Advanced Cosmetic Surgery Blog

You can lose a significant amount of weight with bariatric surgery, but if you want to truly succeed surgeons and trainers alike say you also need to initiate lifestyle changes.

Last week in Austin TX, trainers from the American College of Sports Medicine met for 14th annual Health and Fitness Summit, where they discussed the best exercise programs for bariatric surgery patients – those who undergo gastric bypass, lap band or realize band surgery.

Fitness experts Paul Sorace, M.S., and Adam de Jong, M.A gave the following recommendations:

Aerobic exercise

• The core of the post-bariatric exercise program
• Burns the most calories
• Good way to ease into physical activity

Resistance training

• should be limited (especially in abdomen), but great to combine with aerobic exercise
• increase muscle mass and quickens fat loss in post-bariatric surgery patients

Flexibility exercise

• good to improve range of motion – use caution to prevent injury

Read more from the American College of Sports Medicine

What is bariatric surgery?

Bariatric surgery, in its various forms, alters or removes parts of the stomach to induce weight loss. Patients who undergo bariatric surgery typically have a BMI of 35 or greater.  Popular procedures include the following:

• The Lap Band – an inflatable silicone device that is placed on the upper portion of your stomach, effectively limiting food intake and suppressing hunger.

• Gastric Bypass – surgery that divides the stomach to create a small pouch, which gets connected to a loop of the small intestine. By reducing stomach size, the patient is satisfied a smaller amount of food.