Ability to Exercise

[choosehope 233]

I keep reading about people who are a month post-op and exercising five days a week for one to two hours each time. One person said they were walking 3.5 miles two days post-op. Were those who were exercising like this already exercising prior to surgery. Honestly, I can't imagine being able to do that with my weight and bad knees. (I will try swimming but still....That seems like a lot of exercise for people in really bad shape. How'd you do it?

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

As you guessed, most were able to exercise like that before surgery.

Please don't compare yourself with others. We each have our own journey and our own capacity.

[SkinnyDown 409]

I wasn't exercising before surgery, and have difficulty now, because I have two bad knees, and a numb leg (from a previous surgery). I have a treadmill that I use on days that my knee is not too bad, and I use a stability ball and resistance bands. I don't think I'll be able to do multiple miles until my knee surgeries, which might hinder the fastness of my weightloss, but I can only do what I can do. People always suggest swimming, but I don't know how to swim. lol

So you are not alone if you can't do much, I think it will get easier the more weight I lose. I really try not to compare myself to others here. There are way too many variables.

[swimbikerun 1,045]

No, I couldn't exercise like that before surgery. I dropped about 25-27% of the excess weight in one month. The reason why I was able to do a 10K 3 weeks and a day after surgery is because I had about 100 pds excess weight at surgery. I was also doing some things like walking, swimming, light weights before surgery. I could not exercise at the rate I did 1 month after that I did before.

Big difference.

Add to that I didn't have diabetes, mild hypertension only. Thyroid was being treated for several months before surgery. No sleep apnea. So many of the comorbidities others had I didn't have.

Big difference there too.

[Healthy_life2 8,324]

@@choosehope

With limited ability with exercise my hospital gave resistance bands. You can find them here.

http://www.target.com/p/c9-round-resistance-bands/-/A-14549454#prodSlot=_1_9

It will start the process. Moving and toning. Once some wight comes off you will feel better and might try to slowly move into some exercise you are comfortable to progress into

[Djmohr 6,965]

It took several months before I got up to 2 miles a day walking. Before hand I was lucky to walk around the block. My knees were terrible, ankles as well but a ton of pain in my neck , back and shoulders. I have psoriatic arthritis as well as osteoarthritis in my spine.

As the weight came off I knew I just had to try to do a little more each day and that is how I started. As you move your joints it does get easier and pretty soon I noticed that ankles and knees did not hurt as badly. I purchased a treadmill and recumbent elliptical and started using them every other day. I started at 15 minutes each in fat burn mode and then was able to finally increase it to 30 minutes each over the next month.

Then I had spine surgery and now I am back to walking as much as possible.

I used a lot of ice packs right after walking on my neck and back but learned that this exercise makes me feel fantastic afterwards.

Just take it one day at a time and do the best you can. I never set expectations of walking 5 miles in a day because my physical skeleton just don't tolerate it. I set my goal to simply do the best I can and challenge myself to be more active.

By the way, before surgery I was doing no on purpose exercise. I had told myself it simply was not possible. I actually think I could have been doing more than I was.

Good luck!

[AvaFern 3,516]

I was always active, I had just become fat and active before surgery. Therefore it wasn't hard to get right back into working out for a few hours a night within about 5 weeks of surgery. I started running again at about week 3 and then I went back to running and doing boxing classes by week 5. The same was true after plastics. Because I was very much in shape I had no problem walking a few miles at a time within a week or two of surgery.

Now I'm done with the sleeve and done with plastics and I am sitting at my desk debating if I really want to get my butt up and go to the gym this morning. When you're at goal weight it's easy to be a little lazy, however when you're newly sleeved, take as much advantage of that honeymoon time as possible. Eventually the weight stops falling off no matter how hard you work.

Also...maybe consider aqua aerobics! Very low impact and still a good workout.

[ShrinkingPeach 1,291]

Everyone's journey is different for sure. People are at different weights and carry their weight differently. Some have been exercising before surgery and some not at all. Some have bad knees, hips and backs and some not. The point is to get up and get moving. That may be more than you ever did before.

I know for me I avoided exercise and I know that it MUST be a part of this plan I am following. I started slow and actually did 5 minutes on our treadmill at 2 miles an hour before my legs gave out. Now I walk 1.5 miles a day and am building to more. The more I lose the more I am able to do. I do weights 2 days a week. The more I do there also the more reps I can do.

Get up and walk to the end of your driveway and repeat til you are tired. The next day go a few feet more. Before you know it you will be walking miles. Don't compare yourself to others, this is your journey! Good luck!

[Inner Surfer Girl 12,015]

@, may I suggest you take swimming lessons? Also, you may want to consider finding a Water aerobics class. You don't really need to know how to swim to take water aerobics but you do need to be comfortable in the water. Water exercise is great for those of us with bad knees.

[swimbikerun 1,045]

Just an FYI on swimming, if you do it right, you'll take the weight off. You might go lower than you expected.

[alilove2631 25]

I love love love aqua aerobics! If you don't do anything else, do that. It is amazing to feel that good in you're moving body not only after years of being heavy but also the weirdness of surgery.

[BLERDgirl 6,417]

I was taking aquafit classes 4 days a week and walking at least 30 minutes a day pre surgery. I am 51 with 2 arthritic knees and I started at a pretty high BMI. The aquafit classes were the only thing keeping me mobile. I also think they may have helped with how easy my surgery was. I resumed aquafit on week 3 post-op. Once the weight started coming off it was easy to increase to 5 - 6 days week.

That said, everyone is different. If you have bad knees I strongly encourage Water exercise of some sort. The buoyancy of the Water helps tremendously. However you go at your own pace. Just make it your goal to some sort of activity at least 30 minutes a day.

[sleeve4086222015 27]

I keep reading about people who are a month post-op and exercising five days a week for one to two hours each time. One person said they were walking 3.5 miles two days post-op. Were those who were exercising like this already exercising prior to surgery. Honestly, I can't imagine being able to do that with my weight and bad knees. (I will try swimming but still....That seems like a lot of exercise for people in really bad shape. How'd you do it?

Stop! We are all different. We all have one thing in common: food and our relationship. I always love to exercise. So walking 2-3 miles right after surgery was a no brainier. I am exactly 4 weeks out and I took a Water aerobics class that had me huffing and puffing before was actually surprisingly easy. So I'm gonna have to bump it up. Don't judge yourself by others' progresses. As one friend says on Fitbit, "Go get it". Get it for you! This is your journey. Increase what you can do at your pace. Don't get discouraged.

[julias1119 27]

Just keep going. That's the most important thing. I agree with everyone else - don't compare yourself with others. Just figure out what you can do now. A mile, half mile, 10ft, whatever! And try to go just a little bit further every day.

[alilove2631 25]

I would add, I was very active for my size right up to surgery but it took like 5 weeks after for me to have any interest in more than kinda trying to get my Fitbit steps up--I did 10k only sporadically. Then all at once all I wanted to do was move. (Probably being 40 pounds lighter!) I love it Now but was not sweating it (hehe-literally!) in the early days when I wasn't feeling it.

One thing I've heard: you can't really exercise weight off, but exercise is the biggest indicator of maintaining weight loss. So think long term of building in an active lifestyle. But you probably aren't going to do anything more than your newfangled stomach and starvation diet are doing for you right now!