crap for you)

1 - veg stir fry with smal amount of brown rice (not sure how suitable brown rice is though)

3- fruit and yogurt

dinner - whole grain pasta or sandwich with wholegrain bread or Couscous with Garlic, Tomatoes, and Basil http://depts.washington.edu/pku/recipe.html

9 protein drink


Also I would try and put in some fats aswell but as I am not sure what you can eat I can't really suggest anything but maybe flax and cod liver oil supplements maybe of use

d-redser

jsb wrote:

You should talk to a qualified nutrionist about a healthy diet for you

Also I would try and put in some fats aswell but as I am not sure what you can eat I can't really suggest anything but maybe flax and cod liver oil supplements maybe of use

JSB thanks for that. I do attend at PKU dietician but I find it very unhelpful. They concentrate on avoiding protein in the diet and as a result they keep recomending things like snax crisps, drinking loads of lucozade each day, basially bulking up on high cal/carb foods even though I keep asking for low cal/carb suggestions.

I try to eat a good bit of fruit & veg a day.

What is flax by the way?!?

PS, I forgot to mention the protein drink itself is about 1300cals a day...

justsomebloke

d-redser wrote:

PS, I forgot to mention the protein drink itself is about 1300cals a day...

:eek: :eek: :eek:

and you have 2 of them, on a side note I would be interested to know what is in them cause I am often looking for a high calorie protein drink (but even I would generally not want to have one with a 1000 calories a day) so maybe skip the fruit at breakfast and have it later then

Flax oil is basically an oil which contains omega 3 fatty acid but as your diet is very low in good fats it may be wise to supplement it abit

Also it looks like rice is probably out as most sites seem to recomment the use of low protein rice or immatation rice so maybe a baked potato

d-redser

jsb wrote:

:eek: :eek: :eek:

and you have 2 of them, on a side note I would be interested to know what is in them cause I am often looking for a high calorie protein drink (but even I would generally not want to have one with a 1000 calories a day) so maybe skip the fruit at breakfast and have it later then

Flax oil is basically an oil which contains omega 3 fatty acid but as your diet is very low in good fats it may be wise to supplement it abit

Also it looks like rice is probably out as most sites seem to recomment the use of low protein rice or immatation rice so maybe a baked potato

The drink is a prescribed protein drink which contains the essential amino acids found in high protien food but is already broken down for me. I take 7 sachets a day which I have 4 in the morning and 3 at night. I should also mention that I am taking centrium (prescribed) and also a calcuim supplemen but I will check out the flax oil..

I will start eating porride made with water in the mornings and take the drink and then just try my best to eat as much veg at meals..

As you can imagine I need to keep up the exercise to burn the excess calories/fat.

Thanks again JSB, I just needed some pointers to start me in the right direction before I turn into a beach whale!

justsomebloke

Hey D,

if possible could you just double check the amount of calories per serving on the sachets that you take and make sure that is roughly 450 kcal per sachet as oppose to 450KJ, as i was just checking on a similar type of product (i think ) and its values are a lot less also at 450 kcals it would have to contain alot more then just protein

http://www.vitaflo.co.uk/documents/Vitaprodatasheet_002.pdf

cause I am just thinking at rougly 450 cal per sachet I doubt you would be able to get through 4 and still have room for breakfast

b3t4

Apologies for butting in as I can't help with diet information but I do want to advise that you change your dietician. I find that people can sometimes be very slow to question medical people when they should.

The extra weight will only add to your back problem. If your dietiican can't see this I'd be very quick to change them.

Also, ask your physio if MBT shoes would help with your back problem.

A.

d-redser

jsb wrote:

Hey D,

if possible could you just double check the amount of calories per serving on the sachets that you take and make sure that is roughly 450 kcal per sachet as oppose to 450KJ, as i was just checking on a similar type of product (i think ) and its values are a lot less also at 450 kcals it would have to contain alot more then just protein

http://www.vitaflo.co.uk/documents/Vitaprodatasheet_002.pdf

cause I am just thinking at rougly 450 cal per sachet I doubt you would be able to get through 4 and still have room for breakfast

Each sachet has 179 cals, I double checked this morning. The above product is kind of similar.

