Hi guys,

I want to get an opinion from your personal experience regarding what I discussed with one of the doctors from the VSG team in my local hospital.

Basically, I'm 2 months out from vertical sleeve now, and I talked to my doctor about my concern of building muscle during weight loss. So far I have lost 50 LBS and I want to prevent saggy skin as much as possible since I'm starting to notice that my arms are getting a bit "soft". So besides eating right, drinking plenty of liquids, drinking Protein beverages, I was advised to weight train in order to gain muscle and that way, skin can have a bit more time to adapt to this drastic change. To me, this always made sense because I used to play sports from a young age during my school and college years.

But I asked my doctor of when could I start weight training (I'm only swimming 3 days a week currently) and he told me that he needed me to lose all the excess weight first, and then I could start thinking about giving my muscles definition. To me this didn't make any sense, since I have always been told that combining cardio with weight training is the best and healthiest ways to lose weight. But then again, I really don't know if the story changes when you have a gastric sleeve.

I really want to prevent saggy skin and I want to lose weight at a slower pace, but for example last week I lost 4.5 Pounds in 7 days. I know that perhaps with a VSG this is normal, and since losing weight slowly is not an option for sleevers, what else can I do to prevent it? I'm really confused with what the doctor told me about weight training.

thanks in advanced for your help guys! have a great day!

Ana

I am posting so I can hear what people say, I believe as you do, and feel that Doctor.... might I don't know... well yea I have already started weight training pre op and as soon as I can post op I will too, good luck!

I heartily disagree with your doctor! I started weights within my first few weeks post-op. I started out with 2 pound weights and did as many repetitions of the arm exercises as I could handle, which was 10-15 at first. As soon as I came home from surgery I started walking as well. Now I do cardio every single night, plus 4 days of morning cardio and 3 days of morning weight training. While I'll never have killer arms, my arms have improved tons since I started and I actually have muscle definition in my arms, my thighs and a ton of muscle in my abs that I never had before. I still have loose skin on my tummy and my upper arms/thighs, but it's nowhere near as bad as I was afraid it would be.

I carry my 2 pound weights in the car and do arm exercises while I drive (a lot) for work. I use the 5 and 8 pound weights at home most days to help with the arm definition and I do every machine in our gym at a lower weight with high reps on my weight training days. All of this has added up to my feeling pretty good with how I look right now.

I think that doing the weights with the cardio is the way to go, obviously. Just start slow and work up to something you can live with because you're going to be doing some variation of exercise every day for the rest of your life. I'm sure I won't be working out twice a day forever, but I'm now in a routine that I could live with if it did turn out to be a lifelong commitment to two workouts a day.

The bonus for me is that I am losing inches fast and my weight loss has now resumed a somewhat steady pace after slowing down around the 7 month mark for me. If you wait to start weights until you've made goal, you're going to be way behind on shrinking that skin, IMO.

I normally would never disagree with a Doctor's advice but I do on this subject and this is why. A lot of Doctor's do not have training in nutrition or personal training. With that said, I would make sure you get cleared BY YOUR DOCTOR for exercise and weight lifting before you do it. You do not want to strain or tear any muscles that were affected during surgery. I was not cleared for exercise until 6 weeks after surgery and I took it very slow. I think waiting until you have acheived ALL of your weight loss before starting weight lifting is a bit conservative. I agree with Lissa, lifting has helped me as well with the saggy skin. I reached my goal 9.5 months out, if I would have waited that long to start lifting, I would look a mess.

There is nothing wrong with us physically except that our stomach's have been trimmed down 75%. The rest of the body needs exercise for generating muscle and increasing metabolism. This is a natural component of healthy weight loss, expending more calories than consumed, cardiovascular work and strength training to increase muscle mass. I was advised that at six weeks I should begin a full excercise routine that includes strength training and that's what I intend to do.

