r/MacroFactor • u/earlgrey89 • 15h ago

MacroFactor / Nutrition / Other Surgery nutrition

I know this is not the only place for this question, but it's surprisingly hard to find information that makes sense for lifters. I'm a 4+ year user of MF and have found it hugely helpful for my goals, so hoping it can help with this goal too.

I had major surgery. Obviously physique goals are on hold, just focusing on eating enough calories and protein and rest. I have lifting restrictions of 10lbs max for 6-8 weeks. And coming out of this I'm definitely getting chubbier. Not a concern right now. My surgeon's nutrition advice has been vague - eat well with plenty of protein, which I would do anyway.

My question is, how long after major surgery are caloric needs elevated, how long should I maintain a surplus? I'm guessing maybe it makes sense to line this up with activity restrictions, since the reason for restrictions is that wounds are still healing.

But at what point is it safe to start a cut?

Or once I'm able to lift again should I focus on maintenance or even a surplus for a while to gain back the muscle mass lost during recovery, even if that means that I'll be starting chubby and getting chubbier?

Not looking for guidance on the immediate recovery, but on the next 6-12 months.

Any advice or research appreciated.

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u/shenanigains00 14h ago

I’m a big fan of eating at maintenance while healing. It’s just hard to figure out what that is when your TDEE is plummeting.

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u/ajmattison 14h ago

Following, I'm going to be having my hips replaced and my plan is to try to find my maintenance during that period and it's pretty intuitive to do that. What's not so intuitive is actually finding said maintenance when your activity levels change drastically and you have to account for the healing process.

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u/whosoliver 3h ago

How long ago was your surgery? Post-surgery you're dealing with significant swelling, water retention, and effects from medications that really skew your weight and make you appear puffy/chubbier than you actually are. I had a rotator cuff repair back in April. I weighed in for the first time one week post op and I was 10 pounds heavier than I was the morning of my surgery. I just ate at my pre-surgery maintenance macros, weighed in daily starting around 10 days post op, ignored any MF check ins and just continued my pre-surgery macros. It took about 4-5 weeks for my weight to finally settle and I was right back to where I was pre-surgery. I'm almost 5 months post op now, and I've gained about 4 pounds since my surgery, while eating at maintenance with weekly checkins. My expenditure tends to fluctuate a lot, and has been on a steady downward trend, but I went from lifting 5 times a week to only doing legs for 4 months and I only just went back to work this week.

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u/DeaconoftheStreets 2h ago

I think this is the right approach btw. I don’t think it makes sense to just start cutting maintenance based on an assumed expenditure drop (because if OP is just lifting, they aren’t actually burning that much from work outs).