PWMDMD

I was given the clear to start lifting within reason at 4 weeks (no heavy core stuff) and by 6 weeks was back at it including light deadlifts and squats. My surgeon said if I lift it and something hurts on my abdomen then put it down. This seemed reasonable. FWIW at 4 weeks out I never had any issues lifting for beach muscles and when I started dead/squats at 6 weeks no pain or issues. All this said I would simply ask your surgeon and follow what he/she says.

You should be proud of those lifts! Most people in this world can't DL and squat anywhere close to that weight. Yeah...my calorie intake is an experiment. The only thing I'm really tracking is waste size. The idea being regardless of weight changes as long as my waste size doesn't increase and I'm lifting more this week than last week the weight changes should be mostly lean mass. So far I'm on week three of 3000 calories and weight has not changed and waste size is the same. This week I should hit new PRs so I'm just trying to feed the furnace - within reason. My main reason for increasing calories though was I'm trying to put on more muscle and build more strength. I'm also trying to see if it's possible to come back from all the adaptive metabolic changes associated with weight loss. Like many I lost 70lbs on my own in 2012 - pretty easily as up until that point I was eating a huge calorie excess and just going to a normal calorie intake was enough. I lost my 70lbs and slowly, while still exercising and tracking my calorie intake all the weight came back plus some extra. There's decent literature on adaptive thermogenesis as one possible cause for the dreaded weight loss relapse. After that point it was much harder to lose weight again and even going 500-1000 calories under what I did the first time wasn't enough to lose weight again. The question for me is with very intensive training to build lean mass can I change my body composition and can I somewhat restore normal metabolic levels? The first weight loss I went to 3000 calories to lose the 70lbs and still found myself hungry all the time but it was doable. Subsequent weight loss attempts 3000 calories did nothing for weight loss and going to 2500 or 2000 calories meant I was starving all the time. A year out from surgery I naturally want to eat about 2200-2500 calories per day and getting 3000 calories in per day often feels like a chore - very different than prior to surgery. If I for whatever reason stop heavy lifting I will happily go down to 2200-2500 calories per day as I believe this to be my average daily expenditure without lifting. So far so good!

I know you were kidding with the cardio comment but no, lack of cardio is not what got you to where you are now. A caloric excess is responsible for that and the surgery will help with that aspect. I still wholeheartedly believe lifting heavy is the best thing post-op. It doesn’t have to be the only thing and cardio is better than doing nothing but in my mind lift heavy, gain muscle, keep the metabolism going and change body composition. I didn’t want to go from strong muscular fat to skinny weak fat. You’ll lose lean mass size but there’s a few of us on here that are proof you can come back after that initially weight loss. I’m in the best shape of my life at 40y and just slightly under being the strongest I’ve been in my life too. Good luck!

I use a pre and post-work out supplement, good old gummy bears just after lifting and protein powders. My goal for protein is 235g/d. Pulled 330lbs for 9 reps yesterday and then banged out 195lbs for 50 reps on deadlift. Decently sore this morning and will take today off, tomorrow is bench and won't squat until Thursday or Friday...I find I have to separate deadlifts from squats by as many days as possible now whereas before surgery I could squat the day after deadlifts and be reasonably comfortable and certainly could squat two days later with no problems. Now I try to get at least 3-4 days between the two.

I use the Jym supplements Post-workout matrix which has BCAAs/Creatine and the Jym L-Acetyl-Carnitine supplement as well. Minimal sugar and the post-workout matrix comes in many flavors and some are really good!

You will lose strength and muscle mass. It's is inevitable being in a massive caloric deficit and you can not separate fat and muscle catabolism...you just can't. The best you can do is try and minimize lean mass loss by getting back into the gym as soon as you're cleared to do so and once weight stabilizes - by definition you will at this point be at your maintenance caloric intake for whatever weight you're at - increase caloric intake and rebuild lost strength/muscle. I spent 6 long years in the gym prior to surgery with 1RM in the +300-450lbs range for the various main compound lifts and after weight loss stabilized I started with just the 45lb bar. I'm less than a year out, down 90lbs and my current 1RM's are almost back to where they were prior to surgery - I'm just a WHOLE LOT healthier. My biggest issue now is over-training - without the large caloric intake from prior to surgery my recovery is definitely not what it used to be but I've greatly reduced the chance I'm going to die at 44 and 48 like my sister and father so I'll take it! Actually, it wasn't a bad thing. I started with Strong Lifts 5x5 and used the early weeks and months to really dial in my form...I'm a better lifter now than I was prior to surgery and my strength is much more balanced - my DL before was way ahead of my squat and my overhead press really lagged my bench - now they are proportionally right where they should be. I doubt I would've been able to achieve this without essentially starting over. On the bright side...lots of people go into surgery without any real lifting background. You're already stronger than most and I believe that strength was the key to me doing so well post-op - when others just want to walk unassisted again and you want to just get back to picking up 300+ pounds you can see you're already at an advantage! Good luck!

I've found the popular strength programs to be very helpful - many have apps and you just plug in the numbers and do what the app says. It will systematically increase weight over time until you plateau - they even know how to deload when you hit plateaus. On Monday for deadlifts I'll pull 330lbs for 8+ reps which puts my 1RM around 400lbs. I started at 180lbs after surgery and followed Strong Lifts 5x5, 3x5, 3x3, then Madcow 5x5 and now Wendler 531. My goal was a base level of strength with 1RMs of bench 315lbs, Squat 350lbs, overhead press 200lbs and deadlift 400lbs. Now I'm moving to adding more size. Most of this I did with a caloric intake of 2500-3000 calories and 180-230g of protein per day. I've found with this intake getting the lifts done is not the issue but recovery the next day is the issue. I'm still working through this stuff myself. I'm sure non-bariatric surgery lifters doing my programs and weights are probably up around 4000+ calories.... Keep up the great work!

