Question:
Why can post ops deit/exercise after, when we fail so miserably before?
OK, maybe a dumb question, but just what makes the big difference to being willing and able to stick to a very regimented diet and to regularly exercise after having surgery, yet we fight to stay compliant and lose even 10 lbs before? Why can a post-op, who has been sliced and diced and is probably sore, tired and emotionally tender, suddenly be so compliant? Sure, a quickley-full stomach might deter eating etc, but what about exercise? If you hate it before surgery, how can you love it after? Just curious! — Katie E. (posted on June 2, 2002)
June 2, 2002
Well, I for one have hated exercise since I was (a very thin) child. For
example, everyone LOVED riding bikes. Me, I thought it was ridiculous!
Riding around and around to get to where we started from made no sense to
me! So you see I understand your question and my answer is simple. I do the
best I can at this time. I have this little pedometer on and every day I
try to walk a bit more. Not go for walks, just walk a bit more, like park
further away, take the stairs, in general, just move around more. I do
believe that as my weight comes off I have more energy and more willingness
to move around more. You will too I'll bet. As far as the "diet"
goes, this is the easiest part of all for me. The reason? I get sick if I
don't follow it and it's just not worth it. In fact, I am freer now to eat
foods that I always tried to avoid on my many "diets", with the
exception of the sweets. Haven't missed them much so far. Anyway, I am
almost 4 mos post open RNY, and down 67 lbs. Maybe I would have lost more
by now if I was more diligent with the exercise, but I am very satisfied
with the progress so far. Best wishes to you.
— Ann B.
June 2, 2002
Funny thing about us humans...we really only like to play games that we can
win at. When we can see and appreciate that moving our body really does
make a difference, we are much more willing to do it, to say nothing of the
ease and freedom of movement that comes with weight loss. I personally was
always active. I enjoyed skating at 225, mountain climbing at 300,
gardening at 400 pounds. But when I could no longer move very far or very
fast at 500, I no longer enjoyed exercise. And even then, I would toss in
a video tape and tried Tai Chi. As for dieting, I never will again. With
the Duodenal Switch, I have no set dietary restrictions, other than eat
"healthy". What makes it so easy now is that my guts have been
rerouted and my stomach is now a size in which I feel full eating a
'normal' amount of food, unlike before when I had to eat a gallon of food
in order to feel full, and I had 7 feet of small intestine more than the
average person and, because of my genetic make up which helped my ancestors
survive times of famine, I could survive for weeks on a cup of rice.
— merri B.
June 2, 2002
In my opinion...I think exercise before WLS seemed useless...just like the
diets didn't work..the exercise seemed like a waste of energy...NOW after
the surgery, you are going to be losing weight in the early stages without
even trying...so you are excited by the weightloss and motivated to get
that scale to keep going down. I think this is why after WLS people are
more willing to exercise and try and tone lose skin because they KNOW that
this time its going to work!
— Debbie M.
June 2, 2002
I hated it before and STILL hate it. I'll be honest. lol
— Danmark
June 2, 2002
Hi - I am one month post-op (down 30 pounds) and can honestly say that the
ONLY form of exercise I like is to do water aerobics--before AND after
surgery! I would rather eat a mud shake than take a walk! When I get
thinner, I do plan to take walks but for now, it's hard. The one gal is
right: now we KNOW we will lose weight regardless if we exercise or
not...so exercising increases the motivation and the weight loss---good
luck! GREAT QUESTION!
