Exercise is important after weight loss surgery for a number of reasons. You will be losing weight rapidly, especially through the first six months. When your body realizes how rapidly your weight is decreasing, it shifts into starvation mode and tries to hold onto your fat as a preventive measure. When this happens, your body will burn muscle mass and keep the stored fat.
In addition, the fat in your body is where all excess hormones, chemicals, etc. is stored, and as this fat is released, your body chemistry changes. That is why it is so important to regularly exercise as soon as your doctor releases you to do so. Your metabolism (rate at which you burn calories) will increase and your body will burn the excess fat and not your lean muscle mass.
Exercise also strengthens your heart (a muscle) and bones, builds more lean muscle, burns calories, increases your metabolism and relieves stress. It also can help to prevent the depression that often follows weight loss surgery. For these reasons, exercise must become a daily routine in your new life.
If you aren't used to exercising, start out slowly after you have consulted your physician.
- Start with just five minutes per day and keep increasing the time as your strength and endurance increase.
- Work up to at least 30 to 45 minutes of exercise.
- You will get the same benefits if you exercise for 10 minutes three times a day, 15 minutes twice a day or 30 minutes once a day.
There are good exercise programs and videos for people who are out of shape and for those who have bad knees or backs. You can exercise in your own home with a rebounder, for example, if you are uncomfortable going to a gym until you lose weight.
One of the best in home products I have found is a top-of-the-line rebounder called the Cellerciser. It is a mini-trampoline / rebounder that is used for various rebounding exercises (it comes with an instruction video and booklet) and can support people of 400 lbs. or more (which is far beyond the weight limits of most exercise equipment!). From their website:
"Cellercise® is a weight bearing exercise without the jarring and damage of most impact aerobic activities. Cellercise® uses vertical movement like weight lifting, push-ups, pulls-ups or sit-ups in a repetitive up and down motion. However, these conventional forms of exercise target and isolate specific muscles or muscle groups. It’s very time consuming and often tears down the body to build it up.
When weight or stress is applied to a muscle, it applies weight or pressure against the cell membrane. Cells increase the amount of protein in their membrane to avoid rupture. As we Cellercise® the cells get bigger and stronger. The movement creates momentum. Acceleration and deceleration create pressure changes within the body and an increased amount of weight against the cell membrane. At the bottom of the bounce, every cell in the body is stimulated, exercised and strengthened. Cellercise® exercises more than just muscles. Every cell is exercised, including internal organs, veins, capillaries, bones, connective tissue and skin. They are toned, cleansed and strengthened.”
As you rebound exercise on the Cellerciser rebounder you will lose more weight because you are burning calories while increasing your metabolism. This is especially important to keep your weight from plateauing, which is a frustrating part of your weight loss journey.
