Why you should NOT work out after WLS

[mousecat88 2,279]

3 minutes ago, Jazzy1125 said:

I just watched this.. Very true statements and very informative video. I do think exercise is key but the facts presented are to make sure you are ready for it. Very interesting and i like what i saw.. This just solidified for me to up my gym info that i am going to start in Jan and make sure i have a trainer. Right now i am in the process of scouting gyms so i can make the right choice.

Trainers are awesome. I went to a hospital gym and the girl I had taught me so much with free weights and medicine balls. And now free weights are my favorite thing ever... not any of the machines! A YMCA trainer was also pretty awesome. Taught me how to properly use a bosu ball. I have a weight bench and tons of dumbbells at my house now and can get a full body workout with just that! (I have other equipment, too, though.)

[Healthy_life 1,437]

I lost the majority of my weight on elliptical and a bit of weights. My goal was to do a 5K in memory of my mother. (race for the cure)

Exercise and activity level is a personal choice. No wrong or right way to get activity in..

I look at it this way. I was already eating well and exercising. I was stronger than I gave myself credit for.. What we do as bariatric patients is not that different from weight lifters and people involved in sports. My health issues gone. Seeing the results of nutrition and exercise was amazing.

After a year of living this way, I asked myself could I take this further? Yes, I lift, I distance run, snowshoe and hike.

[Healthy_life 1,437]

I like Dr Vong. But.......

I wanted to take every advantage of this surgery. Especially the first golden year. My surgeons instructions (all instructions look different) Walk the day after surgery to heal and to continue to walk at least 5 days a week. Nothing high impact on low calories. Low impact exercise in the beginning never impacted my weight loss negatively. It was all positive. He released me to exercise with more intensity about three weeks out. No regrets.

[Ed_NW 684]

I used to like Dr. Vong until he gave up being a doctor to pursue his get rich quick scams. Now he tries to use his entertaining WLS platform to promote and rope in potential pyramid scam victims. I lost a lot of respect for him when he started doing that. I will say, I was hooked on his earlier videos. They were funny and educational at the same time. I think Alex Brecher said he's met him before and also thinks he's taken a turn for the worse.

[GreenTealael 24,850]

3 hours ago, Bougieb said:

5 hours ago, GreenTealael said:

I agree with @Matt Z, exercise is still important for prevention/repair of muscle atrophy, toning, and fascia health. It made a noticable difference just doing hardcore walking and jumping. It made a lot of difference in not having a ton of loose skin, especially weight training instead of cardio only.

But on the flip side I was not at the gym 14 hours after surgery.

My team let me know when it was physically safe to go back, by incision site healing, even then I was too wiped out for the efforts. I did 5 minute bursts at home. It was all I could do immediately after surgery.

People are all different and know their personal level of endurance. That should be a guide for how fast or slow you choose to take it.

The Dr doesn’t actually say don’t work out at all but under what pretenses are we actually trying to work out under? That matters, it won’t be beneficial to patients who were formally obese unless we work on out mental state first.

Likely under the pretenses of setting up a holistic approach to recovery from obesity. You can, if so inclined, work on it all at the same time, you don't have I spend a year working out the mental, then the second the physical. Keep in mind that all this pro exercise rhetoric is from person who sometimes can't/ sometimes won't go to the gym. I've seen the difference it makes.

Edited December 13, 2018 by GreenTealael

[Bougieb 15]

On 12/13/2018 at 08:48, Jazzy1125 said:

I just watched this.. Very true statements and very informative video. I do think exercise is key but the facts presented are to make sure you are ready for it. Very interesting and i like what i saw.. This just solidified for me to up my gym info that i am going to start in Jan and make sure i have a trainer. Right now i am in the process of scouting gyms so i can make the right choice.

Thanks for actually watching and not just calling bs after reading the title. The video made so much sense to me. Doesn’t matter what type time he’s on now as far as making money what he said in the video was true. Your mindset has to now match your new body and often times being obese and losing the weight doesn’t always changes everyone’s frame of mind. Looking at the gym as punishment and not as a goal won’t help you in the long run. I know for me when my mind wasn’t in it or I was in the gym out of guilt or self pity I didn’t last long.

[GreenTealael 24,850]

47 minutes ago, Bougieb said:

Thanks for actually watching and not just calling bs after reading the title

I have actually watched ALL of Dr. V's Videos as I am on of his YouTube subscribers. But he's not on my Team... So I cherry pick what I like (from everywhere) and bounce ideas off my team

49 minutes ago, Bougieb said:

Looking at the gym as punishment and not as a goal won’t help you in the long run. I know for me when my mind wasn’t in it or I was in the gym out of guilt or self pity I didn’t last long.

Do what's right for you. If that means no, gym. Then no gym.

Safe Journey 🎈

[SteveT74 359]

Weight loss happens in the kitchen, not the gym. That goes for pretty much everyone regardless of whether or not they have surgery. However, the gym is great for improving muscle tone, fitness and cardiovascular health (with high impact interval training being the best combination of the above). You don't want to rush back to the gym after surgery because your body needs time to heal!!! Every time you lift weights or work out, your causing damage to your muscles, which then heal (which is how you improve muscle mass and strength). This process requires your body to consume Protein and other key nutrients. That's fine under most circumstances, but after surgery you need the small amounts of protein and nutrients you are able to consume to be used to help your body heal. So, it's best to take it slow and not do any heavy workouts for a few months until you settle into a healthy routine and get used to your new body. After that time period (and if your surgeon says its ok), you can hit the gym as hard as you like.

