Heavy Weightlifting completely changes your body!!! I’m 8 years post-op and I incorporate 5-6 days of weightlifting into my routine. I ONLY do about 10 minutes of cardio (10 minute run) each workout day, which in actuality is my warmup before I stretch and lift. I also incorporate hypertrophy (higher rep, lower weight) training into my workouts to help with muscle growth, but the most empowering part is getting strong and hitting new PR’s (personal records).

When I first started lifting, I could not lift too much weight. The lower weight WAS my heavy weight. I would find a weight that I could rep 8-10 times before failure. My squats literally started with the bar (a standard Olympic bar weighs 45 lbs). Now, after 6.5 years of consistent training, I can squat 245 lbs, deadlift 320 lbs, bench 185 lbs, curl the 40 lbs dumbbells. I really wanted to fill up my arms & legs with muscle to lessen that loose skin (which I still have, but not so noticeable), so I worked hard. I researched, read, incorporated. I was—and still am—constantly learning, correcting, and incorporating. I learned how to diet for optimal muscle growth, which optimally includes 1 gram of protein per body weight and complex carbs, and good healthy fats. At first I didn’t know what complex carbs were, so I looked it up?, picked out foods I liked, and incorporated them into my diet. I’m not going to lie, complex carbs are the hardest to consume because of their density (and my sleeve still works when I’m eating the right foods—freak’n sliders!), but I make it work by eating small frequent meals throughout the day (I eat about 6-8 different times, including shakes). I also discovered a supplement drink in powder form called Karbolyn (by EFX Sports) that would help me hit my complex carb macro goal.

Anyway, long story short, when I first lost all my weight, I got down to 140 lbs, and a size 4-6. Now, I weigh between 155-160, and still wear a 6 (the 4’s are too small for my arms because they’ve grown with muscle mass ?????). I’ve literally shred the fat and have added muscle mass. And since 1 lbs of fat takes up way more space than 1 lbs of muscle, I’ve been able to pack on more muscle in the same amount of space. Weightlifting is where it’s at. Man or woman. I’m just trying to inspire women because women tend to fear lifting heavy and fear that they will look manly. I assure you, I do not look like a man. ??

Wow you look amazing!! I am almost 4 weeks post op and have only lost like 12lbs. I feel like as soon as I started pureed stage I stopped losing or when I started to drink more water too. Ugh I have been walking a decent amount but still struggle. Hopefully I will be able to go longer n longer on walk soon:)

I love lifting so I am excited to see how I can get there after surgery! Great job!

I too LOVE CrossFit and will always love it, been doing it on/off about 3 yrs. But I'm currently on another path and going to start training with a heavy lifting trainer. Although I love the benefits (and the physique) CF can afford you, the box I attended is quite far from my home and they are actually moving even FURTHER from current location! So I'm choosing to stay closer to home and reap the benefits of lifting. I would LOVE to get as ripped as possible (but honestly still have about 20 lbs of fat to lose then tighten) and I know it may take a while. Being 46 and peri-menopausal doesn't help my efforts!

BTW, to the OP, you look AWESOME!!! STRONG is the new sexy! Well done

*applauds wildly* Both transformations are ah-mazing and serious goals! I just need plague-related things here to settle down so the gyms can re-open, because as soon as post-op allows, I will be out of the gate like a dog at the beach.

So glad I saw this—because this is the route I intend to take. (I already CrossFit, so have a whole bucket list of CF-related things I want to do once my weight isn't the limiting factor.) My coach does also program "functional bodybuilding" which I will be following to try and shore up the (inevitable) loose skin.

You both look AH MAY ZING.

I have been focusing on weights also, but have not been doing the free weight lifting that you are, I am still in the process of losing, and weights have really helped keep me from excessive lose skin. It it also helps that I am losing slower. I still do cardio because I need to work on my stamina and it helps my asthma, but weights are my preference.

This. All of this!!!!! You couldn’t be more accurate. I started lifting about 8 months after surgery. Currently I am powerlifting and I’m in the best shape of my life. The crazy thing is, like you, how much I have to eat to maintain muscle mass. 1g protein per pound. 3000+ calories a day. Gaining muscle weight, not fat. Sitting at around 12% body fat.

Get lifting people. You will see results. Start light. Start small. Progress will come.

You look great! I bet it helps with loose skin too! Once I recover enough I’ll be incorporating some weight training for sure.

This is outstanding. Many congratulations!

Inspiring! I do aquatic cardio workouts 5 hours a week now pre-surgery. As soon as I'm cleared post-surgery for weight lifting, I'm going to get a personal trainer at the YMCA and begin strength training. My bariatric clinic includes sessions with a personal trainer, but the affiliated gym is 75 miles away so the local YMCA is where I'll go. I think that shrinking my excess skin is probably hopeless, but I'm going to do as much as I can before considering plastic surgery.

