Lighter&Faster

I am going to seminar on 12/03 in Denver hosted by Dr. Neil Wolkodoff (www.cochss.com) on aerobic exercise and weight loss. Limited to 25 people and it's a hands on learning situation at a very large fitness store with lot's of aerobic equipment. The store is closed and he is doing the seminar just for us! The link is: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/exercise-and-learn-cardiovsacular-exercise-for-bariatrics-patients-tickets-9152205493?aff=es2&rank=1&sid=db587e05571011e3bad512313d095975 I have had really good experiences with testing and exercise consultations with him, so I highly recommend you do this if you are in the area!

You need someone who really knows body composition for Bariatric surgery patients. If you live in Colorado, try Dr. Wolkodoff, www.cochss.com. He was at Rose Hospital, and left to go back to private practice. He is the best expert on this and how you use this information to set goal weight. It's not about BMI, it's about how much muscle you have and that should determine your workout plan, and more importantly where that muscle is comparing the arms, trunk and legs. He told me about the research that just showed how flawed BMI was at predicting your ending weight.

I just got an Omron on amazon that was $34 plus shipping. This was based upon the recommendation of Dr. Wolkodoff, (www.energyzone.org), after I did a VO2 profile recently. He said as long as it is basic, I could follow along with my zones on all the machines from the result of my VO2 Max test. I have not had the time to post about the VO2 max test, but was really insightful to determine how I should train aerobically. As a result, I am now doing two interval days and two aerobic days as my Anaerobic Threshold was low, and Dr. Wolkodoff said elevating this will allow me to burn more calories in my cardiozone. I did the test of a recumbent elliptical, as my hips won't fit on a regular bike yet. Apparently he did a study about Bariatric patients and VO2 and found the recumbent elliptical was a very good way to test these things as most of us don't fit well on a regular bike. If you are close to Denver, and want to improve your aerobic training and take the guesswork out of it, I highly suggest this test.

I am going to get this done to figure out where to exercise to burn the most kcal. In my research on this, there is a difference between a submaximal and maximal test. Submaximal are done at athletic clubs and some sports teams, and only take you to a certain point. What I learned is that if you want to find out for example, how much interval versus cardio training to do, you have to go to absolute maximum to see the relationships. it appears that is only done in medical facilities. Apparently the submaximum tests don't do a very good job of predicting your maximum of helping develop upper training zones. I did an InBody test at the DCHSS in Denver (www.denverchss.com), and the physiologist there does maximal tests on Bariatric patients and apparently has quite a bit of experience with this. I am going to do mine on a recumbent elliptical as my knees are a little irritated, and doing it seated might help. Wolkodoff, the physiologist said he tested that against the bike and treadmill and it made more sense for Bariatric patients that can't run well or fit on the bicycle seat! My first experience there was the InBody test (which is apparently as good as the DEXA scan), which was very good, so I am guessing this should be good as well. Also, my research revealed they use much better equipment in medical centers than athletic clubs, much more accurate with more data points. If you are going to do this, research it and make sure you work with someone that can take you to maximum, and has experience with Bariatric patients. You will need to do it at a medical facility like the DCHSS, but it appears to be a much better test than what you get at an athletic club from a personal trainer.

In general, that is all good information. However, there don't seem to be many people in exercise that know what they are doing when it comes to Bariatric patients. If you live around Denver, go see Dr. Wolkodoff. I did and his testing and advice resulted in doubling my weight loss per month. I am sorry, but most personal trainers don't have the scientific background and knowledge to help us. If you are exercising and not getting results, see someone who can figure out what the problem is, don't give up on exercise, way too many reasons to use exercise the rest of your life!

I had the test with the InBody 720 done over a month ago at the Denver Center for Health & Sport Science, www.denverchss.com. I know Dr. Wolkodoff works closely with Dr. Snyder, yet he tries to work with the other surgeons as well. In fact, I got a discount because my surgeon recommends to him, although after the experience I would have paid the full $95 to find out all the information. By the way, I called Sally Jobe to see what a body comp with DEXA scanning would be, and the price was $279!!! First off, this test got rid of all the bad information from BMI, as I found out that doesn't work accurately with people who have been heavy or athletes, as we have denser bones and muscles. Based upon 23% body fat, my ideal weight is 148-153 where the BMI had me at where I would have been in 6th grade! Another interesting thing is you learn how much muscle you have in each area. I found out my legs were about 10-12% deficit for my ideal weight, so I was not getting as much out of cardio training as I thought, so I added in two sessions of weight training. As a result of the ideas and recommendation, my weight loss over the last 30 days was double what I had achieved the previous 30 days, so I am very happy. I think the comment about the Tanita scale is not applicable to this machine. I think the Tanita is like $500 and this machine was over $18,000. You would expect it to do a lot more with more accuracy, and apparently it does. Dr. W also explained that all these composition measurements are really very good estimations and all have a certain amount of inaccuracy. So my thought was why lay in a DEXA tube for 15 minutes if I could get the same result by standing for 90 seconds? I know someone who was measured in both, and the difference was 1/10th of a percent between the two. So, my vote was this was well worth the time and expense, and definitely changed how I thought about my ideal weight and exercise. Part of this was the machine, and part of it was the expertise Dr. W has at explaining all this and making good suggestions about exercise They do some other cool things, and soon I am going in to get my feet and gait measured at DCHSS and will report back.