First day back on the wagon after surgery

So my doctor told me to stop dieting for a while before and after my surgery to help with my healing, but I fell off he wagon and then some!! I'm not even going to weigh myself for a couple days just so I don't SHOCK myself too much. I'm so mad at myself. There was no reason for me to eat that much. I'd love to blame it all on the Percocet, but I know I just used my surgery as an excuse o stuff my face and eat whatever I want, including cake. Anyone have any advice for getting back on the horse slowly? (I got breast implants so I can't do lifting or much upper body for another 5 weeks, let alone any running). How should I adjust my diet to account for my decrease in calorie burning?

Welcome back. As someone who gained 20 lb from when my foot was broken and I couldn't walk, I can say to weigh yourself as soon as possible. I was so convinced that I had gained 50 lb that I was afraid of the scale. Once I screwed up my courage to actually hop on it, I was relieved that it was only 20 lb and I knew I could burn through that by Feb. Well after a week of walking and eating for the most part right, I've lost 10 of those 20 lb, so even if the scale is shocking, know that some of it may be "easy" weight to get off.

My advice for getting back on the wagon slowly is to start walking, do a mile the first day, add one the next and keep doing that until you're walking as much as you want to. Walking isn't as traumatic on the chest as running is. Try for a suitable pace that doesn't cause you pain. Do that until the doc says you can resume normal activities. The walking will have got you into enough shape that you should be able to resume your normal routine as if you'd never left it.

Use the tools on this site to adjust your calorie burn. You can put yourself in as sedentary and then use the activity log for exercise.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for your story and advise. I jumped on the scale this morning to find that I put on 6 pounds in the 13 days since my surgery. I'm sure there is some water weight/swelling in there, and muscle loss from lack of exercise, but it's not as bad as I feared. I'm cutting my calories back from 1200 a day to 900-1000, and I will definitely start walking as much as I can stand without any pain until I get clearance to work out again (in about 5 weeks).