Often RMR and stress tendinopathy Nutritionla severe, MRI footage reclvery shows a damaged area Energy balance and macronutrient distribution after the pain has gone. In addition to diet, you can benefit from physical therapy to help you regain movement and combat muscle loss. Add to Favorites.

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Nutrition Strategies to HEAL FASTER after Surgery or Injury

Nutritional support during injury recovery -

While I understand where this thought process comes from, I would argue that most of the recovery process should be spent consuming enough calories to maintain your weight.

Recovery is a process that benefits from having some additional calories. Being on low calories can slow down the healing process. Since you are not able to train certain areas effectively, the combination of low calories and a lack of training stimulus can speed up muscle loss.

Staying at maintenance calories provides a balance between minimising both fat gain and muscle loss. Another aspect to consider is that you will likely be undertaking a rehab protocol that involves you aiming to get stronger and build muscle in certain areas.

It is more difficult to build muscle and strength in a calorie deficit. Having more calories can directly speed up injury recovery while also helping you indirectly by fuelling muscle growth.

Directly after the injury when the risk of muscle loss is the greatest, it can make sense to stick near maintenance calories at the start. This is to try to reduce the amount of muscle that is lost. Then as the pain is decreasing and the rehab process is ramping up, you might want to consider a calorie surplus.

For example, if you need to gain a certain amount of quad or calf size or strength, this will be a lot easier and quicker to do in a calorie surplus. At the end of the process though, you want to be near your peak body composition for your sport, if possible.

Since body fat will likely have increased a bit with this approach due to a combination of the reduced training stimulus and the calorie surplus phase, it likely makes sense to have a phase in a calorie deficit. As mentioned previously, you do not want to spend much of the rehab process in a deficit.

But the overall goal is to return to sport as effectively as we can, and that likely requires a certain body composition. One is that your calorie expenditure is likely lower due to being less active. This means that maintenance calories will be a bit lower than they previously were.

In most cases, the decrease in calories required to achieve maintenance calories is less than expected. But it is still a factor worth considering. Another aspect is that you might now be at home more often and have more time and access to food than you previously did. The combination of these things can make it difficult to avoid accidentally overconsuming calories.

One tool I would consider using to manage this if it is an issue is volume eating. This concept involves eating a larger volume of lower-calorie food. Basically, it might make it easier to consume an appropriate amount of calories since you get to eat more food for the same amount of calories.

When an athlete who trains hard takes a break from training, it typically takes ~3 weeks before muscle loss is measurable. This is reassuring if you have got an injury where you are still able to move the affected area a bit. Since getting the quads strong and balanced between sides is an important rehab outcome, any steps that can be taken to minimise that muscle loss in that phase is crucial.

The current recommendation for protein intake during injury recovery is 1. The upper end of this range is particularly relevant when the risk of muscle loss is at its highest, such as during immobilisation. The average athlete who is injured does not get anywhere near this level.

You could significantly improve your recovery outcomes by doing this thing. The best approach to overcoming the first challenge is to add liquid protein sources in addition to regular protein-rich meals.

For the second challenge, you want to prioritise protein sources that are high in protein and relatively low in fat and carbohydrates where possible. While I would not aim to get a large percentage of your intake from supplements, adding some protein supplements can help with both of those problems.

Creatine helps with building muscle and strength. It has obvious applications for longer rehab protocols. There is also research indicating that during immobilisation creatine can help with lean mass retention and reduces loss of strength.

There is not a lot of research on this topic, but it looks promising. Another study on strength gains weeks after ACL surgery found that creatine significantly outperformed placebo. It is worth highlighting that not ALL the research has shown positive outcomes.

One study measuring strength after 30 days after knee surgery found that creatine did not improve outcomes. While the evidence is not overwhelmingly positive, it is enough that I think it is worth taking creatine.

Particularly because there is minimal downside to doing so. Dosage and how to take: 20g per day for 5 days, followed by 5g per day ongoing. This is a simplified protocol. If you want more details, check out our post on the topic. There are proposed mechanisms for how omega-3s can help due to enhancing anabolic sensitivity to amino acids as well as help from an anti-inflammatory perspective.

There is minimal research looking at fish oil and immobilisation. The research we do have is surprisingly promising. An example of this involved lower limb immobilisation for 2 weeks.

The fish oil group maintained significantly more muscle than the placebo group. Although the research looks promising, I would keep an open mind on this topic. I would not be surprised if more research came out showing it does not matter.

I also heard the main author of that study on a podcast say an interesting line. A nuanced approach could involve taking fish oil leading up to and post-surgery if you have a serious injury and a surgery date planned though. Collagen and gelatin supplementation have emerging research indicating they can help with recovery from musculoskeletal injuries.