— KristyKatt
June 2, 2002
I did no formal exercise. As someone said below, I have no time for
mindless exercise, when I have plenty of WORK to do. I work out NOW, but
it's hardly mindless since I have a specific purpose. I don't care if I
burn calories, but I want a little more muscle and happier joints. I do not
diet. I avoid milk & sugar. That's all I avoid. I'm a pretty picky
eater, so there are things I don't like. (lots of them) I never was a
grazer, rather sit down and eat heartily once every 24 hours and let it go
at that. But I can't do that, so I ATE 6 tiny meals at first, 4 meals now
(8 yrs). I eat normal fat (specically, not accidentally), normal carbs and
I prefer fruits & veggies for my solid foods. The only ODD thing I do
is drink protein shakes several times per day and take more vites than I
did before. But then. I was taking Rx meds by the ton. I prefer this. So
much so, that it is another reminder that I do what I do to keep what I
have (150# loss, weight of about 110#). When I stop doing what I'm doing,
I will stop having what I have. There is a formula that works, and if I
deviate from that formula, I will get a different result. So, you're
asking how can I keep doing what I do (& don't do), when I was never
able to do it before? I never had this result before. It's much harder to
keep on dieting when it hasn't done you much good. It's harder to keep
dieting when you are eating the same volume & on the regain, yet a
month ago the same thing was helping you lose. The difference is: this
works. And it keeps on working as long as I work the program. And it's not
HARD to do it! As far as taking the protein (the magic bullet, as far as
I'm concerned), I never had a problem putting things IN my face, it was
keeping them out that was the problem.
— vitalady
June 2, 2002
Hi!!!! I am almost 8 months out, Just a few days shy of it. I am like
many of your other posters, I don't do normal every day exercise. However,
I do ride my bicycle about every day. I guess that is exercise but to be
truthful it just doesn't seem like it. I love to ride my bike. I only
ride about a half a mile a day to a mile a day. I have four small kids and
it is hard to ride real far when you have 3 kids under 12 with you. I play
ball with them and run and play games with them. Last year at this time I
was setting on my carcas not doing nothing letting life pass me by. Now I
have energy. And as for the diet. You just don't want the same things.
Sure ocassionally I take a small bite of something forbidden. Mind you
before I would have eaten a whole candy bar, not just a bite size one, and
I would have eaten a whole bag of chips, Mega or super size, But now I eat
a handful and go on about my business. When I was told no more pop. I
thought the world had crashed and burned. My six months has been up for
sometime and I find I just don't want it anymore. I figure if I am going
to drink something then I am going to drink something that is going to
count towards the 48-64 ozs I am supposed to get daily. Good luck and God
Bless. open rny 10/4/01 -93#'s and counting. Btc of columbus Ohio.
Thanks Dr. Kaczmarski!!!!!!
— TONYA B.
June 2, 2002
Part of the answer for me is how much easier it is to exercise now after
the surgery. Before, I was so heavy it was literally a real PAIN (or
impossible) to exercise, or TRY to. But I lost so many pounds so quickly
after my WLS that within a very few months I was smaller than I had been
for years. Losing, say, 60 or more pounds in 6 weeks was so dramatic; I
FELT the difference so overwhelmingly. I felt light on my feet, flexible,
more athletic. I was encouraged to exercise then because it felt so damn
good to be able to!! I was just so thrilled at what I could do after so
many years of just not being able to. So I DID enjoy it in a totally
unexpected way. I exercised pretty good for about a year, but I have
dropped off quite a bit & now get more exercise from sports &
lifestyle changes than from strictly exercising, itself. I rarely take
elevators or escalators, I like jogging up the stairs...cuz I CAN; I park
farther away just so I can jog to the store or mall. I ski as much as I
can, in season. Now I am golfing & I am buying some rollerblades so I
can start that asap. I enjoy walking my dogs along the river. If you really
don't care for exercising, I would suggest finding some active sports you
can enjoy. Exercise doesn't have to be boring, try some sports!
— Kathy W.
June 2, 2002
My WLS has given me hope for long-term success, which I didn't believe was
possible before, as I had tried and failed so many times. Instead of
seeing it as an un-winnable battle against my body's absolute resistance to
letting go of it's weight, I now feel that eating right and exercise are a
way of life that will truly pay off...for life. It's all about
perspective. Also, I find the more I exercise, the more I want to.
Started out walking lightly EVERY day..now up to almost five miles a day,
or swimming, or tennis, or kickboxing - things I wouldn't have imagined
doing only 4 short months ago. BOTTOM LINE: In all things, I am a big
believer in "the more you put in to something, the more you will get
out of it". So, if that means even if I didn't like exercise, and I
had to force myself everyday - I would. And I am sure it for that same
reason that the many folks who still don't love exercise, get through it
each day.
