Diet and fitness before prostatectomy

Hi Bea,

Good luck to you both.  

My experience with pelvic floor exercises is they work very quickly but we're all different.  So I'd say it will be better to do it every day but after a couple of weeks or so I wouldn't get too hung up about it but do it at least every few days.

They say Prostate Cancer is worse with processed meat and red meat, ref Dr Scholz on YouTube.  Although there are other opinions.  My own preferences are that they say anti-oxidents keep the body calmer and tomatoes cooked in low fat oil such as olive or rapeseed are said to be pretty good.   Also to cut out saturated fat.  We seek out food with low saturated fat and have both lost a lot of weight.   A diet of oats and cooked tomatoes might not sound too good but I've always enjoyed muesli with nuts and dried fruit and there are a lot of tomato based foods, lentils or beans with tomatoes are common food with pasta or in soups and contain a wide range of nutrients.  Vitamin D is said to be good for the immune system and bones although there are opinions that complicate matters about taking large amounts or taking it with other things.   I watch Dr Geo on YouTube although to me he gets a bit carried away at times.  We're all different.

Exercise can reduce fat although eating the right amounts is better, many delude themselves about how much they eat.  If you have a lot of standard biscuits and cake it makes losing weight hard work.  It has to be a way of life. There is a video where Dr Geo interviews an Australian Professor about muscle helping with PCa with some research supporting it.  So having good muscles might help. 

YouTube has loads of videos on exercise.  If he's just starting he should be sure his doctor is happy with his heart condition.  I've recently had my wings clipped a bit by a diagnosis of osteoporosis although you can find ways round it so I still go to the gym but don't run as hard and avoid some exercises.

In conclusion read and watch videos, take advice and work something out.   A good physio or gym can give useful advice but the official doctor is really the only source of official information, good enough for an insurance company, in the UK.

Here is a video by Dr Geo, although I don't recall seeing it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y00Zid_1BI

Here is one of Dr Scholz's videos, although I don't recall seeing it.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UBHmXVYz-k

As a final point this forum is visible on Google and I've found my posts on diet get picked up by scammers who reply often adding dubious links.  So if anyone posts links check how long they've been on here and how many credible posts they've done.

All the best
Peter 

Edited by member 11 Oct 2025 at 23:21  | Reason: added links

Bea - my thoughts.

1. From my reading at the time I had surgery there was enough evidence of benefit from pelvic floor exercises that they are worth doing. They are not onerous, the physio attached to my urology service recommended a sequence that takes about 3 minutes, and suggested doing them several times every day.

2. From other reading, there didn't seem to be any convincing evidence that any particular diet was either risky or protective in relation to prostate cancer. But probably because there is a natural tendency to want to do something, and diet is under our control, there isn't a shortage of people claiming benefit from "their" diet without any clinical trial having been carried out. However there is evidence that people who are fit and healthy are most likely to recover well from surgery, so it is worth ensuring your husband eats a healthy balanced diet - for example minimising ultraprocessed foods and eating plenty of fruit and vegetables. However... the nature of the operation means that the colon is pretty tender afterwards and any gas in it can be quite painful over the first couple of days: it might be helpful to cut back on the fruit and veg (or anything wind-inducing) the last few days before the operation.

3. As above, the thing is to be reasonably fit and healthy for the operation. It isn't the moment to start with any new kind of exercise (there might be danger of injury) but to keep up the sorts of exercise he does anyway. Having good "core muscles" would be advantageous, but they tend to become involved in most types of exercise. After the operation exercise needs to be resumed fairly gradually (too gradually for most people's impatience) because prostatectomy is major surgery even if the external scars are rather small; probably start with very gentle walks and build up to longer/faster ones before restarting other forms of exercise.

The challenge of losing weight is something else entirely, and probably best thought about separately from the operation. A crash diet now would risk leaving the body weak just when it needs to be strong. The key is portion control in meals, a balanced diet including fruit and veg (which can make one feel full without having over eaten in terms of energy intake) and completely avoiding any sort of snacking between those meals. Plus regular exercise.

Sadly no one has found a magic formula for losing fat from the belly specifically.