How important is structured exercise?

[snowy1515]

So I'm 5 1/2 months out and almost 60 pounds lighter. I have 20-35 more to lose. I have two young kids 1 year old and 3 year old. They keep me lifting (they are 25 & 35 pounds) and walking, moving up and down stairs, & active almost the entire day! Motherhood is actually very active if you let it be. We usually go on a few walks every week (or more) in the double stroller, etc. But since the surgery I'm exhausted and have never gotten my energy back. the first three months I was in a half-sleep half-awake trance. I had to nap during the day and at night I fell asleep within minutes of hitting the pillow and could sleep 12 hours at a time if my kids let me. But they never do because they are always awake so early. I get sleep from 9 or 10 pm to 6 am nightly. Anyway my question is, do I really need to work hard at adding structured exercise in right now even though I'm extremely tired and very active all day long with my kids? I feel guilty or like i would lose more if I were to do structured exercise but I don't have the energy from low calories. I'm on about 700 a day now. I may be able to incorporate yoga, Pilates, or structured waking but I fear I'll be even more exhausted and grumpy from it than usual. I'm highly allergic to vitamins gummy, pill, chewable, etc. I've tried more brands than I can count. I drink premier protein daily which helps with vitamins. I'm going to start to take fermented cod liver oil to get the nutrients I'm missing. Anyway I'm curious how important structured work outs are in a situation like mine.

Thoughts? Feedback? Anyone with similar feelings?

[diana1965]

I am prob a bad influence but just being honest. I did/do not exercise. I have lost 112 over the last 16 months. I tried in the beginning, but found nothing I liked or could stick to. At first I felt real guilty about not getting regular exercise, but stopped beating myself up over. I am reaching my goal and not gaining back so that's all I care about. I can do exercise if I want that is what is important to me. At the higher weight I could not do things. I do park far when shopping or going to work so get extra in those ways.

[Ann2]

To the OP:

I know that young mothers have very complicated and demanding lives. I still hope you can figure out a way to create a lifestyle that includes room for you to care for yourself, not just your family. I believe self-care is what was missing for so many women who became so unhealthy they needed WLS. Not caring for myself was certainly was a huge contributor to my own obesity.

Regarding exercise, I'll paraphrase what my shrink (who works with a lot of bariatric patients) said to me recently: "To be successful at maintaining your weight long-term, you need to change / create a lifestyle for yourself that includes exercise that you do consistently and predictably, not sporadically or impulsively. You need to include exercise that's regularly scheduled. "Regular" and "scheduled" is how you know you have a new lifestyle."

When I was losing weight I started moving, moving, moving a lot more. It became so much easier to move -- I didn't hurt, I wasn't so heavy, I was more successful moving. Mostly, my moving included walking most days and doing a lot more housework than I'd done before. I bought a Fitbit, which was very motivating. I can now move 10,000 steps a day without hurting myself. But walking was pretty much what I did during my big weight losing phases (I've been in maintenance for about 4 months now), and my Fitbit was critical to my moving more then.

Now, I'm also doing yoga classes and lifting weights. I don't yet have those activities scheduled as frequently or consistently as I'd like. But that's what I'm working toward now -- doing yoga class twice a week and lifting weights three times a week.

I want a new lifestyle that includes cardio, strength and flexibility exercise. That's my current goal: to become as consistent and disciplined about my exercise as I have been about my eating and drinking since WLS.

Very, very best to you!

[tomigyrl]

I can't speak to the a lifestyle that includes children as I do not have them, but I do have a very busy, demanding life. That said, what Ann writes is true. This is a lifestyle change and moving, exercise is a critical component. Moving will help you maintain a healthy body composition. You can get your weight down by losing any kind of body mass, but it's so much more about weight. It's about being healthy, fit, strong, and those things need exercise, cardio and weight-bearing, in any form that works for you and your unique needs/limitations. Aside from that, exercise releases all the healthy hormones that make a person feel good - endorphins, dopamine, regulates melatonin to help sleep and circadian rhythm. It keeps you from becoming "skinny fat" by helping you retain beautiful muscle - ahhhh...it's just sooo good!

You ask some good questions about being tired. I'm not a nutritionist and would encourage you to seek guidance from yours, but at 131 days post-op and only 700 calories, you're not eating enough (to engage in "real, structured" exercise). Real exercise is going to be a huge drain on so few calories and I'd be concerned about having such a huge deficit. For comparison (and I don't like comparisons because we're all different), I'm 38 years old, 5'2" and eating about 1,000 calories/day, on average at 62 days post-op. My NUT would like to see me get up to 1,200 within the next two weeks. My energy is through the roof and I'd be go insane if I didn't have exercise as an outlet.

[sraebaer]

While you can lose weight without exercise, exercise tones and makes your body look much better. Not to mention is gives you more energy, makes you feel good. Find a place that includes babysitting like the Y; you can work out while someone watches your children, a win win! You get a break from the kids, they have fun, and you get healthy.

