Post-op workout question... I'm I normal?

Sigoman
on 1/14/08 9:56 am - Blainville , Canada
I've had VSG 3 months ago. I'm now down 91 pounds (including the pre-op diet) or 65 pounds since coming back from the hospital.

I've been hitting the gym and doing cardio about 5X a week but I've seen something odd. I'm barelly sweating while doing my cardio. After one hour of elliptical or biking I'm almost dry.... I was sweating more that this trying to tie my shoes when I was pre-op...

I believe I'm drinking enough during the day with about 2 liters of water & green tea.

Is this normal? Should I sweat it??

JFish
on 1/14/08 10:37 am - Crane, TX
**** man. You live in Canada. And it's freakin' January.  Seriously, if you feel good, and you're ******g quite a bit,  I wouldn't give it a second thought.
The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking....... If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog.
kypdurran
on 1/14/08 11:37 am - Baton Rouge, LA

Hi Sigoman.  Congrats on your 91 pounds lost.  That's a great accomplishment!

Regarding not sweating...  The best way to tell if you are in the 'magic fat burning, weight loss zone' is to monitor your heart rate.   First you'll need to get your maximum heart rate which there are a bunch of ways to do.   The basic formula to do this without actually exercising to determine your heart rate is as follows:

214 - (0.8 X your age) = maximum heart rate

In my case that would be:

214 - (.8 X 36) = 185 bpm

So according to that formula my maximum heart rate in beats per minute (bpm) is 185 bpm.   There are other ways to determine what your maximum is but they will probably only go up or down by 7 bpm so whatever the formula above tells you will assist you in determining how 'hard' you are exercising.  

The best fat burning, weight loss zone is when your heart rate is 70 - 80% of max.  You should be able to do sustainable exercise for a lengthy amount of time in that zone.   In my case to maximize my training efficiency I would want my heart rate to be between 130bpm and 148bpm.  It's always great to go above that training zone but typically it is difficult to maintain exercising for very long with your heart rate going above the 'ideal' zone.   My heart rate does go into the higher zones but only for short periods of time.   I'll enter those zones when I run stadiums or wind sprints. 

Most of the recent editions of cardio equipment have metal hand rails that you can grab and measure your heart rate.   Those work fine or you could invest in an actual heart rate monitor.  Those strap around your chest and give you a very accurate reading.   I have a heart rate monitor that I use with my Garmin Forerunner 50 that spits out all kinda statistics and graphs after I exercise.   I have the footpod that attaches to my running shoes too that measure my distance, calories burned, cadence and speed as well.    Here's a link to my morning run that shows the different heart rate zones that I was in during my run.  For the most part I was in Zone 3 which is the zone I described above.  Exactly where I want to be. 

http://www.chadsoileau.com/heartrate.gif

My heart rate is in red and my speed is in blue.   I almost got hit by a car crossing one of the streets so that's the reason for the steep drop in my heart rate and speed at around mile 3.6.  :) 

Also, here's a great link to determine what your zones will be once you determine your maximum heart rate.

http://www.heartmonitors.com/zone_calc.htm

Best of luck!

Chad.

 

Sigoman
on 1/14/08 7:15 pm - Blainville , Canada
Yes JFish, I'm from Canada, actually.. if I can find how to change my profile I will update it with my town and Province (Blainville, Québec). Sorry couldn't post back, I was actually shoveling snow!!!

Thanks Chad for the reply, I have a heart monitor somewhere in the basement (that I have bought but never used about 3-4 years ago). The bike and the elliptical both have the metal handle to monitor the heart rate and I'm usually between 140 to 150 (for most of the time). So I think I'm in the zone.

I used to evaluate my workout by weighting myself before and after finishing my training and I could easilly drop 5-8 pounds while doing cardio. I guess my body is changing and it doesn't feel like sweating for now... I know the workout and diet are giving me good results (down from pants 60 to 48 and shirt size 5XL to 2XL) and this is the most important thing.

Well I'm off to the gym !

Bye for now.
kypdurran
on 1/14/08 11:19 pm - Baton Rouge, LA
The before and after weighing really isn't a good indicator but I'm guilty of doing that too.   Any weight you lose during a workout will probably be water weight.  I lost around 11 pounds after my half-marathon run last Saturday.  Sunday morning when I weighed again I was back to 'normal'.   I did eat some post-run sugar cookies but I don't think I ate 11 pounds of them.  :)
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