Posts
Anyone have advice for exercising to lose weight with an umbilical hernia? If I can get my weight down I may not need surgery for it.
Monday, October 7, 2013
Are there lifestyle changes that can help my cancer recovery?
Posted July 03, 2013, 2:00 am 
I’m a cancer survivor. Should I be following special guidelines for diet and exercise?
Advances in cancer treatment and earlier detection are allowing more people to live longer after a cancer diagnosis. Today, more than 12 million Americans are cancer survivors. And many of them look to diet and exercise to help prevent cancer recurrence, live longer or just feel better.
Recently, the American Cancer Society (ACS) reviewed and summarized the scientific evidence about the role of diet and exercise for cancer survivors. They found that the same things that prevent cancer from developing in the first place also help keep it from coming back. The ACS published its findings in a report called “Nutrition and Physical Activity Guidelines for Cancer Survivors.”
The ACS found that to reduce the chance of cancer returning and increase the chance of surviving, cancer-free, after a cancer diagnosis, survivors should:
Achieve and maintain a healthy weight;Get enough physical activity (at least 150 minutes per week);Eat a healthy diet that emphasizes vegetables, fruits and whole grains;The ACS also provided specific advice for survivors of a variety of major cancers. I’ve put a summary of the guidelines below.
The ACS also advised:
Cancer survivors should work with a registered dietitian who has special certification in cancer care. He or she can provide specific, evidence-based advice.Many cancer survivors have trouble taking in enough calories each day. Eating smaller and more frequent meals can help. Or try special fortified or nutrient-dense foods.Use dietary supplements cautiously. Taking more than the recommended daily amounts (RDA) of vitamins and minerals does not improve treatment outcomes or long-term survival. In fact, it can interfere with some cancer treatments. For example, taking a beta-carotene supplement may encourage the growth of lung cancer.Exercise can help fight fatigue, keep you functioning and improve your quality of life. Discuss when to start exercising, and how much, with your doctor.Obesity appears to increase the risk of breast (and possibly other) cancer recurrence. Losing weight and keeping it off can help improve survival.When some of my patients hear advice like the ACS has given, they are skeptical. To them, cancer is a powerful force, and it seems unlikely that a healthy lifestyle could do much to tame it. I tell them that the advice is supported by large and well-done scientific studies. There is little doubt from those studies, for example, that survivors of breast cancer who are overweight have a worse prognosis than those of normal weight. Or that those who exercise regularly have a better prognosis than those who don’t.
We even are beginning to understand why. A research study was published recently which showed regular exercise leads to hormonal changes that discourage the growth of breast cancer cells. It’s not anecdotal: It’s science.
window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({appId: "199616670120169", status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true});}; (function() { var e = document.createElement("script"); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js"; document.getElementById("fb-root").appendChild(e);}());exercise
What's a good exercise routine for building overall strength and stamina? Please help!! No motivation. :(
My opinion on why it is so hard to lose the last few lbs.
I went over to this calculator:
http://www.health-calc.com/diet/energy-expend iture-advanced
and plugged in my stats. With the exercise I do, I should maintain my weight of 69kg on about 2280 calories a day.
I wound it down to the weight I wouldn't mind being: 64kg. The maintenance number went to around 2180. Only 100 calories difference, right? Not much at all. with a deficit of 500, I should get there in 2 months.
Well, the thing is, the human body is very *very* good at adapting. 100 calories is nothing. If I'm low on energy, I fidget less, quite unconsciously. I don't get up and walk around as often, I group things to carry upstairs, rather than dash up and down, I sleep a little more. I make the DH make the breakfast and the tea. I slow down in ways that are very difficult to measure on a simple TDEE calculator with windy dials.
This makes me feel that, if you are already a healthy weight, hitting a specific weight target is uncertain and possibly pointless, quite apart from daily fluctuations. The very fact that you are restricting intake will reduce TDEE. You can't get there fast. -500 cals can be too high a deficit. All you can do is eat a healthy amount and move a healthy amount *consistently* and asymptotically settle around a certain point. Where will it be? Who knows? It depends on what you eat, what you do, and your eating history.
ps: I've read that for some people, the above calculator gives high TDEE values, but I think this actually illustrates the point.
Failing
I've been doing so well during the day and end up failing myself come night. I always get the munchers sitting around watching tv after the day is done. It's so frustrating to know that I had lost 30 pounds last year and have gained it all back so easily.. I feel like I have no support.
recovery success stories
I know this is not a healthy website to frequent when in anorexia recovery, so I try to be vigilant about avoiding triggering threads. That being said, I am determined to beat this horrible disease and live a REAL life.
One thing that has been helping me fight lately is by forcing myself to have positive thoughts. About myself, my future, the world in general... As I continue to seek health and freedom, I would appreciate any positive encouragement, particularly success stories. I feel like we hear SO much about people who relapse and relapse or fall in to different unhealthy behaviors. Can anyone out there give me some hope and positivity?
On another note, I feel like all I hear from long-time restrictors is how eventually they become bingers. Is this inevitable? It scares me to think that I will go from one horrible extreme to another horrible extreme. I'm hoping my recovery will take me to normalcy and balance. Is this possible? Thanks in advance for the support.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)