Life-Cise - Fitness for Survivors

Maintaining a Healthy Weight:

It can be really difficult to maintain your weight after treatment. A lot of people become less active during treatment, thereby burning fewer calories, and unfortunately many stay inactive after treatment is finished. Many of the drugs that save our lives can also cause weight gain, and it’s not just water weight. Lots of us also turn to food for comfort. We’ve been through some pretty awful things and we need comfort! For me, it’s a big bowl of pasta or popcorn smothered in butter.

Whether it’s from lack of activity, too much comfort food, or drug side-effects, if we’re burning fewer calories than we take in, we gain weight. And excess weight is not healthy for us. According to the American Cancer Society, being overweight increases the risk of several cancers, including colon, endometrial, esophagus, kidney, and breast; and may be linked to ovarian, pancreatic, cervical, and prostate. It also increases the risk for heart disease and diabetes. In addition, being overweight may contribute to the development of lymphedema.
So get moving! You need a balance of calories in and calories burned. It’s important to watch what you eat, but exercise is just as important. The American Cancer Society and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend 30 minutes of exercise, 5 days or more per week. Choose activities you enjoy; you’ll be more likely to stick with it.

Julie Tip

Keeping my weight down has been a real struggle for me since cancer entered my life. And this has been a shock to me since all of my life I had been one of those annoying people who could eat anything and not gain weight. I was always active and very lean. If I did gain a few pounds, I simply ate fewer cookies or swam a couple extra laps and the weight melted away. Not so any more! Through exercise and indulging less often in buttered popcorn and chocolate cake, I’ve managed to keep the gain fairly minimal. But it’s been a big adjustment for me.

It’s really easy to say “Oh, I’m on this drug that makes me fat so I can’t help it.” But these are our bodies and we are the ones who suffer the consequences of excess weight: greater risk of heart disease, diabetes, lymphedema, and some cancers (like we haven’t had enough). So ultimately, we are responsible for ourselves. If you gained weight from chemo or you’re on a drug that causes weight gain, eat less and move more. It’s a simple equation: if you burn more calories than you take in, you will lose weight. There’s no magic food or quick fix. Eat a healthy diet, eat less, and move more. For more information visit my blog.

Note: It is important to talk to your doctor before beginning any exercise program.