Finding Peace with Your Body Weight During Injury Recovery

I have been out of the gym for six weeks with a torn rotator cuff and I have gained a few pounds because I am not as active. It has been really difficult to accept this change in my body. I feel like I am losing all my progress and I am struggling not to restrict my food to compensate.

I am trying to remind myself that my body needs extra energy to heal the injury. I am doing my physical therapy exercises and trying to stay positive, but it is a mental challenge every day. I miss the endorphins from a heavy lifting session.

How do you handle body changes when you are forced to take a break from the gym? I would love some advice on how to stay kind to myself during this recovery period. It is hard to feel like an athlete when you are stuck on the sidelines.

Sorry to hear about the shoulder, Sidney. I went through the same thing with a knee surgery last year in Vancouver. The hardest part isn't the physical pain, it's the mental shift of seeing your body change when you can't do anything about it. Just remember, your body is using those extra calories to actually repair tissue right now.

Spot on, Dave. Sidney, you've got to stop looking at the scale as a measure of fitness and start seeing it as a measure of recovery. If you under-eat while injured, you'll just stay sidelined for longer. I learned that the hard way after a foot injury in London—tried to stay lean and ended up out for six months instead of three.

Totally agree! Your body needs the energy to heal. I put on nearly a stone when I did my back in, and I felt right miserable at first. But once I started focusing on my physio exercises as my 'new workout', the anxiety about the weight started to lift.

I have been looking into this myself and honestly it's tough. When you're used to being 'the fit guy' in your town and suddenly you're soft, it messes with your head. I've found that staying away from the gym entirely helps—seeing other people lift makes me resent my own body.

I actually have a different take, Mike. I still go to the gym just to walk on the treadmill or do what I can. In Texas, the gym is my social circle. If I stayed home, I'd just sit in my apartment and obsess over my reflection in the mirror.

I’m with TXguy. Isolation makes the body image issues worse. I try to wear loose clothing so I’m not constantly checking my midsection in the gym mirrors while I’m doing my rehab work.

Oversized hoodies are the unsung heroes of injury recovery. They let you focus on the movement without the visual feedback of the weight gain.

Has anyone tried changing their diet to 'maintenance' mode? I find that if I keep my protein high but lower the carbs slightly since I'm not doing heavy sessions, I feel less 'bloated', which helps the mental side of things.

Be careful with that, Lass. Carbs are essential for the inflammatory response needed for healing. Don't starve the injury just to save a few millimetres on your waistline.

Thanks everyone. The 'repair tissue' perspective really helps. I think I’ve been viewing my body as a failure for getting injured, rather than an amazing system trying to fix itself.

That's the spirit! Your body isn't a statue; it's a living thing. It's going to fluctuate.

I still find it hard to look in the mirror. Does the anxiety ever go away or do you just get used to it?

It goes away once you realize your value isn't tied to your body fat percentage. I know that sounds like a line from a self-help book, but it's true. My friends in Toronto didn't stop liking me just because I stopped having visible obliques.

Totally agree with MapleLeafFan. We are our own worst critics. Nobody else is noticing those 'few pounds' except you.

One thing that helped me was unfollowing 'fitspo' accounts for a bit. Seeing people doing heavy squats while I could barely walk was just masochism. I switched to following accounts about mobility and recovery instead.

Proper good advice, that. Protect your peace. If it makes you feel like rubbish, stop looking at it.

I'm going to try the 'no-scale' rule for the rest of April. If I can't change it right now, I don't need to measure it.

Now that is a winning move. Put that thing in the back of the closet.

I might join you on that, Sidney. It's definitely becoming a compulsion for me.