As for Doctor Vong, I have mixed feelings about him. I have watched a lot of his videos, but I find him to be very preachy. He says controversial things at times just get his viewer count up. It's not that he doesn't have valuable things to share (he does), but it's like his way of doing things is the only way to do things--and it's not. As for youtube surgeons, I really like Dr. Matthew Weiner. If I lived anywhere near Detroit, I would have gone to him for a consultation. He just has such a nice way about him. I even bought his book, A Pound of Cure--which suggests that your post-surgical diet should focus on vegetable Proteins and whole foods etc. Dr. Weiner's recommendations are pretty actually similar to Dr. Vong's--but without the messiah complex included. I will try to adopt some of Dr. Weiner's recommendations into my post-surgical diet when it's appropriate, but otherwise I am going to follow the advice and counsel of my own surgeon and his group's staff (after all they have my charts and should be in the best position to guide me through this journey).

Edited December 13, 2018 by SteveT74

[Starry*Night 148]

I watched the Duc Vuong video before surgery and it made a lot of sense to me. However I watched a lot of his videos, and he makes claims without backing them up. Like others, I feel he has discredited himself with his MLM scheme. Who would give up surgery to flounder and run out of money trying to do an MLM? Not someone who I want to take advice from personally, and I previously watched almost all of his weight loss videos.

As @SteveT74 mentioned above, I highly recommend and absolutely adore Dr. Matthew Weiner on YouTube. Fabulous guy, and his book Pound of Cure is phenomenal.

[Bougieb 15]

@Starry Night I’ve only watched this one video. I honestly haven’t even heard of him before I came across this video lol. I’ll check out Dr. Weiner tho

[anonbaribabe 236]

14 hours ago, Matt Z said:

This is misleading. Required, No. Beneficial, Yes. No amount of anything will ever change the fact that, the larger your muscles are, the more energy they will burn, full stop.

Also, after WLS, with Visceral fat loss leaving muscles and connective tissue with extra slack due to the missing fat padding, you *NEED* to exercise to tight up loose ligaments, tendons, etc.

Exactly. Exercise helps you lose the right type of weight—fat, instead of muscle. It also helps you build muscle. This isn't something you can do with WLS or eating the "right" foods. There are plenty of people out their who are at a "healthy" weight, but who are actually unhealthy because they don't do any physical activity. Exercise aids in weight loss, but that's definitely not its main purpose.

[Starry*Night 148]

2 hours ago, Bougieb said:

@Starry Night I’ve only watched this one video. I honestly haven’t even heard of him before I came across this video lol. I’ll check out Dr. Weiner tho

Let me know how you like him! He also leans toward a greener lifestyle, and there's one thing he said that really stuck with me; it went something like this:

"Don't worry about your stomach stretching; it's good that it will expand, if it stays the size it is after surgery you'd never be able to get all the nutrients you need. When you're able to eat more, it means you have more room for healthy foods like vegetables."

I thought that was such a good way of looking at it!

FWIW, as far as exercise goes, he's cautious about it - he wants to see you doing a lot of walking and using your own body weight for resistance, but is hesitant to have you go beyond that in the first year. Why? Because although we have more lean muscle mass than our thinner counterparts, we are generally weaker from lack of activity, and it is easy for us to injure ourselves which would set us back further than if we hadn't exercised at all. He doesn't condone exercise, he emphasizes physical activity. He defines exercise as something you have to change your clothes for (because you'll sweat); he prefers you to just be physically active, and focus on exercise in your 2nd year after surgery.

Edited December 14, 2018 by Starry*Night

[Ed_NW 684]

15 hours ago, Bougieb said:

@Starry Night I’ve only watched this one video. I honestly haven’t even heard of him before I came across this video lol. I’ll check out Dr. Weiner tho

Nobody is picking on you for bringing up Dr Vuong. Most people that are properly prepared for surgery will research WLS on YouTube and come across him. I've had almost a full year before my surgery to binge watch YouTube videos on the topic. I watch a YouTube channel the same way someone would watch breaking bad...LOL I start at the beginning and watch until I get to the current video. I did that with Dr. Vuong's channel. Another Dr. that I watched all of his YouTube content was Dr. Shaw Somers on the fat doctor. He is the kindest and most caring Doctor I've came across in my 8 months of WLS video binge watching. It's sad they canceled his show. Thanks for bringing up this topic, we always like to discuss it.

[FluffyChix 17,409]

I think all of these points are valid. And there is so much more to E than CICO and driving weight loss. But honestly (although I now have different thoughts about Dr. V.), what he's talking about is not what all of you are talking about. He's not saying to EVER exercise.

His point is that in the early days, when you're still struggling to get your Protein and fluids down and still only eating 400cals/day, etc, don't worry about going to the gym. Focus on the task at hand which is healing, getting your nutrients in, progressing your diet and also using this time to work on your head and internal you. Then it's time to start hitting the gym if you're ready for it--or not. That most weight loss comes from what you put in your mouth.

But we all know the reason to E is for more than weight loss. So much more.

So in a sense, ya. I agree with what he's saying. Don't rush. Do your walking. Walk in 5 minute spurts if you need to. Walk in your house. Eat. Drink. sleep. Poop. Get your head in the game. Don't be sidetracked by become a work out beast before you're ready to do it. You will need more than 400cals per day and need to be able to get more than that by eating in order to fuel your workouts at the gym.

[Hop_Scotch 1,625]

4 hours ago, Ed_NW said:

Another Dr. that I watched all of his YouTube content was Dr. Shaw Somers on the fat doctor. He is the kindest and most caring Doctor I've came across in my 8 months of WLS video binge watching. It's sad they canceled his show. Thanks for bringing up this topic, we always like to discuss it.

I loved this show, he is very compassionate. I liked to that they use to do follow ups.