My name is Carlos, my wife and I were going to have by-pass last year and due to me enrollment into the police academy I decided not to have surgery because of down time. My wife had bypass and at first she regretted every moment of it, now she is doing a lot better but she has her good days and bad days.

I am now out of the academy and I have been having a hard time still doing the physical tests for trying to get a job. I am not a extremely lare guy but I am overweight. I am 6'1" and weigh 280. I have been going to the gym for months now and I still can't cut weight(I know muscle weighs more, but I know that isn't the case). I am planning on getting the sleeve done this month , because I have read that the time from surgery to being able to work out again is shorter that by pass.

Please let me know if this is truly the case. I just don't want to screw up before I get on with a department.

You still can't do much more than walking for 6 weeks after surgery.

Hi Carlos! Your story sounds alot like mine. i'm 6,1.5 (I was 6,3 before I had a ruptured disc removed 2 years ago), and I topped out a month ago at 300. I tried the gym thing too, tried riding a bike and even running,. i can lose 20 pounds fast, but it always creeps back up on me.I hate the incredulous looks and questions I get from people; "Why surgery? You're not fat!" Umm, pardon me, thanks for the compliment and everything, but if you saw me in nothing but a pair of gym shorts, you'd change your mind.

I've been told 6 weeks is standard. I do heavy lifting with my job, and my Doctor told me the only way I could go back to work after 3 weeks was if I would definitely NOT be doing any lifting at all. I dont really want the surgery so much for myself, as I do for my family. I'm only 48, I dont want to get sick, have a heart attack etc any time soon. I want to see my sons grow up, and have their own little kids, who'll look at me one day and call me PawPaw.

You do have to allow your body time to recover, however the recovery time is much quicker than a bypass. I had my sleeve done on Jan 21st. I have been walking and walking since. I just bought a treadmill as I live in Canada and it's too damn cold out to walk right now

There are a few things you can do to keep active, but walking is probably the best thing to do as it helps with the gas and also to help keep blood clots away. Your Dr will tell you when you can start adding more to your workout. Best of luck to you whatever you decide