Just an update. In April I moved from Strong Lifts to Madcow and now I'm doing the Wendler 531 with the four day split and the optional Big But Boring sets. Basically divides lifts into four separate days of overhead press, deadlift, bench and squat. I like this program because you only do each compound lift once per week compared to Strong Lifts and Madcow where you are squatting every workout. The core lifts are not too bad but the Big But Boring (BBB) lifts for squat and deadlift SUCK! You basically go to failure on the last set of the core lift for that day and then deload to a lighter weight but do 5 sets of 10 reps. So for Monday I'll deadlift 330lbs as many times as possible until failure, give myself about 3 mins of rest and then reload to 195lbs and do a 5x10. It's brutal and I just finished the first cycle and I'm on day 6 for a "rest week" before starting the second cycle. This rest week coincides with vacation and I was starting to feel really run down with some minor but nagging aches and pain (tennis elbow in left elbow and left knee stiffness). Six days in those aches and pains are all gone but man I still feel fatigued and tired. I figured by now I'd be dying to get back to the gym but to be honest I have no desire to go at this point - I'm very surprised by this. I'm also consuming about 3000 cals per day now and I've changed my macros to 230g of protein and 250g of CHOs. Still eating well - mostly Whole Foods and complex carbs. Since April I've put on about 10lbs but my waste size is the same - waste size is basically the only measurement I take on a regular basis. I've definitely put on significant size in the past 3-months and I'm stronger but I still feel like I'm tippy toeing on the overtraining line and based on this rest week I think I've clearly fallen into overtraining. I really thought by day 6 of this rest week I'd be dying to get back it. The weird thing for me is I have ZERO issues at the gym - I feel strong and motivated when I'm there and bang out these workouts no problem. This is followed by the post-workout euphoria feeling for the rest of the day and it's not until the next day that I feel profound fatigue (some muscle soreness but minor) - drained - empty in my core. Any guidance is appreciated! I know, I know...reduce volume, reduce intensity or reduce both....

Besides some hiking every now and then it's all I do with great results! From the start I wanted to lift and keep lean mass while I lost weight. I started with StrongLifts 5x5 and now I'm doing Stronglifts 3x3. After surgery and a 90lbs weight loss I lost a lot strength. The Stronglifts 5x5 has you start with just the 45lbs barbell but you add weight every workout. I've gained about 10lbs during that time but my waist size is the same (Waist size is all I really measure now). Obviously, I feel much stronger! I think heavy resistance training is a great option for bariatric patients!

I'm being kind of obtuse here because you are absolutely correct for 99.9% of the people on here and as nothing more than a point of interest there is a group of people known as the "metabolically normal obese" who are resistant to all the obesity-related comorbidies in spite of their increased adiposity. That said....to everyone reading this....don't count on being this person! Lol.... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25555214

I have not had any regret but that may be a function of my attitude going into surgery. My father died at 47 and my sister at 44 - both from heart attacks and both lived very unhealthy lives. I turned 40 this year - I'd really just like to see 50 and I know the likelihood of that happening without the surgery was very small. Preop, peri-op and post-op I keep reminding myself while this surgery was a big deal and my life is forever changed by it my life depends on it.

Pediatric dentist here....I took 2-weeks off completely even week #3 back at work was really sort of half-speed with no operative. My biggest issue wasn’t physical - it was mental. It took me two weeks to really adapt to 800 calories per day and feel like I had good judgement. After two weeks the fog lifted. I had a particularly uneventful post-op...ZERO pain or nausea even the day after surgery - many aren’t as lucky and this was part of why I was able to get back quickly. I also have a partner and an associate so everything didn’t fall on me once I was back and I could slowly ramp up seeing more patients. 

My wife and I both had gastric sleeve last year (Sept 2018 and Nov 2018) - my surgery was ~3 months before hers - it's been unbelievably successful for both of us as far as weight loss. That said, our post-op course has been very different. I went into surgery having been an avid (albeit morbidly obese) weight lifter for 5+ years while my wife dabbled on and off but was not consistent with exercise. Post-op I got back into lifting as soon as I could while my wife was diagnosed with a non-invasive ductile cell carcinoma of the breast which turned into lumpectomy/breast reduction - she's totally fine but it has resulted in her being in recovery for a significantly greater part of the past 6 months. She is just now finally cleared for lifting. She looks great but even she is itching to get to the gym because she can't ignore the difference between the two of us. I look and feel better at 40 than I did when she met me at 19. My energy levels are high, my physical abilities are high (we "hiked" a mountain this week and I basically ran up the mountain) and she couldn't keep up. She looks great but she has clearly lost significant lean mass, strength and endurance. She's interested in weight lifting because she's watching my transformation and while it hasn't been her thing in the past she clearly sees the change with me. Time will tell if she sticks with it but I've come to believe strength training, in some form, should be a central focus for those of us who can tolerate it. Not saying everyone will be squatting body weight, but some form of resistance exercise is important IMO.

Great job!

This is a great idea because as you know to a large extent the data do not exist. At least, not for younger and/or more able-bodied people.