First workouts post-op... my body is wrecked.

Yesterday was my 2 week surgiversary and also my first day back at the gym. I started the day with a ton of energy so I decided to try for a run. Within 90 seconds my lungs were burning worse than I've ever felt them burn, even when i ran at my heaviest. It took about 20 minutes for my lungs to recover and feel normal again. I walked the rest of my hour on the treadmill. Today my back and hips were so sore from yesterday's workout, I decided to lay off the treadmill for the day and instead did 20 mins of elliptical. When I got hone tonight I felt like I had been hit by a bus. It feels like every muscle on my lower body is sore and stiff. It's really blowing my mind because these workouts were actually not in tense  for me, compared to my pre-op workouts, and even compared to the amount of walking and activity I do at work on a daily basis. Can anyone offer any insight as to why I'm being affected so hard? I'm afraid to take it too easy because I'm already in a stall on my second week. Any advice would be great!

You probably need to slow down. 2 weeks post op, walking is probably enough.  20-30 minutes at a time.

I already walk for 8-9 hours a day at work, so my fear is that 20-30 mins of walking, even at an accelerated pace, is not enough to burn fat. I can't even get my heart rate up above 120 no matter how fast I'm walking. I feel like slowing down m6 activity level means I will slow down my weight loss. I'm already at my first stall for the last 5 days. 

I did not start walking until 2.5 months after surgery and lost about 60 lbs during that time.   Your restriction is going to cause you to burn fat as long as your eating to plan.  

Stalls are a normal part of the process.

If you can't get your heart rate above 120 with just walking, your are in pretty dang good shape cardio wise.

Good luck.

Thank you for your input. I am very active on a regular basis. I am a retail manager and I work around 50 hours a week and I am on my feet for all of it, as well as lifting, building andicing store fixtures, bending, crouching, climbing ladders, etc. It's been difficult for me to take it easy at work and I feel like I'm sooo much less active than before the surgery both at work and out of work, that I feel like there is no way I can lose weight this way!

i was not allowed to do any running for 4 weeks after surgery.  I did walk and walk and walk 8 - 10 miles a day.  but i held off on the running. tell i got the ok.  i did complete a half marathon 1.5 months after surgery.

You've definitely got to work back up to things slowly.  Start with walk/run intervals.  Take it easy.  Give yourself every other day off to recover.  Don't expect yourself to be back where you were.  

And 2 weeks post-op?!  WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!  You just had major surgery.  You shouldn't be doing anything other than walking right now!!  The elliptical puts too much twist in your abdomen.  Your surgeon should have given you instructions for this, but you should only be walking for the first 6 weeks post-op.  

Obviously I was thinking I want to lose weight. I've always had to push myself in the gym on top of a strict diet in order to lose any amount of weight, since I'm pretty active on a daily basis even at my highest weight. Without excersizing much I feel like the weight won't come off and I will have wasted all my reaources, money, and energy. The surgeon only gave me work restrictions, and gave me no advice about excersizing. I figured if I wasn't violating the work restrictions in the gym either I would be fine. 

I really appreciate your advice. This process has been really intense and scary.

For what it's worth, exercise is not the main component in your weight loss, diet is.  Exercise is awesome for overall health and well being, but weight loss will be 90% diet.  I know you want to do everything now, but you've got to be really kind to yourself and let your body heal right now.  :)  

Walk as much as you can.. build up to the other stuff once you hit the 6 week mark.  It'll be okay.  

During a non-WLS abdominal surgery 10 years ago I started working out two weeks later and wound up majorly tearing stuff.  Even if you feel "fine" from the laparoscopy, it actually takes 4-8 weeks to heal and have the swelling from surgery go down.  The wounds take weeks and weeks to heal inside your abdomen.  so, it makes perfect sense it hit you hard. 

Walking is much more mild in activity so it's not nearly as demanding as anything in the gym.  Walking at work is also generally not as intense as a treadmill...and definitely not as much as an elliptical.  

You will stall far more if you hurt yourself and are laid up completely for weeks, or need more surgery.