I am so used to drinking this every morning, its like my cup of tea after my cereal, a bit manky tasting but it has to be done!

d-redser

b3t4 wrote:

Apologies for butting in as I can't help with diet information but I do want to advise that you change your dietician. I find that people can sometimes be very slow to question medical people when they should.

The extra weight will only add to your back problem. If your dietiican can't see this I'd be very quick to change them.

Also, ask your physio if MBT shoes would help with your back problem.

A.

Hi b3t4, I attend a specialised dietician in Temple Street - Metabolic Unit. There are the only place in Ireland which deals with this metabolic disorder. I have tried to attend a private dietician but once I mention that I have PKU they say they cannot see me as they do not know all the ins and outs of the diet and restrictions.

d-redser

b3t4 wrote:

Apologies for butting in as I can't help with diet information but I do want to advise that you change your dietician. I find that people can sometimes be very slow to question medical people when they should.

The extra weight will only add to your back problem. If your dietiican can't see this I'd be very quick to change them.

Also, ask your physio if MBT shoes would help with your back problem.

A.

Hi b3t4, I attend a specialised dietician in Temple Street - Metabolic Unit. There are the only place in Ireland which deals with this metabolic disorder. I have tried to attend a private dietician but once I mention that I have PKU they say they cannot see me as they do not know all the ins and outs of the diet and restrictions.

I will check out the MBT's. I noticed that every client that attended physio at the same time (around 6) all were wearing these. Do they actually work tho?

justsomebloke

just another efw queries inrelation to the sachets, sorry .

anyway I am just wondering do you have to take the sachet's as a group i.e. 4 together in the morning/3 in the evening or do you just do this to get them out of the way.

The reason I ask is that if you could spread them out over the course of the day it may be better for the waist line. especially as these shakes take up approx 2/3 of what should be your daily calorific intake. So for example at the moment you have (4x179) plus say roughly 150 calories between cereal and milk which is roughly 850calories in one sitting however if you can split them up through out the day you won't be getting such spikes in calorie intake and your body may be better able to process some of the calories. ye I know they taste like muck and so you want to get them over and done with but if you had one per meal it may help. remember to ask your dietitian about this before doing anything about it.

also jsut noticed that you have low pro milk with your brekkie and was just wondering do you have acces to any other low pro products in ireland that you could sub into your diet

edit: also ask your dietician if there is any low GI carbs that he can recommend to you

d-redser

jsb wrote:

just another efw queries inrelation to the sachets, sorry .

anyway I am just wondering do you have to take the sachet's as a group i.e. 4 together in the morning/3 in the evening or do you just do this to get them out of the way.

The reason I ask is that if you could spread them out over the course of the day it may be better for the waist line. especially as these shakes take up approx 2/3 of what should be your daily calorific intake. So for example at the moment you have (4x179) plus say roughly 150 calories between cereal and milk which is roughly 850calories in one sitting however if you can split them up through out the day you won't be getting such spikes in calorie intake and your body may be better able to process some of the calories. ye I know they taste like muck and so you want to get them over and done with but if you had one per meal it may help. remember to ask your dietitian about this before doing anything about it.

also jsut noticed that you have low pro milk with your brekkie and was just wondering do you have acces to any other low pro products in ireland that you could sub into your diet

edit: also ask your dietician if there is any low GI carbs that he can recommend to you

I usually take 4 sachets in the morning just to get them out of the way.

They are in powder form and I mix in water. Your idea should work, it would definetly curb any hunger and any other cravings (chocolate). I will try it tomorrow. Bring it readymade in a bottle and make it last throughout the day. (I will have to bring in a toothbrush as it really is manky!!)

The low pro foods that I can get are:
Bread - crumbles at the slightest touch, cant toast it either
Flour - never tried it
pasta - eugh
crackers/biscuits/low pro chocolate - all very very very disgusting and taste really sweet.

Being honest I wouldnt eat any of them as they do not taste anywhere near edible.

JSB you have been a great help. You have thought of things that I would never have!