Energy to exercise?

[j16 166]

I notice many posts where people talk about starting to exercise on day one. Will I really have enough energy to exercise after major surgery and getting so few calories during the first eight weeks?

[Pinkgirl1234 761]

I don't have energy and I am post op .I will start full on exercise when I start solids.With the liquids I don't have an abundance of energy.

[NovaL 41]

I hope they meant walking with "day 1 exercise" because the pain is too restrictive. Stick to walking and the more the pain starts to ease you will resume daily activities. Full exercise is only to be resumed once you are healed and there are different recommendations on when exactly that is.

[jj7481 363]

Many people say exercise and what they are referring to is getting up and walking. Even your surgeon recommends getting up to walk as soon as you can. However, anything more than that and you risk popping staples/sutures, etc.

[James Marusek 5,244]

Walking is a good form of exercise almost a vital form of exercise after surgery. I walked for 30 minutes per day for the 6 months prior to surgery. In the 2 days I was in the hospital, I walked 100 lapse around the hospital floor. When I returned home I walked 30 minutes each day for the first year after surgery.

After surgery your body is converting your stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight. Don't worry, you will not die of starvation. You already have the energy that you need stored within your body. You just need to release it.

I walked every 2 hours after the operation, round the clock, when I was in the hospital. This accomplished a few things. First, it prevents blood clots from forming. Second, it helps to relieve the gas pain that you will experience after surgery. Third, walking promotes wound healing. After surgery while in the hospital, I took no pain medicine. My pain levels were at the most a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10. This was because of walking. If you want to get back on your feet, first you must get back on your feet and walk.

[mngreeneyes 674]

I also started walking as soon as they would let me out of bed. I walked whenever I woke up from a nap, even if I woke up in the middle of the night, while I was in the hospital. I believe that was once every 2-3 hours. I found that I had energy to burn when I first woke up so I put it to use. When I left the hospital I went to stay with my parents for a while and I walked a mile 3 -4 times a day. (Dad, who had double knee replacement in late August, walked with me so it took us about 25 minutes to do a mile. I healed really well and walked a 5k race at 3.5 weeks after surgery! I set no land speed records, but it wasn't much slower than my normal walking time for a 5k. I credit a lot of the pace of my healing to the walking. I also was a walker before surgery so that probably helped too.

You can do it!

pam

[j16 166]

Thanks to all who responded. I guess I better start walking more pre-op! I was wondering about this because I just had my gall bladder out with a follow up surgery the same day and it took me three weeks to feel myself again.

[Angela Sperry-Wenke 2]

Honestly I did not have full energy until probably day four to really get up and walk around. On that particular day I went with my friends to get some supplies for my diet over the next weeks and we walked around Walmart. It felt great but I still got tired quickly. The good news is you will bounce back pretty quickly good luck!

[Dub 9,922]

I was slow getting to exercise.

Had a hernia repaired during my sleeve surgery. The sleeve was a non-event......could have easily been walking a mile or two a day the first week. The hernia held me back, though. Standing up or sitting down or twisting.....ouch.

I was also healing a herniated disc during sleeve recovery.

Somewhere around the 9-10 week mark I started hitting the gym's treadmills and things have really been improving since.

The low calorie and low carb intake hasn't limited me. In fact, I can go and go.....it's just knee or back pain that stops me after an hour on the treadmill these days (3.5 months out now).