Archives: December 2023
How Often Should You Go to the Gym (And What to Do) After Bariatric Surgery?
After bariatric surgery, you enter an exciting time in your life. You’ve had surgery, and the weight is starting to come off, probably quite rapidly. Most patients wish to build on this excitement by hitting the gym hard and enhancing their results. That said, it’s often difficult to know, especially if you weren’t a gym-goer earlier in life, how often to go and what exercises you should perform when you get there. Mind you, early on after bariatric surgery, we do not want you going to the gym and lifting heavy weights. It will take about 6 to 8 weeks before you are cleared to do so. We also know many patients will be intimidated by the gym. This is perfectly normal. Just getting up and going is an achievement in and of itself. Even if you do minimal strength training in the beginning, you’ll soon feel comfortable and start building up your routine.
With this in mind, it’s important to set proper expectations. It takes about 4 to 6 weeks of consistent gym work to see the results of your efforts. Unfortunately, many people quit before they reach that point. You’ll also want to note you will likely gain weight in the early days of your strength training regimen. This is because you are building muscle at a faster rate than you are losing fat.
Five Questions to Ask at Your Bariatric Consultation
We see hundreds of patients yearly who go on to have very successful metabolic surgery with one of our bariatric surgeons. Each operation is unique in that every patient is different; their care plan must be tailored to their motivations and ultimate goals. To that end, no consultation is ever the same, even if some of the questions are. To help you prepare for your first consultation, we have listed five questions every patient should ask their surgeon. Remember, the answers to these questions will vary between patients, so if your spouse, friend, or family member has had bariatric surgery, the answer may differ slightly from yours. The answers below are generic but offer a great starting point for a deeper discussion.