Excercise after DS

Hello,

     I am pre-op and hoping to get my surgery date on Tuesday.  I wanted to get feedback on exercize after the DS.  I like to workout... I spin,  do boot camps, weight training and walk and play tennis (yeah I bet you are wondering why I need weight loss surgery... ha!). I am wondering with the decreased food intake and malabsorption do you have to cut back on the amount of physical activity?  I know I will not be able to jump back into 5 AM boot camps after the surgery, and it is something I have to ease back into... But I am wondering if a 4-5 days a week workout routine is going to be too much a couple months post op.

The DS is major surgery.  Probably for 8 or 10 weeks the only thing you will be able to do is walk.  Ask your doc.  And you don't want to give yourself a hernia either.  Once you are completely healed and good to go, exercise gets a lot easier.  You will be amazed at the difference it makes when you aren't carrying around a bunch of extra weight.

Short term, yes, you will have to cut back.  Long term you will be able to do more, better, faster because you had the surgery.

Maybe. You would be in your most intense weight loss and malabsorption phase. You would have to really concentrate hard on staying hydrated and that's hard enough as it is immediately post-op. Definitely ease back into your new normal for exercise. It may take longer than you think it should but don't try to push too hard.

--gina

You'll have a ball once  your body is healed, but do give it plenty of time, and ease up on core toning, for fear of busting out a hernia.  I got mine 1.5 yrs post op lifting a soaking wet bag of topsoil.

While I was not as active as you, I am an exercise lover and started back to the gym at 2 months post-op.  (I'm 3 months post-op now.)  I take it easy on the core stuff - slowly building back that strength.  I spend most of my time on legs, butt and arms as those are the areas where the weight has just fallen off and I need to get toning!  I don't worry so much about aerobic exercise right now - mostly because I am having trouble getting my calories up into the 800 a day range and I don't need to be burning - I need to be building and toning.

Best of luck to you!!

2 weeks post D.S. I had trouble walking the supermarket, used the cart for support. Each day walked the big stores, by the end of the 4th week, I was walking fast without the shopping cart. I had lots of pain walking with hip and knee arthritis, had not  officially exercised for years. At the 3rd month out I began a gym personal trainer. She let me decide how much I could do. I improved quickly as the weight dropped off fast. I carried a water bottle everywhere, all day hydrating, sipping. On the drive to the gym I had a protein shake, and another on the way home. this protein close to exercising helped build muscles fast. I liked the weight machines, but couldn't lay my abdomen on anything for a few more months without pain. Crunches were difficult. I tore a few internal stitches in one lap port, the larger one they removed part of my stomach from. They placed a pressure dressing to stop the bleeding, which continued for a week. That scar was the deepest, not good looking at all.

Since you are entering this surgery with muscles, in good shape compared to me, you will have a quicker recovery. I just had body contouring plastics a month ago. They say I am healing fast , and able to be more physical earlier than most because I prepared for the surgery with a trainer to build muscle to help me get around. The most pain they expected me to have was with the abdominal muscles stitched tighter. With the D.S. the lap cuts go through the abdominal muscle. this is the most painful spot. the others didn't hurt at all. If you are having an open surgery, the recovery is way longer. I had 2 "C" sections, took me forever to recuperate, to a pain free point.

Everyone on the boards seems to have a different experience with recovery. Hopefully you wont have any complications setting your recovery back further than expected. Best wishes with your up coming surgery. !!  ;-)

I got the ok to go back to my routine @ 2 weeks out. Now for my rant:

I get the impression that bariatric surgeons think we lie about our presurgery physical activity, because they tell you yes, and then you go back and end up doing stuff that just about kills you and will pop open internal stitches and stuff like that. I did very light stuff at weeks 2-4 and from 4- right now, which is 6 weeks I'm doing close to normal. I think it is important to find the right balance by easing into it when you feel ready and see how it goes. Don't overdo, but also don't take surgery as a license to lay around on the couch for months.