Hi Everyone

Hello to all of you wonderful exercise folks,

I am new to OH and my first posting on Exercise and Fitness.  I am pre-op, I just got approved the day before Thanksgiving for my gastric bypass, it looks like my surgery will be end of Jan or first week of Feb.  I have been exercising like crazy for about the last 4 months.  When I started I was not even able to workout 10 minutes without feeling like I was going to die!  My weight when I started was 303 and after 3 months was up to 313.... I wanted to cry!  I was told over and over by my doctor and trainer that it was muscle but still it freaks you out right!  I am back down to 303 and that works for me.  At the current time I am working out at least 5 days a week, I do about 45 min of upper body toning everyother day opps day I do about 45 min of lower body.  I also do about 45 min of cardio.  I was super excited on Wed when I hit 10 miles on the bike in 31 mins, that was taking me 45 minutes to do just the week before. 
I think that one of my biggest concerns is the excess skin that will result from the rapid weight loss, how has the exercise helped with that for you guys?  Any tips to help reduce the amount of skin?  I have been told that because of my age, I'm 32 that I should not have to much excess skin from people in my support group, but I can't imagine that to be true by some of the pics I have been seeing lately.  Also have any of you tried anything like a bodysuit type of things?  Any help would be great. 
I really like the support that is on this forum.  I have a very good friend that had the surgery in March and she does not exercise at all.... she says its hard for to exercise because she is not doing anything and the weight just comes off...  So even though she has had the surgery she just can not understand why I am working out as much as I do.... as you can see no support from her on this subject!  Thanks for the help and advise in advance!!

you're off to a great start. exercise is optional, so to speak, like you friend says. with WLS....at least at first. i mean many people reach "goal" weight without it. but i would bet many who never exercise never reach goal weight and then wonder why? the surgery? nah. some just aren't healthy enough to exercise, of course.  but if you can even WALK,  it can make a world of difference. as you can already tell. hopefully your pre surgery workouts are building some good habits you can continue after surgery, as well. once all healed and adjusted

the reason your friend doesn't understand why you exercise is MOST people don't, period.  perhaps especially those of us with WLS. because, well, why should we? i say we should because now, we can. and it will be effective, whereas before surgery we just ate what we would burn off. and then some. so is excersise good for the WLS patient? i would argue its especially good for the WLS patient. if they are able. and it sounds like you are. so, you're off to a good start imo. also if you look around the forums a bit you see a lot of posts "gaining weight," failed," "weightloss stall" "no energy" "revision." after the "honeymoon" period

i can almost assure if you exercise that will never be you except for complications with your surgery, or pure retardedness. because you will have turned that corner and become healthy and replaced all that gaga with what doctors say to do to be healthy:  eat right and excercise. well, now you can and show some results. you're a young(er) person so even better.  good deal :)

so keep that in mind. so far as the skin? well, yeah, it happens to most to some degree. may happen to you, too. i believe building muscle underneath helps "lift" it in general....but it doesn't prevent it from the sag. its SKIN and has lost all support and elasticity, so to speak, simply stretched, it needs to be replaced with as much muscle in one area as there once was fat. otherwise yeah, hang

so unless you are going to turn into a major bodybuilder of some kind, it will most likely have to be dealth with. its a concern for all of us. but guys here who are in GREAT condition have said they have the loose skin, too . plastic surgery helps tremendously, of course

so, i think it can be the least of your concerns right now. but anything you can do to tighten up certain areas can help the apperance. but still, unless maintained perfectly, the loose skin just does its own thing

except defy gravity

Jessica,

Welcome to the exercise forum.  I'm realtively new to this forum myself, but have been a member of OH since 2007 when I had my Bypass surgery.  You're younger than I was when I had my surgery so you absolutely have that going for you as far as the elasticity of your skin.  I would agree with the previous response that exercise will make your recovery that much easier as you've already started on the healthy lifestyle that you need to live for the rest of your life.

I found that exercise also kept me from having plateaus during the weight loss phase.  I consistently lost weight almost every single week because I was exercising.  Also, it helped tone the muscles under the skin so that when I had my tummy tuck, which was in January he removed only 3.5lbs of skin.  While that's a lot of skin, compared to what it could have been had I NOT been exercising is amazing.

Don't get me wrong I still have some sagging skin, but again, compared to what it could be without exercise, I'll learn to live with it.  At least until they figure out a way for me to have a thighlift without groin to knee scars :o)

Keep up the good work and good luck on your surgery.

Franci

How much skin you end up with will depend on genetics and lick.  Adding muscle only adds a miniscule percentage of the fat lost to fill out the skin.  There are a million other reasons to exercies though.  Some people lose all the weight and are still in poor shape.  NIce to see you here.

Exercise doesn't change the skin. But it does lower your risk of cancer, improve your heart health, improve your mood and give you a host of other benefits.

Also, if you don't track your food, then exercising doesn't necessarily help with weight loss. What happens is that people just eat more to make up for it. It happens subconsciously sometimes, consciously others. On a triathlon board I am on, you would be surprised by how many people say they started training for an Ironman triathlon and *gained* weight. It's because their hunger increased and they had the mindset of "I'm training for an Ironman so I can eat as much as I want." But, obviously, they can't.

Then people tell you: oh it's muscle and, maybe some of it is, but it is extremely hard for women to bulk up with lots of muscle. My muscle mass has gone up only about 5 lb. in a year, for example, and I do strength training and endurance training 6-10 hours a week. (I have a scale that tells me approximately what my muscle mass is so I've been able to track it.)

That said, I believe that my exercise has been a key to my success. As an older person, I found the weight wouldn't just fall off with surgery alone. I had to add in exercise and the more I did, the faster my weight loss was. But I also track every morsel I put in my mouth so that I knew I wasn't increasing my calories more than I thought I was.

How much excess skin you have is going to be dictated by how heavy you were for how long, how you carry your weight, genetics, age, and luck. I'm older, but I've always had good skin with a lot of elasticity. I also didn't have a lot of fat on my arms and legs. So my skin isn't too bad compared to a lot of other people. But it's bad enough for it to bug me and make me want to do something about it.

However, I look great in clothes and am at the point where I don't wear a lot of shapewear any more. I look better in the shapewear but I find it constricting sometimes.

Jessica, welcome to the board.

Keep up with the exercise, the benefits are great both healthwise and mentally.  I am more alert and feel better after working out.  Even if I felt like a slug before, or I had a hard workout, I always feel better when I'm done.

As for the skin, it's individual by individual.  You will hear this a lot, you can't judge your success on what others due (This is my big guily sin.) 

Take care of yourself, enjoy your exercise and live that healthy life you want.

Best wishes,

Scott