I'm in maintainance, and there is no way I could keep my weight off without exercising. I can eat more now, so I have to work out more.

[cathbas]

i love what ann said...i walk..move walk as much as i can..when i dont ..my weight loss slows..pure and simple..so yea i think you have to carve out time for you...

[tomigyrl]

I touched on caloric intake on my post ^^, and think it requires some clarification. One reason (some) surgeons say patients shouldn't exercise [I]at all[I] up to three full months post-op is because our calorie intake is so low. By exercise I'm not referring to walking the dog around the block; I'm referring to exercise-exercise. Exercising when we're eating so few calories will result in excess fatigue. We don't want that, and our health care teams don't want that for us either. It's a delicate balance.

I've spoken about the MedGem Bod Pod on this forum a bit. It analyses body composition which is great for determining a realistic goal weight based on the individual. It also does an exact measurement of a person's basal metabolic rate. Understanding your basal metabolic rate - which changes post-op when your body goes into starvation mode due to a HUGE caloric deficit - is essential for understanding how much/hard you should exercise. Everyone's basal metabolic rate is different, and there are other, less invasive means to find yours out. Some online calculators are, eh, OK, and there is a mouth piece your fitness team can put you on to determine it, but the MedGem Bod Pod is the definitive authority.

My current basal metabolic rate is 1535 calories a day. This is the bare minimum calories my body requires if I do absolutely nothing - this is what's required to survive and literally, nothing beyond that. As such, knowing I eat between 980 - 1050 calories/day, I'm running a pretty hefty deficit without exercising - this is where we need to be careful and why nutrition is so critical, like our protein, healthy carbs, etc. My exercise plan burns an additional ~4,200 calories/week. This means, on days where I commute to work on my bike or do something more than a 30-minute jog, I have to work (and it IS work) to get more calories in if I'm going to feel well the next day. Again, this is just me, based on my own learning, education from my health team, and experimentation. Going into starvation mode is one reason for weight loss stalls - no one likes those and sometimes the counter-intuitive solution is to eat more and exercise less, depending upon what it is we're trying to accomplish. This is why I'm so hell-bent on getting the hard data from the bod-pod and working with my fitness coach on this stuff, because it's complicated, and that in itself is an over-simplification of the truth.

[Jus1605]

I have to say I have never done any exercise, I am 12 months post op and I've lost 57kgs. I have always struggled with excercise so I put all my energy into eating really well. I didn't want to start something I knew I couldn't maintain. I know it's isn't the best way to do things but I need to do what's best for me and this works for me. I'm still losing weight every week and I've never had a stall so I'm doing ok.
Best of luck

[Merry Mary]

For me, I don't think I would have lost the weight I have without exercising on a regular basis. The more I exercise the easier it gets to move around. Seven months ago I couldn't bend me knee enough to peddle a reccumbant bike in a complete circle. Now it's not even a problem and I started doing HIIT on the bike.

[snowy1515]

Thanks everyone! I think I'll try eating more calories so I can excersice more. It's the tiredness that really makes it difficult. If I ate more im sure I'd be able to workout more. Thanks!

[Lee6Lee]

And you must take a multi vitamin and B12. That would be minimum.

[bikrchk]

For me, it has been key. I didn't really start to feel strong until I got fit. I'm not a gym rat by any means. I ride a stationary bike at home 5 days per week for 45 min (typically hills now) and follow with 20-30 regular pushups and 50+ crunches. I have a very sedentary job but a very active lifestyle. I ride a large motorcycle and I'd not be able to manage that 850 pound machine (particularly after shrinking almost 100 pounds) without regular exercise.

[Kindle]

I hate excercise. I haven't been to a gym in at least 6 years (used to do Curves). I rode my bike a few days here and there in the first couple months postop because that's what we're "supposed" to do, but haven't been on it in a year. I also have no time to workout. I worked 7am to 9pm yesterday. Will likely "only" work 12 hours today. But I have an active life and physical job. Lift 20-80 pounds almost daily. Log 12,000-20,000 Fitbit steps/day just living life. Kneel, squat, bend, walk all day at work, shovel, feed, water, hoe, laundry, clean and mow when I get home, ride horse, hike, ski, snowboard and kayak on weekends. I hiked 18 miles/41,000 steps last Sunday "for fun".

I'm over 20 months out, have maintained below goal for a year, I have excellent muscle tone and definition. And I have not spent one minute in any structured, formal excercise program.

[mtngrl]

You want to do some weight bearing exercise so that you can increase muscle mass. Muscle takes up less space and makes you look leaner. Also, increasing muscle mass will help you burn more calories and allow you to eat more without weight gain. You can join a gym or just buy some dumbells or kettle bells from Walmart.

[Shirl]

If I don't exercise for a few weeks I get this achy feeling in my legs, I have googled the symptoms, and it can be associated with muscle atrophy which happens for lack of blood circulation. That scares the shit out of me!

Doesn't anyone else???