Exercise After Bariatric Surgery

After weight loss surgery, you may not feel like exercising, but adopting healthy exercise habits is a key component for long-term success. In addition to helping you lose weight, exercise stimulates the production of the “feel good” hormones called endorphins. Exercise also helps keep your bone tissue dense and strong, increases strength and balance, boosts energy and improves quality of life.

Research has shown that patients who exercise three or more times per week, for a minimum of 30 minutes, lost an additional 12 percent of their excess weight in six months.

If you focus on exercise soon after surgery, you likely find it very rewarding. As the weight falls off, your capacity for exercise improves dramatically, with significant improvements on a week-by-week basis. Here are some tips to help you make a long-term commitment to exercise.

Mix Up Your Routine

There are three main types of exercise that impact your body in different ways.  A well-balanced exercise program should include some exercise from each category. Start slowly and work up to the recommended goals.

Cardiovascular exercise — also known as aerobic exercise, uses your large muscles and can be continued for long periods. A simple definition of cardiovascular exercise is any exercise that raises your heart rate to a level where you can still talk, but you start to sweat a little.  Aerobic exercises drive your body to use oxygen more efficiently and deliver maximum benefits to your heart, lungs and circulatory system.

At least 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise — walking, jogging, swimming, cycling — three or four days a week is a good place to start to maintain fitness. Any movement is good, even house or yard work. But if your goal is to lose weight, you will need to do some form of cardiovascular exercise for at least 30 minutes five or more days a week.

Strength-building exercises — a form of anaerobic exercise. Anaerobic exercise does not have cardiovascular (heart, lung, and blood circulation) benefits, but it makes your muscles and bones stronger. Strength-building exercises require short, intense effort. This type of exercise also increases your metabolism (how fast you burn calories) because muscles use calories for energy even when your body is at rest. By increasing the size of your muscles, you are burning more calories all of the time, not only when you are actively exercising.

In addition, if you strength-train regularly, you will find that your body looks leaner and you will lose fat. Strength-building exercises should be performed two to three times a week for best results. Always warm up your muscles for five to 10 minutes before you begin lifting any type of weight or before performing any resistance exercises.

Flexibility exercises — also anaerobic, tone your muscles through stretching and can prevent muscle and joint problems later in life. This includes a warm-up and cool-down period for your other exercises. Set a goal to do 10 to 20 minutes of flexibility exercises or stretching daily.

Exercise to Prevent Loss of Bone and Muscle Mass

When the body is in a state of stress and trying to combat starvation and malnutrition, it hoards fat. What this means for you is that after your surgery, your body will burn muscle mass before fat unless you make it clear that your muscles are needed through regular, daily exercise.

This concept is similar with calcium stores in the bones. Strong bones require calcium, phosphorous and other nutrients in addition to weight-bearing exercise. Obese people tend to have strong bones because carrying extra weight makes every movement a weight-bearing exercise. When major, rapid weight loss occurs and adequate mineral supplementation is lacking, the body may take needed nutrients out of the bones and this makes osteoporosis (weak, fragile bones) more likely.

To combat this, perform at least 30 minutes a day of aerobic exercise and weight-bearing exercise. Devote attention to the whole body, including working on upper-body strength.

Tips for Sticking to Your Exercise Program

View exercise like a prescription medication — You do not have to like exercise, but you need to do it to stay healthy. You also have to do it to lose weight. Treat your exercise routine like a prescription you must take daily, and you’ll have more success.

Do local research — Find out what types of classes your local gym is offering. Does your hospital offer water exercise classes for people with arthritis? Is there a gentle yoga class offered at the community center? Explore new types of exercise and find one that you enjoy.

Change your routine — If you used to love to walk, but now are bored with it, try a simple change in your walking routine. Sometimes, just changing the direction of your route can make all the difference. Find new places to go walking, change the time of day, or offer to walk your neighbor’s dog.

Find a buddy — Let’s face it, we all need someone to nudge us and make us go the extra mile, especially when it comes to exercise. Find a friend, a neighbor or personal trainer to meet you at the gym or in the park.

Find your rhythm — Listen to music or books on tape, or practice meditation while you exercise. With something to occupy your brain, a normally tedious routine exercise, like 15 minutes on a stationary bike, will not seem so long.

Participate in group sports — You don’t need to join a soccer team, but participating in a group activity increases the chance you’ll stick to it. Choose a water exercise, yoga or stretching class. Pick places and times where there are other people who are actively involved in exercise.

Know what makes you give up the program — If going on vacation throws you off your fitness plan, try incorporating exercise into your vacation. If boredom makes you give up, stay interested by changing types of exercise and times.

Make a schedule — If you don’t put exercise into your daily schedule, most likely you will do everything but exercise. Schedule specific activities on specific days, like walking 20 minutes on Monday and a yoga class on Tuesday.

Use a workout log — Write down the exercise you do and see how you have improved. Just like weight loss, sometimes you don’t see the scale drop, but the inches seem to melt away. It is difficult to keep up with exercise when you do not see the results. Write down the number of repetitions, the weight used, the length of walk, the time and other data and so you can see improvement.

Stay active between workouts — Walk as much as possible between workouts. Park farther away. Get off the bus a couple of stops early. Always keep a good pair of walking shoes in your car, so if you have unexpected time you can take a walk.