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Physical activity and exercise are crucial to the success of your weight loss effort. Regular exercise is important because it can improve your health so you are better prepared for surgery. You need to begin an exercise routine before weight loss surgery, as you often will be required to lose a percentage of your baseline body weight before being cleared for surgery.

Exercising now will make your recovery from surgery faster. You will already have experience with an exercise plan and it will help you maintain as much muscle tissue as possible during your weight loss process. Maintaining a lifestyle that includes exercise will keep you healthy and at your target weight.

Weight loss is a function of calories taken in (eating) versus calories spent (metabolic processes plus physical activity and exercise). We gain weight when we eat more calories than we burn off by moving our bodies. We lose weight when we burn more calories than we take in, and we maintain our weight when we eat just as many as we expend. To successfully lose weight and keep it off, you must target both calories taken in and calories expended. There are two main ways to expend more calories:

Increase daily physical activity: This means moving your body more during your daily activities.

• Take the stairs instead of the elevator
• Take short breaks from your work to walk
• Park farther away from the store
• Wash your car by hand instead of using a carwash
• Change TV channels by hand instead of using the remote

• Walking
• Bike riding
• Swimming laps
• Dance/Step aerobics

* We recommend that your see your physician before starting any exercise routine, particularly if you have not exercised recently.

If you have any questions about weight loss surgery and our support program, please call us at (206) 368-1350, or send us an email.