When you can’t exercise?

I fell and badly hurt an ankle a few days ago, so I haven't been able to do my exercise :-( .  I'm worried I'll put on weight and my muscles will weaken while I'm waiting to get well enough to exercise again.  I know severely restricting my diet while I'm injured to try not to gain will just backfire instead.  What do I do?

I am sorry you are injured! I can only tell you what works for me, I do not exercise, I am a total slacker. Yes, I am more active than I used to be now that I have a child, but I do not work out and still I lost about 10 lbs in the last 50 days just eating low-fat, about 12-1300 cals a day.   

You can lift light weights in your chair watching tv--lots of reps. That will burn some calories, better than sitting still.

I'd just watch my fat and calories--not severely restrict them.   Hope you feel better soon.

It's mostly better now.  Once in a while I'll step weirdly somehow and make it hurt, though.  It's been around two weeks since I hurt it. . . didn't notice that until I looked up in my journal when I did it. . . so I'll try to work back up to normal exercise soon.  I wore my ankle brace and tried to start off slowly today, but I only got in around 50 mins before my ankle felt like it might give.  It's frustrating, but I have to remember to take it slowly, so I don't just end up hurt again.

that is the key to weight loss is counting your
calories . That is the method for body builders.I have
tried everything from the eighties telling us to watch
our fat grams [it made me fatter]to the now popular
carbs . When inactive eat less . I have gone from a
38 inch waist to a 30 inch .

Sorry to hear about your injury...

Do yo have access to a pool? It's awsome cardio and will put less strain on any injury you may have b/c it's virtually no impact.

Ee, apparently I went back to exercise a little too soon -_-; .  My first two post-injury workouts were fine, but the third time I guess I pushed myself too hard, and made my ankle sore :-( .  I didn't exercise today, to give it a break, so I guess I'll see how it feels in a day or two and try again.

It's been really hot here of late, so a pool sounds good. . . if only I'd ever learned to swim -_- . . . I wonder if there are any classes for adults?  I don't wanna be shown up by four-year-olds!

 I hear you Kuroneko on the swimming issue, now I don't feel so bad. The little ones have taken over the pool, and that's one trick they won't be able to teach this ole' dog. I just wave from the side lines.

What Nimar said was right on point, to add what Elissa said about the weights, nothing heavy, just light weights with a lot of reps. Weight lifting actually continues to burn calories long after your workout more so than cardio does. This should help you maintain or even lose weight while your ankle is still healing.

After years and years of running in the military without proper running shoes, I now have no padding on the bottom of my feet and suffer with feet issues. I went for an extended time before I could run again, and gained thirty pounds easily over night. But I did nothing else to combat the weight, I've lost it now, but it wasn't as easy to get off as it was to put on. If you can walk on it with no problems, go for walks and slowly progress into more strenuous exercises. Happy Healing!