Navigating Weight Gain During Illness or Injury
I want to speak to the struggle I’ve had before and suspect you may have, too, about weight gain and feeling frustrated when you can't exercise.
When facing illness or injury, many people worry about weight gain or loss of muscle mass. It's natural to be concerned about changes in your body weight during periods of reduced activity. However, it's crucial to shift our focus from weight to overall health and well-being.
In this article, we’ll explore how to manage your mental health when you’re not working out regularly and deal with body image struggles that come up while healing from an injury.
As someone who used to hit the gym hard at least five days a week, I understand the anxiety and disappointment that can come when your body doesn't cooperate with your fitness goals. But what if I told you that our relationship with exercise isn't always as healthy as we think it is?
- In this article -
You’re only as hard on yourself as you are on others
Over-exercising: pushing through illness and injury
Movement with kindness
Healing and compassion
Practical tips and perspectives as you heal up
Over-exercising: pushing through illness and injury
While regular exercise is generally beneficial for maintaining a healthy weight, over-exercising can lead to injuries and actually hinder weight loss efforts.
For years, I believed that you couldn't get too much of a good thing when it came to working out. I loved the high it gave me and how I felt I was doing something positive for my body. However, my journey has taught me that there's a fine line between healthy habits and harmful obsession.
Throughout my fitness journey, I've experienced numerous overuse injuries and flare-ups from autoimmune conditions like Crohn's disease. These setbacks forced me to confront an uncomfortable truth: my exercise routine had crossed from fueling my body to unnecessarily breaking it down.
I recall the frustration of being sidelined by injuries, unable to push my body the way I wanted to. There were weeks when I couldn't work out at all, let alone perform normal daily movements. It was during these periods that I began to question the true nature of my relationship with exercise.
I share my experience with over-exercising because it's generally accepted as a positive habit, one that others should emulate. If you have the discipline to work out regularly, people praise you for your achievement, telling you how much they wish they could be like you. But regularly breaking my body down to the point of illness and injury wasn't healthy.
It's important to find a balance that supports your overall health without putting excessive stress on your body.
Movement with kindness
When recovering from illness or injury, it's essential to approach movement with kindness. This doesn't mean completely avoiding activity, but rather finding ways to move that support your healing process.
The turning point for me came during my certified Intuitive Eating counselor training. One of the principles, "Respect your body," made me realize that I was still falling into patterns of mentally pushing my body beyond its limits, ignoring its whispers (and occasional screams) to slow down.
Looking back, I can see how this drive for perfection manifested in various aspects of my life, from overexerting myself while cleaning to using exercise as a form of punishment for eating. As a teenager struggling with disordered eating, I engaged in what I now recognize as purging behavior through excessive exercise. If you’ve ever struggled with an eating disorder such as bulimia or binge eating disorder, you may recognize excessive exercise as a compensatory behavior for eating.
Part of my physical healing was adjusting my mindset that I always needed to push myself so hard. For example, allowing myself to be ok with a gentle routine of biking, physical therapy, or stretching was essential to my healing.
Gentle exercises, when approved by your doctor, can help maintain muscle mass and promote overall well-being without risking further injury.
Healing and compassion
My heart aches for that young girl who was hurting inside while striving to appear outwardly perfect. But through this realization, I've learned the importance of being firmly grounded in my body and prioritizing my internal experience over external perceptions.
The journey to healing has been long, spanning decades of working through trauma and learning to inhabit my body fully. It's about shifting focus from how I look to how I feel, from living outside myself to existing squarely within my own experience.
Practical tips and perspectives as you heal up
1) Bodies change constantly.
Whatever the pain, lack of energy, or illness is present now is also temporary and will change again. Remember that temporary changes in body weight are normal during recovery. Your body may retain water or adjust its metabolism as part of the healing process.
2) Prioritize how you feel over how you look.
Each time you begin to worry about how your body looks to others, instead of ruminating on thoughts about body dissatisfaction, shift back into your physical body. A practical tool for interrupting negative body image thoughts is to start, stop, and ask yourself, right now, what do you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste?
When you notice you’re beating yourself up, self-compassion is a superpower.
When you start to feel discouraged about lack of movement or feeling doubt or a sense of lack, practice self-compassion.
Kristen Neff’s research on this breaks it down into 3 elements to practice it more easily when you are beating yourself up: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. My favorite practice is a 10-minute guided meditation of hers for soothing difficult emotions.
3) Your body has an innate intelligence and knows exactly what you need for your best health, including your food intake and body weight.
Overriding your body’s signals of pain, low energy, or discomfort are subtle forms of aggression. Listening to your body is a practice and this is an opportunity to form a closer alliance with and be a good steward of your body.
You may consider learning about set point weight theory or diet cycling. Sometimes information can be a powerful means of igniting where you can feel wronged by what you’ve learned that hasn’t been in your highest and best interest. In this way, you take responsibility for what’s yours, but not for the systems which helped to shape you.
4) Get out excess energy through creative self-expression when you are physically unable to move.
Try out some of my favorite ways to journal and write that I’ve shared before about how to stop racing thoughts.
As you navigate recovery from illness or injury, remember that your weight is just one small aspect of your overall health. By practicing self-compassion, listening to your body, and engaging in healthy behaviors that support your recovery, you're setting yourself up for long-term well-being that goes far beyond the number on the scale.
If any part of my story resonates with you, know that you're not alone. Many women have swept similar struggles under the rug, but it's never too late to bring them to light and begin the healing process. While your story may differ from mine, I hope that sharing my experience can help you find freedom from the fear, anxiety, and obsession surrounding your health and body.
Remember, you were put on this earth to do amazing things – not to worry about your weight. Let's work together to break free from these limiting beliefs and embrace a healthier, more balanced relationship with our bodies and exercise.
Jayne Anne Ammar
