How to lose weight with core injuries?

Reduce your calories. The charts telling you how much to eat are pretty much useless for a lot of people, and the surest way to lose pounds is generally expending more calories than you take in. You can either work it off (exercise) or not bring it in. Since you're injured, lowering calories would be the way to go, temporarily.

Try making every meal protein and vegetable dense (mostly vegetables with a decent side of protein like whey powder, tuna, eggs, chicken) and cut out as much sugar and carbs (no bread or pasta or cereal, even no sugary fruits) as you can stand. I'm fairly sedentary so I notice the difference my diet makes really quickly. The diet book "The Last 15" by Joey Shulman helped me sort out what to eat to lose/maintain my weight healthily.

I am not a doctor, or physical therapist, or have in any way done a scholarly study on nutrition and exercise. And you should always listen to your doctor over internet strangers. But let's take a simple look at your own statements: 1. I'm gaining weight like crazy... 2. I do not even eat the recommended caloric intake for my age/weight/height/gender, but I've been steadily gaining weight. 3. I'm very nearly at the obese mark now... 4. Weight gain is freaking me out... 5. I am already eating below the recommended calorie counts, but I'm gaining weight. Contrast with: I wasn't sure if that was safe for someone my size [...] or if it would result in my body attacking muscle. If you're still gaining weight then you're still eating too many calories. Those first five statements I've highlighted tell us you are no where near the caloric intake where you need to worry about losing muscle mass. If you were actually starving to the point you were cannibalizing muscle, you'd at least be losing weight. Not good weight loss, mind you, but you would be asking an entirely different question. You don't need complex calorie calculations, analysis, or charts to figure this out. Take an honest look at your eating habits, identify week points, and cut them out. Look hard for leaner alternatives and even healthier options (they're out there). Keep doing this till you stop gaining weight. Keep doing this till you start losing weight. When you'd at -1 to -3lbs per week (averaged) you know you're at the right caloric intake for your goals.

I'm another person who is finding that low-carb is the best way to lose weight. I've pretty ruthlessly pared out "white" carbs and desserts for the past couple of weeks, and, voila, the pounds are finally budging! And I find that eating some chicken and a salad (WITH dressing!) is plenty filling. And this is without drastically upping my physical activity. If you want to lose weight, try low-carb. I have insulin resistance, which makes it hard for me to lose weight if I have too many carbs. Low-carb is like the magic bullet (doctor and I agreed that we want to try this before putting me on Metformin). I wanted to mention the insulin resistance because if you are gaining a lot of weight in a short time, it's possible this is the culprit. Have your doctor run a blood panel, and check your thyroid levels too. If you're female, it's SO SO SO common to have hypothyroidism (another thing I have, and I take Synthroid for it).

I'm in a similar bind. Advice I got was just to watch calories and try to do 30 minutes a day of gentle cardio. My PT's given me guidance on appropriate activities and tips on biomechanics -- takes about 5-10 minutes out of any given session. That said, the exercise is not really geared to serious calorie burning -- it's more to just keep things functional. As with non-injured people, most of any weight loss action happens via dietary reduction in calories. But remember that a lot of the calorie burn assumed in the charts takes place via http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12468415 (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). If your pain keeps you sitting a lot of the time, it might be you need fewer calories than the charts indicate. Conversely, better pain management might help you move more often and let you keep your intake where it is. I hope your blood test offers insights. (Mine did. Among other things, it uncovered a severe vitamin D deficiency, which I was told could contribute to musculoskeletal pain.) Lack of sleep and too much stress will affect weight gain/loss, too.

If you're exercising to lose weight, you gotta do a lot of exercise. Like a lot. Crunch the numbers on a calorie counter to see. Frankly your injuries sound so bad, I'm not sure your body could take the amount of exercise needed. Nthing swimming (a great calorie burner and very gentle), but you're gonna need like for times forty minutes a week, minimum, to really make a ding. I don't want to sound like a downer, but it might be better focus on getting yourself into shape so you can safely ramp up, i.e. more rehab stuff, before looking into burning calories up in a serious way. Best of luck.

Most people seriously underestimate how many calories they eat, which is why weighing all your food is a much better approach when counting calories then estimating or relying on volume measurements.

I do not even eat the recommended caloric intake for my age/weight/height/gender, but I've been steadily gaining weight. Not eating *enough* calories is counterproductive as it will slow down your metabolism. So make sure you're eating at least 75% of your recommended maintenance-level calories. And don't skip breakfast. The exercises you're doing at your physio appointments may be causing you to gain weight because you're gaining muscle. I recommend ditching your scale for a tape measure as inches lost is a better metric than pounds lost if you're trying to get in shape. Try keeping track of your waistline instead of your weight for a while. My doctor is sending me for bloodwork to rule out any issues there. Then these questions are premature, as it's entirely possible that all your problems will be solved with a $4/month thyroid pill. So get all that bloodwork done (make sure they check thyroid, iron, vitamin D, and vitamin B12) and see what it says before deciding what to do.

http://ask.metafilter.com/262841/How-to-lose-weight-with-core-injuries#3817374: "I could probably find a local pool, but I find the schedules hard to match up to having my kids with me. Is doing it once a week any good?" I had to do warm-water therapy pool when I was pregnant, and the reason my doctor prescribed it was that I was in terrible, terrible back and hip pain. The warm water pool a) relaxed the muscles and b) lifted the weight off my hips and spine so that the muscles/tendons/joints/etc. got a bit of a break and weren't knotted up ALL the time. Generally spending 45 minutes or an hour in the warm water pool left me noticeably looser and more mobile for the next three days. (They had me do gentle range-of-motion exercises to keep my hips and back moving, but at least 75% of the benefit was floating in warm water for longish periods.) So it's possible that finding a warm-water pool and spending an hour in it even once a week would give you a real benefit for the next several days so that you could do NON-pool exercise more. Your PT will know if there's one in your area, and can give you a "prescription" if you need one to visit. (Mine was free (alone) or covered by insurance (working with a PT) for people with Rxes, $1/visit for those without, run by Easter Seals.)