Your arms are AMAZING! I've been curious about weightlifting, it sort of appeals to me, but I haven't tried it yet. Maybe soon. I do belong to a gym where I could ask one of the trainers to help me get started and show me how to use stuff.

You look amazing!!! I can’t wait to be cleared to work out!!! I’m walking 2 miles a day and just over 2 weeks post op. This was so inspiring thank you for sharing it!!!

I am 7 months post op and have ben lifting "heavy" for about 3 months now. i am trying to follow a body recomp plan but its been so hard to dial in the right macros, especially when i do loose. I just had a meeting with a dietician who told me i should stick to 1000 calories a day but i am in the gym 2x a day plus i am very active outside the gym as well. im not a competing athlete of course, im still very over weight, but i am pushing my body harder than ever before and i just don't think that my personal trainer or doctors recommendations are correct. one is only thinking about the size of my stomach ( i had bypass) the other is only thinking about the extreme amount of activity. i feel best between 1200 and 1400 cals however my trainer wants me at 2050 and the bariatric dr.'s dietician says 1000. when you were starting out did you eat back the calories burned while exercising to maintain your calorie deficit ? i see so many people saying contradictory things but most haven't had the surgery. id be interested to know what worked for you because your progress is amazing!

5 hours ago, Hiliaryw said:

I am 7 months post op and have ben lifting "heavy" for about 3 months now. i am trying to follow a body recomp plan but its been so hard to dial in the right macros, especially when i do loose. I just had a meeting with a dietician who told me i should stick to 1000 calories a day but i am in the gym 2x a day plus i am very active outside the gym as well. im not a competing athlete of course, im still very over weight, but i am pushing my body harder than ever before and i just don't think that my personal trainer or doctors recommendations are correct. one is only thinking about the size of my stomach ( i had bypass) the other is only thinking about the extreme amount of activity. i feel best between 1200 and 1400 cals however my trainer wants me at 2050 and the bariatric dr.'s dietician says 1000. when you were starting out did you eat back the calories burned while exercising to maintain your calorie deficit ? i see so many people saying contradictory things but most haven't had the surgery. id be interested to know what worked for you because your progress is amazing!

As a general rule, I would not recommend eating back calories burned for a few reasons:

1. People misunderstand metabolism. Our bodies are highly adaptable and our non-exercise calorie burn is also highly variable day-to-day. We know from recent research that your body tends to try to conserve energy balance, meaning unless your burning over ~400 calories per day in exercise, your body will lessen your calorie burn elsewhere during the day to try to "make up" for the exercise calories. In short, you're not burning as many overall calories on those exercise days as you think you are.
2. Our ability to accurately determine calorie burn from exercise is hard and often we think we've burned more calories than we actually have. For example, you may think you've burned say 400 calories, but it may have only been 250.
3. We also aren't very good at accurately tracking caloric intake, so you may be eating a lot more than you think you are. Adding in even more calories to "eat back" your exercise calories is not going to be accurate, even if the two points above were not true.

Something here is not adding up for me. You mentioned you're trying to do a body recomp, but also that you still have a lot of weight to lose. That just doesn't make sense. It's fine to say you want to lose fat and gain muscle, and as a newbie to weight training, you can do both, but you really need to make fat loss the priority here.

At best as an untrained woman, you might be able to add 10 or 12 pounds of muscle in the course of a year, but in all likelihood it will be less. I don't mean to discourage you, but most obese people already have more muscle mass than a "normal" person, so you can't expect to add as much muscle as they might be able to. My point is that when we talk about a recomp, what we really mean is trying to stay at about the same weight, but simultaneously lose fat and gain muscle. In my opinion, you need to focus on fat loss first, then try a recomp once you're closer to your goal weight.

My suggestion would be to focus on two things:

1. Most importantly, are you still losing weight? If not, then you're eating too much. If you are still losing, is it at a reasonable and sustainable rate? I'd want to see no more than about 3% per month considering that you should hopefully be also adding some muscle mass. This factor is really the primary determinant of where your calories should be. If you're losing faster than ~3%, then it's probably a good idea to eat a bit more, but don't change things by more than a couple hundred calories a day. If you're not losing weight, then as I said, you're eating too much and need to consider scaling back.
2. The second factor here is how you're feeling. If you're eating so little that you can't even think about completing your workouts, or you're just exhausted all the time, then that's a sign you probably need to be eating more. Even so, take it slow here. Add in a couple hundred calories a day and see if you feel better. You can go up to where you need to, but keep in mind, you may also slow or even stop the weight loss. If that happens, you may need to modify your workouts. The flip side of this is if you are feeling good, but not losing, that's probably a sign you're eating too much.

In the end, it's a balancing act of eating enough to fuel your workouts, but no so much you stop the weight loss. It will take some time to find the right point for you.

Best of luck. (Oh, and in the future, I'd strongly recommend just starting a new thread. This one is several years old.)

Edited April 26, 20251 yr by SpartanMaker