Having any type of body surgery is no easy thing, much more when it comes to the recovery from one. There’s always a matter of rehabilitation, medicine, and even managing one’s diet in order to fully recover from a surgery such as a gastric sleeve surgery. If you’ve decided to start getting fit or stay fit after a gastric sleeve surgery, it’s important to make sure you follow some considerations carefully and talk with a trusted surgeon like Dr. Joshua Long at BMCC.

First, however, just what is a gastric sleeve surgery? Bariatric surgery or weight loss surgery is an umbrella term for surgical methods that alter digestive structures to impart weight loss. Gastric sleeve surgery and Gastric Bypass Surgery are the main types of bariatric surgery. The surgeon separates your tummy into two parts in a gastric sleeve operation and removes a larger part leaving a smaller part called a gastric sleeve. The sleeve makes you feel fuller and prevents additional food intake, and gradually you will notice losing body fat. Gastric sleeve surgery is a long-term efficacious weight-loss method.

Fitness After A Gastric Sleeve Surgery: The Steps To Take

With the above in mind, it’s important to remember that staying fit after a major operation like a gastric sleeve surgery is in fact achievable. You just need a step towards the right direction. Here’s how you can achieve this.

  • Prioritize walking for now: When you’re still recovering from gastric sleeve surgery, consider doing a lot of walking. This doesn’t necessarily mean overexert yourself, but rather try to make walking a new habit as it will help propel you towards a path of more focused fitness when you’ve fully recovered. Walking in itself can help you achieve your basic fitness goals – that is, to make sure your endurance improves and your core muscles get engaged. You can save the more focused workout sessions for when you’ve actually fully recovered.
  • Avoid lifting anything heavy as much as possible: When you’re a bodybuilder or an aspiring bodybuilder, lifting can be tempting when you want to maintain your momentum. You should lay off the weights after a gastric sleeve surgery, though. Doing so might actually put pressure on your torso’s stitches and may cause it to become sore and uncomfortable. Maintain healthy amounts of activity but don’t overstress your muscles more than usual.
  • Expect hormone production, so expect mindset and emotional changes: With weight loss comes the release of hormones, especially with dramatic weight loss such as from procedures like gastric sleeve surgery. This means you may actually have mood swings to occur every now and then. Knowing this can happen as early as now at least allow you to anticipate that there will be personality changes that can occur that may hinder or motivate you from working out. As such, keep tabs of these emotions and remember to keep your workout to the minimum so you can achieve better results in the long run after recovering.
  • Remember to take a lot of rest: When you want to stay fit during your gastric sleeve surgery recovery, it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t treat your body the way it was before. This is especially considering it’s still in its healing woes, and therefore can’t handle any form of extreme physical stress. As such, always remember to amp up the rest and make sure recovery is still your priority. Don’t overexert, and rest whenever your body doesn’t feel like it. Try to reduce your working out sessions to half as much effort and time, and slowly build your way up again while you take more rest. This at least ensures you’re not neglecting your rest when you need it.
  • Still take your medicine, eat the proper diet: When when you want to stay fit after your gastric sleeve surgery, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should slack off on your diet or your medicine just because you work out. It’s now much more important to make sure you’re on the right diet and you’re constantly taking your medicine as it makes sure you’re always in the condition to rest and your workout is just a “bonus” for you to stay fit. Remember, try not to eat anything that can ruin your medicinal intake, so be sure to ask about your diet before undergoing one while taking your medicine for your injuries.
  • Seek consultation, prescription when needed: If you have any doubts about your recovery and fitness, always remember that seeking consultation from a professional for your woes is not a sign of weakness. If, say, you have a medical condition aside from your surgery that needs attention, it’s best to ask your dietician, your trainer, and your physician to see just what forms of exercise you can do and just what forms of fitness you can actually engage in. This allows you always be two steps ahead in your recovery, and make maintaining your fitness much more fun to do.

The Bottomline: Getting Fit Needs Effort, Patience, Time

If there’s anything the above can share, it’s that the solution on how to stay fit after gastric sleeve surgery won’t arrive in a snap. Rather, it’s a culmination of a series of plans and strategies designed to make sure you slowly develop the means to be able to stay fit without having to compromise your recovery. As such, following the above tips is essential in making sure you at least get a head start on your recovery and have a much better direction on where things should go.