Who Else Wants to Avoid Weight Loss Surgery? (Hint: Everyone!)

People who add a little walking to their routines after weight loss surgery decrease their risk of diabetes and improve their heart health more than those who stay sedentary, according to a new study.

“For a large percentage of the severely obese, they may exercise but don’t necessarily gain improvement in metabolic factors, so this is clinically significant,” said lead author Paul M. Coen of the division of Endocrinology and Metabolism in the Department of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

“The fact that we see this isn’t trivial,” he told Reuters Health.

I agree that this is not trivial. I think this should be a wake up call to any person who thinks that weight loss surgery alone is sufficient to make them healthier. Clearly, you will have to exercise even after weight loss surgery, so why not start now and avoid the weight loss surgery altogether?

For the study, researchers divided 128 adults, mostly women, who had recently undergone roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery into two groups. One group received only a health education program while the other group participated in a semi-supervised moderate exercise program as well.

The education-only group attended six sessions per month of lectures, discussions and demonstrations providing information on medication use, nutrition and upper-body stretching.

The exercise group also attended the education sessions plus engaged in two hours of moderate exercise, mostly walking, each week during the six-month study.

Researchers used blood tests before and after the study to measure insulin resistance and glucose tolerance, both indicators of how well the body processes sugar. Poor results are associated with a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

At the beginning of the study, both groups had similar glucose and insulin measures, although they were poorer than levels expected for similar people of healthy weight, the authors write in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Insulin tolerance levels improved for both groups after surgery, but the greatest improvement was among those who had exercised more than two hours per week.

Here we see that the greatest improvement for insulin tolerance levels was among those post weight loss surgery patients who had exercised more than two hours per week. And we know that their two hours of moderate exercise was mostly walking.

That is approximately 30 minutes a day for four days a week. I am recommending six days of 30 minutes per day and even better to put in 60 minutes for addidtional benefits to heart health. Just two hours per week was enough to improve insulin tolerance levels, reduce diabetes risk and improve heart health.

The message from this study for all people who have not yet done weight loss surgery but are looking for the magic solution to lose weight, start walking today, look down at your own two feet, get up off the couch or the chair, open the door, get outside or go to a gym and start walking.

There is no reason that you have to take on weight loss surgery if you start walking today and eating real food. I know myself that just from walking and real food I was able to take off significant amounts of weight and this is before I discovered the powerful benefits of deadlifting, squats, pushups and clean and presses with free weights.

The same was true of glucose uptake and metabolism, and of measures of cardiorespiratory fitness.

“Insulin sensitivity and cardiorespiratory fitness are both important indices of metabolic health,” Coen said. “Any improvement in both is likely to reduce future risk of cardiometabolic disease.”

Both groups lost a similar amount of weight and reduced their waist circumference by the same amount in the course of the study.

Within three to four weeks after surgery patients will have recovered enough to start exercising, Coen said, and should try any activity they are likely to stick with – whether a gym program, bicycling, swimming, gardening or another option.

Most patients are not very physically active before surgery, but The American Heart Association and American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery recommend mild exercise before surgery to facilitate postoperative recovery, he said.

I am sure that most people prefer the idea of getting into the habit of walking, one of the most powerful exercises to lose weight instead of weight loss surgery! Forget about facilitating postoperative recovery, start walking moderately and eating real food now so you can avoid weight loss surgery altogether!

National organizations including The Obesity Society recommend that patients adhere to a healthy lifestyle including exercise for 30 minutes per day, but there are no more specific evidence-based pre or post-operative guidelines for physical activity, he said.

“We hope that this study will play a role in formulating patient recommendations in the future, “Coen said.

In addition to other health measures, exercise may help bariatric surgery patients lose more weight after the six-month period this study covered, he said.

“The common dogma is that (surgery) is a magic cure for diabetes and weight and maybe they don’t need to do anything else,” Coen said. “But our results show that there is still room for therapeutic benefit of exercise.”

Weight loss surgery is not the magic cure for diabetes and obesity. Using our own two feet by walking is the magic cure. We were designed to move and to walk, and when we do not, we suffer the consequences. 30 minutes a day is a small amount of time to invest for such huge health benefits. Even after weight loss surgery Paul M. Coen, the lead author of the study concludes that there is still room for the therapeutic benefit of exercise after weight loss surgery, so why not start before and cancel the weight loss surgery option?

Are you thinking of weight loss surgery as the solution to obesity or do you know someone who is?

Are you willing to try walking 30 to 60 minutes every day to avoid weight loss surgery?

As you can see from this article, even after you have the weight loss surgery, you will still have to walk, so there is no way out of it, start walking today!

Thank you for reading and for sharing your thoughts about the results of this post weight loss surgery study.

The Original Aritcle appeared here: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/12/03/exercise-after-weight-loss-surgery-may-boost-health-improvements/