Anxiety and Exercise

I am waiting on approval to have wls, but in the mean time I would really like to start working out. I do walk for 35 min 4 times week and ride my bike about 30min 2 times a week. Ever since I was 12 years old I have done a lot of cardio/aerobic exercise when trying to lose weight. I worked out very hard. My mom was an aerobic instructor so she pushed me hard. Anyway, the last time I had a gym membership about a year ago I was just walking 3 miles a hour on the treadmill and my heart rate shot up to 197 beats per minute after 15 min of walking. I was so scared that I was having a heart attack, but I did survive and my heart calmed down after 15 min. Now I am scared to try hard. I am wondering if there is any kind of test my doc could give me to see if my heart rate is normally high? Any advice is helpful.

A nuclear stress test would show any issues with your heart. It is also possible that your exercise at that time was to intense for your heart. You can design a cardio routine to increase your hearts efficiency, but you need to know your zones and how to utilize each zone.

Talk with a cardiologist about this.

I am with Paul on the stress test. Dr's approval should be considered before starting any diet and excercise program. It's so awesome that you are already working on getting your health and life back... Congrats on everything!

I would agree that a medical evaluation is necessary. Also know that you don't need to be in a hurry to start exercising. About a month after your surgery, you will be amazed at how much easier it is to exercise....and it will get easier and easier and likely with much less anxiety. Just don't push yourself now. Take care!

But with your doctors approval - if you can start working out now it will really help your recovery after WLS.   Try walking a little slower - 2.5 or so and remember that the heart rate monitors on treadmills are notorisoulsy wrong - so take your vitals yourself.  Make sure to stay well hydrated, before, during and after exercise.  

Congrats on making the decision to take back control of your life!

Any advice for 46 year old, 10 months out from surgery? I fantasize about being able to run. I enjoy watching people run. I have started exercising  for 3 days per week for about 1 hour each time with a group from work. Each person seems to be at a different level of exercising and I sometimes don't break a sweat, and I feel like my hour has been wasted.  Joining a gym is kind of expensive, but I want to make the most of my weightloss tool. I want to lose 25 more pounds and then I will be at goal. Hopefully, I will lose more.
The workout tapes that we use consist of the 4 mile walk, jumba, and some tapes with cardio-blasts. I plan to start bringing my handweights with me to help to tone my arms.
But I want to gain endurance and be able to jog. What else can I do?

WHOOOAAAA...THIS IS THE GHOST OF YOUR BICYCLE...WHY AREN'T YOU RIDING ME???  SPRING IS RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER...COME RIDE ME...WHOOOAAAAA....

Thank you all so much for the advice. I want to get the stress test because if it is anxiety I will feel much more comfortable working out hard. I am only afraid because I feel that once I am in the middle of the stress test my heart rate will stay lower because I know there is someone the to take care of me if something bad happens. Oh well I will get the test. It is better to be safe than sorry. Thanks again for all the support and responses.

I'm sort of where you're at...I've had 2 heart attacks and a double heart bypass.  I won't work out to exhaustion.  I'm afraid I'll damage my heart.  And I refuse to exercise in smog...Both my heart attacks were working and exercising on smoggy days.  I push myself more and more...But I listen very very carefully to my body also.

After I had my cardiac stress test, the cardiologist said I was made for exercise. I have to admit that this really helped me when I was first starting out. It made it easier to go hard. Maybe something like that will happen to you.

I don't use HR when I work out though. I used something called RPE. It's relative perceived exertion. The idea is, if you feel like you are working out to the point where you are going to have a heart attach, it doesn't matter what the HRM says. Here's some info on it:

http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/measuring/exertion.html

Also, the formula 220-your age is a horrible way to decide what your max HR is. It works for about 5 people. That formula says my max HR is 167 and my heart rate regularly goes up to 172-177 when I run and I don't even feel like I'm going to die. The stress test put my max HR at 186-187, which makes more sense compared to what actually happens to my HR when I work out.