The mechanism that I propose involves the collagen peptides breaking down into amino acids, as mentioned. But either way, collagen protein has a very different amino acid profile to other protein sources. It is a lot higher in proline, glycine, lysine and arginine than most other protein sources.

We have evidence that these amino acids peak in the blood ~ minutes after consumption. Theoretically, we can target the injured area by getting blood flow to the area with training.

Even without that, some of the research looks promising anyway. There is also evidence of an increase in collagen synthesis in the body following supplementation and a targeted exercise protocol too.

In terms of the evidence, while the evidence is mixed, all the research fitting the following criteria has shown positive outcomes:. There also is not a lot of quality research on the topic. At the moment, my interpretation of the research is that it helps. But I am watching the space closely to see if anything comes along to change my mind.

One of the most promising studies, in particular, involved a patellar tendinopathy case study. The MRI footage showed complete healing of the patellar tendon, which is exceptionally rare. Often with tendinopathy that severe, MRI footage still shows a damaged area long after the pain has gone.

Dosage and How to Take: g of collagen or gelatin, minutes prior to training. If you have not consumed any vitamin C for the day, it makes sense to add that too. Vitamin C is required for collagen synthesis.

At a population level, supplementing those things, without further context e. dietary intake and blood levels leads to increased bone mineral density.

Supplementing with calcium and vitamin D has evidence of improving fracture recovery. It is not a large benefit, but it is worth being aware of. Adding some nuance, those who have low calcium intakes or low blood vitamin D levels would benefit significantly more from this.

Accustomed to rigorous activity that burns many hundreds of calories daily, athletes hobbled by a broken ankle or strained knee ligament may think it wise to drastically cut calories to stay in shape. But Casey says that will work against the athlete's ultimate goal - a speedy recovery and return to sport - by impeding the body's healing processes and sapping hard-earned muscle mass.

When injured, the body's natural processes kick into a higher gear, and a body busy with recovery consumes more energy than a body at rest. A drastic cut in calories hinders that process and prolongs the injured athlete's time on the sidelines.

And for athletes with lower-body injuries that impose crutches, the effect is multiplied. As anyone who has to use them can attest, crutches wear you out, and those weary arms and shoulders are an expression of the extra work getting around on crutches demands.

Crutches or no, fewer calories also can mean a precipitous drop in the athlete's strength and power. So what is the proper nutritional tact for athletes recovering from injury? Casey advocates the following approach:. It may not be sexy, but the dietary habits athletes embrace during training and competition are every bit as beneficial when recovering from injuries.

Athletes tend to eat a lot of carbohydrates, which the body rapidly burns through while supplying energy for high-intensity activities. Injured athletes don't need quite as many carbs, and Casey recommends they focus on healthy proteins.

Injured athletes don't sweat as much as athletes in training and they might not think about the importance of maintaining their hydration levels. But as a key component to overall general health, Casey recommends injured athletes remain diligent about liquid consumption. The initial inflammation that accompanies injury, in fact, serves as a catalyst for the body's healing process, so the introduction of large quantities of anti-inflammatories can actually deter, rather than encourage, healing.

As frustrating as it may be for athletes itching for competition, the best course is the steady and sensible approach, not an overnight quick fix. From there, add in appropriate physical therapy, if needed, and let the body do its job.

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Sports, high-intensity training, Nutritionzl, and other rceovery of Endurance athlete nutrition can be good suport your health, but they can also cause Energy balance and macronutrient distribution that have recovedy repercussions. Working with recobery qualified physician at Orthopedic Physician Associates is a great way Nutritonal accelerate your recovery, but there are also other elements that will determine how long it takes to heal. Besides giving us energy, the food we eat also affects every body function, including how fast we recover from injuries. There are many different factors that affect your recovery time and your diet is one of the most important ones. The food we eat gives us the building blocks that we use for all biological processes. Certain ingredients can affect responses like inflammation, promote tissue regeneration, and reduce muscular atrophy, among other things. The first phase of innury Nutritional support during injury recovery injuey or surgery Nuutritional immobilization of Energy balance and macronutrient distribution injured body part for example, a leg cast or an Intermittent Fasting Guide sling. Lack of movement will result in loss of muscle mass. Phase 1 may last for a few days or many months, depending on how serious your injury is. Protein is needed to heal wounds, repair broken bones, build healthy blood cells, keep your immune system strong, and support muscle protein growth and strength. Focus on high-quality protein foods those that contain all of the essential amino acids. Rehabilitation progresses during the second phase of recovery.