Monthly Expected Loss

[brennie 15]

I have my surgery date planned for October 25th and just signed up for my very first 5k run/walk on January 26th. How much weight should I expect to lose in the three months after surgery? I'm afraid I won't be ready to run.

[newgrandmother 725]

i was told by my baratric doctor 10lbs per month

[brennie 15]

Thanks! I've been walking and trying to increase exercise. I promised my daughter I would do the race with her.

[COnative 192]

It's hard to tell how much you will lose. It seems like the more you have to lose the more pounds actually come off in the beginning. I lost 20 my first month and have plateaued for the last two weeks which I have been told is normal. If I had to guess..... I think you might be down at least 35 by the time you run your 5k. I started running exactly one month post surgery and I feel great. I started building speed and distance by doing intervals on the treadmill. Run hard for a minute and then recover for a minute and a half. I do that 10 times- it feels great and I already see my heart rate recovering faster each time I do the intervals. Best of luck to you! Thanks for the post.

[brennie 15]

I will be very pleased to be down 35lbs. I will have to try that treadmill interval idea. Sounds like a great idea.

[RickM 1,753]

Loss rates will be all over the map since there are so many variables involved, not least of which is amount of weight that needs to be lost (bigger, heavier people at the start will tend to lose more pounds per month even if the percent of excess weight lost is lower.) I lost about 60lb of the 100-ish that I had to lose in the first three months; others will lose slower and some will lose faster. YMMV. I have guy metabolism on my side (guys tend to lose more quickly than women) as well as established patterns of fairly high activity levels. I did a 5k walk at about 3 1/2 months (running is a no-go on my knees), but I had been doing them periodically for several years pre-op.

What is probably more important for you is your condition at three months rather than any particular weight loss - any loss will be a big help, but you will be feeling so much better by that time that it won't matter that much if you are down 60lb or 30. It was around the three month mark that I noticed that fast walking was no longer providing me with the exercise intensity that it once did - a fast walk pace, about as quick as I could walk without breaking into a jog, somewhere a little above a 3mph pace, would previously get me into that peak cardio target zone of 80% max heart rate (130-140bpm for me) but after about 3 months I could barely break 100bpm at that pace. I really needed to get into the hills and do some climbing to get my heartrate up to that previous level. These days, at 17 months out, it takes some serious work in the pool to get it over 120.

For the record, I lost about 30lb the first month, 15lb each of the next two months and 10 lb per month thereafter; your numbers will likely be different, but the profile of loss will should be similar, with your biggest loss in the first month tapering off after that. In the meantime, do your walk, walk, walking preop and postop as your doc instructs, and ramp it up as you feel up to it.

[mwrarr 244]

I used the couch to 5k program. Easy to find on google...& free. It got me running quickly & smoothly. The trick is not to go for speed at first, just get the running gait down & keep the rhythm. :}

347*294/285/135 (*347HW/294SSW)

[brennie 15]

Thank you for the comments and help, I will definitely check out the video and start working.

[MGM 140]

i was told by my baratric doctor 10lbs per month

Glad to know that! That's about what I'm losing.