3 Simple Food Tricks To Avoid Weight Gain During Exercise Rehabilitation

You can use simple food tricks to avoid weight gain during exercise rehabilitation and stay leaner than ever. Whether you are just beginning a new exercise routine or have had some time off due to an injury, it’s important to stay as lean as possible while working out regularly.

The risk of gaining weight is higher when starting up again after a break because your body has adjusted its metabolism accordingly. This article will give you some tips and food tricks on how to keep control over your nutrition and not let that happen again.

The big thing that I have noticed is the link between food and pain.

Especially when it comes to recovery.

That was the big reason for creating 101 Superfoods that Fight Inflammation & Pain.

Today, I have a great article from Lori Kennedy on how to avoid weight gain when injured.

Enjoy!

~ Rick Kaselj

Thanks, Rick, for having me back on EFI. I am honored to share my nutrition and whole food passion with your readers.

Being a CEO of WOW! Weight Loss

Being the CEO of WOW! Weight Loss and having my clinic in a Doctor’s office, I get to help a lot of people lose fat and improve their health. They come to me for a variety of reasons – they don’t like the way they look in clothes or look naked, they’ve recently gained a bunch of weight and feel awful, they are going through menopause and now have a belly, and a muffin top or they can’t play with their kids the way they want to.

Sometimes they come to me desperate because their Doctor told them they would have to go on medication if they don’t lose weight or because they have sustained an injury.

When injured people come to me, it’s usually with a familiar story. They have an injury and cannot participate in their regular exercise routine; they are in pain and eat more than they know, but it helps make them feel better. Their weight damages their recovery, and they need to return to a comfortable weight.

It is worse than sustaining an injury or spending months rehabbing from surgery to become weight gain due to decreased physical activity.

Before I jump into the three simple food tricks you can easily implement so you do not succumb to the nasty fate of gaining 20 pounds during rehab, I want to dispel a couple of myths first.

Myth 1.

Lack of physical exercise does not always equal weight gain.

Plenty of sedentary people can maintain weight through proper portions and good food choices. I am not advocating a sedentary lifestyle; I’m just trying to emphasize a common excuse that most people have.

Myth 2.

You cannot continue to eat the same way or enjoy the same foods you did when you were physically active.

Unfortunately, when you are sedentary, your body does not require as many calories (especially from carbs or fat) as it did when you exercised regularly.

This is especially true if you were resistance training and are now taking a rehab-induced break.

Myth 3.

Sometimes ‘healthy’ foods are not healthy for you.

This is true if you are trying to maintain your weight without being able to be physically active. An example is choosing higher GI (sugar) fruits as a nighttime snack.

So now you might be thinking, well, I thought fruit was a healthy choice, so what do I eat at night if I’m hungry?

Let’s jump into the 3 Simple Food Tricks To Avoid Weight Gain During Exercise Rehab, and I will answer that question.

Trick 1. Have 10 grams of fiber at your breakfast.

Breakfast is indeed the most important meal. What you eat for breakfast sets your hormonal tone and blood sugar levels for the day. Whether to lose or maintain weight, having fiber at every meal and snack should be a primary focus.

Fiber helps to make you feel full. It creates bulk and adds weight to the food in your stomach, cutting off the hormone ghrelin, which signals to your brain that you are hungry when your stomach is empty.

Here are some fiber choices that you can add to your breakfast:

1 – 2 tbsp of ground chia seeds.

Add these amazing seeds to your morning shake, yogurt, cottage cheese, or cereal, or even mix them into almond butter and spread them on toast for a BIG fiber boost.

1/3 cup of Bran Buds.

This cereal helps to keep you regular and is not artificially sweetened. Get creative and make a yogurt parfait with 1 cup of fruit.

One cup of raspberries or blackberries.

These two berries are the highest in the fiber of ALL fruits. If you want to eat fruit at night, these should be your only two choices.

Trick 2. Skip the grain at your dinner meal

Let me be specific about this trick, so I don’t set off low-carb alarm bells. I’m not saying to cut out carbs completely from your diet.

I suggest you replace your typical dinner grain (bread, pasta, rice, Couscous, and even quinoa) with a second serving of vegetables.

If you are not exercising, your body does not require the energy it gets from grains in the evening. This is a trick I use with my menopausal women who have a hard time losing fat. It helps.

Trick 3. Stop eating 3 hours before bed.

This food truck might be hard to do for some people who have an early dinner and go to bed late. Notice that I did not say you don’t eat after dinner.

The trick is to stop eating 3 hours before bed.

If you eat dinner at 6 pm and don’t go to bed until midnight, then have a snack at 9 pm and stop eating.

The best snacks at night are a small amount of protein or fat.

Some examples are:

1 tbsp of natural peanut butter or almond butter
½ cup plain Greek yogurt
Ten walnuts
2 Baby Bell Light Cheese
One hard-boiled egg

While these choices may not be so exciting to you, they work when you are trying to avoid gaining weight during an exercise rehab period. Gaining weight during rehabilitation is detrimental to the healing process and slows progress.

Try these three simple food tricks and tell Rick or me about your success. I’d love to hear your stories about your rehab progress.

Lori Kennedy RHN
WOW! Weight Loss Inc.

If you are a personal trainer passionate about whole foods and transforming clients’ lives through fitness and nutrition, check out Lori’s WOW! Professional Certification – the only whole foods-based weight loss and nutrition certification available online.

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