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Just How Much Is Everyone Exercising?



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I'm just 4 and a half week weeks out and have started walking briskly 30 minutes each day. This is all I can handle at the moment, hope to be able to increase time gradually working up to an hour within 6 months. I had NEVER exercised pre-op, not even in my childhood so am pretty dam proud of myself at the moment. I also want to add some sort of Water aerobic shortly, still trying to find a pool close to home.

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I have two verbiages discs and a 2002 knee replacement. So I am limited to walking. Over 2 years I joined two clubs. I try to go 4 days a week after work. My wife only wants to go to zumba class. So I added a weekend work out. For me the stronger the legs are the better the mobility. I am down to 360 from 460 with a goal of 250. Pants feel better but the scale is no moving. Gone from 60w to 54, but only 50 on scale in 6 months. Don't know if its diet or need more exercise.

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I have been mostly walking 1-2 miles a day. There are a couple hills and i tty and walk brisk the whole time. It is a good exercise because it is low impact and i can just pick up the pace to max 4.5 mph to get a pretty good workout. I do sweat on this type of walk believe it or not. I try and leverage techniques from two good books I have read called "chai for running" to minimize injury and " walking for fitness" to get the sweat rolling. I enjoy walking because it lets me enjoy the company of my dog' date=' the fresh air, the great views and the nice sunsets.

One question I have is about running. What is the right bmi or weight ratio to be at to prevent injury. I used to run when I last lost a bunch of weight ( a little less than I am now at 135 lb) and got into running 4 hours, sometimes up to 20 miles. I could also ran 22 min 5 k on the treadmill. It was just fun for myself and I never competed or anything like that.

I found it pretty relaxing to get in the rhythm of running and found pleasure in long runs. The problem is the I would do this too often ( every day) and either got injured or got so tired I would feel extreme tiredness by mid morning if I ran a few hours in the early morning. This time around I don't want to get injured.

I also have to be concerned about the impact such exercise will have on 600-800 calories a day. I don't want my body to go into shock and drop dead! LOL!

Any advise on long distance running as a bariatric patient would be helpful.[/quote']

Update: I have been running on my treadmill for about a month now sometimes 5 k under 30 minutes (cardio zone), sometimes longer towards 10k (fat burning zone). I am going to work on incorporating interval training into my running so I can get the increased benefits and also void repetitive injury that is documented to occur with continuous lower impact running. I have also been walking my dog for a couple miles a day when weather is not bad, snowshoeing when up in the mountains and doing Zumba at home on my wii with my wife. She loves Zumba nd feels it is something she can stick to because she loves Latin dancing. Her eating habits have also improved after I got sleeved (rarely eats bread any longer).

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I have two verbiages discs and a 2002 knee replacement. So I am limited to walking. Over 2 years I joined two clubs. I try to go 4 days a week after work. My wife only wants to go to zumba class. So I added a weekend work out. For me the stronger the legs are the better the mobility. I am down to 360 from 460 with a goal of 250. Pants feel better but the scale is no moving. Gone from 60w to 54' date=' but only 50 on scale in 6 months. Don't know if its diet or need more exercise.[/quote']

Can you ride a stationary bike at the gym? Might be a good way to change things up. You need to vary your exercise when you can to keep the weight loss going. Do you have access to a pool or does that aggravate your back?

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Wow I feel lazy :/ luckily, I've never stalled, but only in the past few weeks I finally joined the gym to TONE. Not intentionally to lose, no matter how much I eat all day I'm still losing but things are finally starting to sag in my thighs so I do the bike, elliptical (even though I can only do 10 min, still better than nothing and working on building it up!) and weights on the machines until I can afford a personal trainer (I'd be the one to hurt myself ...)

I danced for 13 years and was always into it after I stopped the recitals and whatnot a couple years ago (way overweight then too), trying my first dance (Zumba) class since surgery, this should be interesting!

Also working towards being able to run as I'd like to do the color run with my sister this year

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I start off with one mile on treadmill. Since that now takes about 17 minutes, I added 2 miles on stationary bike since every book says you need 30 minutes to see results.

I thought walking was enough but you can feel the bike working different muscles. It is also faster recovery on my knees than extra walking. I can do bike every day. Its not like loosing 100 will grow knee cartilage back but every pound helps

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I workout 5 times a week now. I run/walk 3 5k's three times a week and for 2 days a week I do a 1 hour spinning class. I also lift weights once a week. I really enjoy working out so I'm having so much fun and I love seeing the inches come off and my muscles reappearing.

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I have done different things over time. I used to do Water aerobics 2x a week plus elliptical and strength training. It was good but if you don't mix it up, you don't continue to progress so I decided to do higher intensity workouts.

Lately I have been doing spinning, pilates/yoga and boot camp type classes. Wow - that increase in intensity resulted in fast results but i couldn't have done it without the many months of doing other things getting stronger. The boot camp class is really hard for me - i am clearly at the bottom 20% of the class in terms of ability, but heck, pushups, sprints, circuit training all sorts of stuff really pushes me.

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I do an aerobic WII exercise called My Fitness Coach and do that 5 days a week for an hour each time. I also do Zumba on the Wii at least 3 times per week for 30 min. I really enjoy it.

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I start off with one mile on treadmill. Since that now takes about 17 minutes' date=' I added 2 miles on stationary bike since every book says you need 30 minutes to see results.

I thought walking was enough but you can feel the bike working different muscles. It is also faster recovery on my knees than extra walking. I can do bike every day. Its not like loosing 100 will grow knee cartilage back but every pound helps[/quote']

Do you use a bike at the gym that is not upright? I forget the name....? I had both my knees replaced when I was in my 40's (51 now) and that type of bike works best for me. I never get the aches and pains i do from an upright bike.

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Do you use a bike at the gym that is not upright? I forget the name....? I had both my knees replaced when I was in my 40's (51 now) and that type of bike works best for me. I never get the aches and pains i do from an upright bike.

recumbent bike

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I have been using a recumbant bike though I didn't know the name. I just knew that reclining position was easier on my back than the bouncing of traditional high seat. I try to do 30 minutes after doing mile on treadmill. A lot of work not seen by people that think the VSG.is the only reason that you are losing.

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My workout routine is 40 minutes on the elliptical 6 days a week

Kettlebells for strength training 3 days a week

Yoga for 30 minutes every day.

When the weather cooperates I will use the elliptical less and mountain bike or road bike more. This winter has been tough though. I had my procedure 11/1 and don't want to invest in bike clothes that will be useless next winter. I've been doing a lot less biking and a lot more elliptical than in past years because of it.

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My workout routine is 40 minutes on the elliptical 6 days a week

Kettlebells for strength training 3 days a week

Yoga for 30 minutes every day.

When the weather cooperates I will use the elliptical less and mountain bike or road bike more. This winter has been tough though. I had my procedure 11/1 and don't want to invest in bike clothes that will be useless next winter. I've been doing a lot less biking and a lot more elliptical than in past years because of it.

I'm with you...my bike is collecting dust right now because of the weather.

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I try to walk for an hour on the treadmill, and I try to increase my speed, but every time I do I regret it. I went from 3 mph to 3.2 and ended up pulling a groin muscle and getting blisters. Exercise does not come easy to me. I've also tried yoga in the past, which I LOVED, but it was too hard on the arthritis in my knees. I'm gonna try it again after I lose another 20 lbs. They say the arthritis gets better when you're not carrying as much weight.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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