I disagree with your doctor. Unless you are talking about power lifting I don't see why there would be issues with low weight, high rep toning. Everything you say about the need for muscle strengthening and toning is correct.

that's what I thought guys, thanks for clearing out my doubts. Doctors aren't always right that's for sure. I think he had good intentions, but I have always been a believer of strength training (whether its low weight high reps or high weight low reps). So from now on, I can start doing at least some weight training at home, I have some limitations from my knee injury for lower strength training, but i can do some weights at least for my arms and some ab working so i can prevent some of the saggyness LOL

thanks again

Anna, As soon as you can start doing some weights for your legs, do so. I started on the exercise bike for my legs and today I got complimented on the muscles in my legs. I'm deliberately working to strengthen my thigh muscles now and the work is paying off.

The bike made a huge difference in those leg muscles for me, though. I've had a dislocated knee 3 times, so I'm pretty careful about what I do as far as leg exercises.

Anna, As soon as you can start doing some weights for your legs, do so. I started on the exercise bike for my legs and today I got complimented on the muscles in my legs. I'm deliberately working to strengthen my thigh muscles now and the work is paying off.

The bike made a huge difference in those leg muscles for me, though. I've had a dislocated knee 3 times, so I'm pretty careful about what I do as far as leg exercises.

Thanks Lissa, actually I think that swimming is helping me out a lot, before I couldn't even swim because of the pain, now, with some of the weight loss I think is getting better and therefore, I can swim a few more minutes in the pool. I'm planning to start some leg extension strength workout (really carefully) so I can keep building some muscle (the injured leg used to be really thin due to muscle lost, and it's improving a lot) Also, I plan to do like you mentioned, some thigh strengthening workouts, bicycle is a great option, though I still feel a bit intimidated from the last time I tried (it was pretty painful when I tried bike after recovery from surgery) but perhaps now I can start trying to see how it feels....

Anna, I suggest finding a recumbent bike. I use the ones at the gym, but they are often on craigslist for cheap. IMO, the recumbent bike is easier on the knees because you're not pushing down on the knee. Start low and slow, just like you would with weights. Do what is comfortable as far as pace and resistance and build up as your legs get stronger.

I had the same problem with one leg looking thinner than the other, but that has improved a good bit. Walking on regular roads is still uncomfortable for me, but I can do about 3-4 miles on the treadmill without pain. I have doubts that the treadmill will ever be my preferred exercise, but I can do it. Almost all of my muscle has come from the exercise bike.

Just take it easy on the knees and don't push them to pain. You may want to push them to "sore" sometimes, but not to actual pain. If my legs hurt while I'm working out, I try to figure out whether it's the muscles hurting (good) or the knee joint hurting (bad). If it's the knee, I slow down. If it's just muscle aches, I keep going.

Also, you don't have to jack up the resistance to get a good workout. I'm still only at 3-4 on resistance, but I can set a pretty good pace. My goal with the bike (or any cardio) is to sweat like a pig. As long as I'm sweating because my heart rate is elevated and I'm working hard, then I consider it a good workout.

Check out this link. It is an additional option you can start doing anytime to help with sagging skin. I actually plan on starting the habit before surgery. http://t-tapp.com/success/michellep/index.html Oh, her exercises are also fantastic. I am just to heavy with no energy to do them right now.... excited for september!

I agree with everyone else - your doctor is wrong in this case. The only thing I can think of is that maybe he was thinking you meant serious weight lifting instead of just some weights mixed with cardio. I think it's pretty sad that a doctor would say to not use weights.

My doctor said I can start working out after 4 - 6 weeks, including weights. They even have a packet with different exercises in it that mentions weights & repetitions & such.

I think he eas talking about heavy, powertype lifting. There is nothing wrong with using light wights or even using your own bodyweight, dips, pushups, lunges, squats, etc. Good luck to you.

yeah I also guessed he might thought I was talking about power lifting, but I did clarify to him that I just wanted to have a decent amount of weight training in between cardio days, and even though I clarified, he remained so sure on his statements. So much that I actually thought that all I learned trough out the year about weight training was wrong, he made me doubt :S

yeah I also guessed he might thought I was talking about power lifting, but I did clarify to him that I just wanted to have a decent amount of weight training in between cardio days, and even though I clarified, he remained so sure on his statements. So much that I actually thought that all I learned trough out the year about weight training was wrong, he made me doubt :S

Really glad you posted on this one. You want to lose fat not just weight. You would have lost fast but had lots of skin and no muscle tone. I'm a little concerned how many people he told this to that just said ok and went along with it. Wow.