LC Changes Needed Post-Surgery??
 

Okay, been doing LC (Atkins) for a little over a month now. Started with a fat fast for 4 days, then pretty much went to OWL (omitting a long story about how I started this way. ;)) I've settled down now, loosing about 2 lbs./week by eating as follows:

Fat: avg. 192 gms/day
Protein: avg. 155 gms/day
Carbs: avg. 69 gms/day
Calories: avg. 2537 cals/day (for what its worth)

I supplement with l-glutamine, creatine, vitamin C, multivitamin, mag/calcium/zinc, vitamin e.

Work out 6-7 times/week (been doing this for years), 3-4 days weights, 3 days cardio (mainly long bike rides).

Issue: I'm getting ready to have shoulder surgery. Since I haven't come across any info stating otherwise, I'm assuming that I don't need to make major modifications to this WOE to accomodate post-surgery recovery. Is this a correct assumption?? (Believe me, I know I'll need to modify my excercise routine, and probably adjust my total calorie intake).

Thanks in advance.

I think there's some evidence that carbs help recovery - don't know where I've heard that , it'll be on this forum somewhere. Might be worth doing a search. If so, maybe up your carbs for a period afterwards and watch the calories to reduce the weight going on?
Hope you find what you need to know, Jay

I had surgery last December and didn't change a thing post surgery. Result? My surgeon was amazed at how quickly my incision healed, especially given that I'm diabetic and we're known for slow healing of incisions. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with low carb or not, but I also came out of the anesthesia WAY faster than they had predicted; only spent about 30 minutes in recovery and then another 30 minutes back on the floor before they told me I could get dressed and go home. I remember one nurse commenting when they brought me back to the floor, "Wow! You're sure wide awake!" while most people come back from recovery still very drowsy.
The body uses proteins and fats to build and repair cells, not carbs/glucose, so it makes sense to give your body plenty of what it needs to make the repairs post-surgery.
I think you would be wise to decrease your caloric intake while your activity level is diminished, but otherwise I wouldn't change anything about the ratios. :)

I have also had 2 major surgeries while LCing. You might want to up the carbs a bit but don't go wild or you'll end up as I did: gaining weight back. I was once almost to 200 before the first operation and have had a hard time getting anywhere back toward that number since.

I also healed very quickly and felt well. Zinc supplements are good to promote healing and I took milk thistle to help my liver deal with all the drugs and anaesthetic. (I stopped it about a week before surgery and restarted it afterwards again.)

Stop the vitamin E about a week before. It has a slight anti-coagulant effect and you don't want that during surgery. It's fine to start again afterwards.