— PaulaM
June 2, 2002
17 months post op and haven't exercised ONCE!! Not necessarily proud of
this and would really like to start. Just can't seem to get motivated. For
me, the weight just fell off and I didn't see the need to exercise. I lost
to my goal weight by 9 months. I've been maintainin a 140 pound loss for
about 6 months. I'm not necessriluy proud that I haven't exercised and I do
worry about regaining. But until I see that happening, I'm content to keep
doing what I am doing. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a couch potato. I am
very busy with my 4 children, but I don't do any formal exercise. Shelley
— Shelley.
June 2, 2002
The reason your so compliant after the surgery is because you HAVE to be!!
Let's face it, anyone can overeat on any given day but when WLS patients
do, you pay a price. You have a LOT of pain and sweating and just feel
horrible. That really doesn't happen before you have the surgery and
overeat. So you now know that if you aren't compliant with your diet, you
will be as sick as a dog. As far as exercise, when you lose weight before
you had surgery, your probably losing weight. What would make it any
different after you've had surgery? Your losing weight after surgery so if
you exercise you'll lose more. I think the thing is before surgery you
slip back into old habits of eating more and exercising less. After
surgery, you CAN'T eat more so you start looking better with the weight
loss and you want to exercise to keep looking better.
— Patty H.
June 3, 2002
I too, absolutley HATE exercise- hated it before, probably hate it even
more after- since now I have no excuse to avoid it, and I am
"supposed" to do it!!! In fact, I hate anything that may make me
sweat (sitting in the sun, yard work) and all exercise falls into that
classification for me. It's not really exercise if I don't break a sweat,
right? Well, that's me- the exerciser who tries her hardest to never break
a sweat! I wish when they took away my desire to eat, they'd replaced it
with SUPER POWERS of MOTIVATION, and the desires to exercise. I know I
should do it, but I don't WANNA. So, I have no arguements other than that-
if I want to lose these last 50lbs, I know I should "get up off my
a**" and "just do it", quit "making excuses" and
use all the other great bits of advice people have given me.... but what
do I do if I do not like to exercise? Aqua Aerobics sound great, but
that's not an option for me- no aqua!
— Karen R.
June 4, 2002
Thank you everyone who responded. I just got approval for surgery and after
reading your answers, plus many, many other poss to various questions on
this site, I am getting more and more excited about my upcoming start to a
"new life." I appreciate the feedback. Everyone here is so
wonderfully supportive. Thank you!!
— Katie E.
April 6, 2005
I TOO AM CONSIDERING WLS AND WHILE I DO ENJOY BEING PHYSICAL I RECENTLY
MOVED TO A VERY REMOTE PLACE. I USED TO LIVE IN CA AND WAS A MEMBER OF
CURVES. I HAVE DONE A LOT OF PROGRAMS OVER THE YEARS AND THIS WAS THE
EASIEST 30 MINUTES I'VE EVER DONE. ADDITIONALLY I DID SEE RESULTS. I WAS
NOT DIETING BUT THE MUSCLE GAINED BURNS FAT EVEN AT REST. EVEN NOW HAVING
MOVED AWAY FROM THIS RESOURCE THE MUSCLE IS STILL AT WORK ALTHOUGH AT A
LESSER DEGREE. SO IF THERE IS A CURVES AVAILABLE TO YOU TRY GOING IN AND
ASK THEM ABOUT THE PROGRAM. OUR OLDEST MEMEBER WAS 71. THERE WAS A FEW WLS
GALS IN THERE AS WELL WHOSE DRS RECOMMENDED IT. I AM NOT A SALES REP BUT
WHEN SOMETHING HAS BENEFITED YOU YOU WANT TO TELL PEOPLE. THANK YOU FOR
YOUR HONESTY AND GOD BLESS YOU.
— Sue M.
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