In addition to emotional support, WeightWise will also include counseling sessions with an exercise therapist to help members develop an exercise program tailored to their lifestyle. Most morbidly obese individuals find exercise difficult and even painful as a result of the excess weight they carry. To ensure long-term success, exercise therapists will design a program that is not intimidating or overwhelming to the member. For example, most patients can understand that they park their car far away from the entry of a store; they will have to walk further. This is an example of calorie burning that patients relate to and would find non-threatening.

The goals of exercise are to improve oxygen delivery and metabolic processes, build strength and endurance, decrease body fat and improve movement in joints and muscles. The American Heart Association recommends individuals engage in 30-minute or longer workouts at least three or four times per week to enhance their cardio respiratory endurance.

Beginners should start with three and work up to five days per week. Advising a member to increase their activity level (workout) less than three days per week will not improve the member's fitness level and the member can risk injury because the body never gets a chance to fully adapt to physical training. Exercise prescriptions should be based on two principles:

1. Specificity - a well-rounded exercise program that includes exercise geared to each component of fitness, to different parts of the body and to specific activities or sports.
2. Progressive Overload - the human body adapts to the demands of exercise by improving its functionality. Too little exercise will have no effect on fitness; too much may cause injury. For every type of exercise, there is a training threshold at which fitness benefits begin to occur, a zone within which maximum fitness benefits occur and an upper limit of safe training

The amount of overload needed to maintain or improve a particular level of fitness is determined in terms of three dimensions: Frequency (how often), Duration (how long) and Intensity (Heart Rate or how hard you work).

Patient Assessment Measurements

Included below are some of the indicators our exercise physiologists may use to determine your present level of fitness. These measurements are used to individualize a fitness program to assist you in meeting your goals.

• Health Questionnaire (pre-operative only)
• Body Mass Index (BMI)
• VO2max
• Target Heart Rate
• Resting Metabolic Rate
• Ratio of Body Fat/Lean Muscle Mass

Our exercise physiologists play a vital role in achieving a positive outcome with surgical weight loss. Exercise prior to surgery is important to reach an ideal, safe body weight which will help with overall recovery during the process. Pre-surgical exercise prescriptions emphasize low intensity cardiovascular workouts aimed at stimulating the body’s response to efficiently and effectively burning fat. While exercise is important prior to surgery, it is critical for long term weight management after surgery.

After surgery, the WeightWise Bariatric Program offers a group educational class to reintroduce an active lifestyle during the recovery process. Anywhere from two to four weeks after surgery, we conduct a "post-operative workshop and exercise recovery" (or “P-O-W-E-R”) class designed to educate patients on deep breathing, flexibility/range of motion movements, basic strengthening and low intensity exercises to increase one’s daily activity. This class is designed for patients to perform at home during their recovery.

Six weeks after surgery, all patients are encouraged to follow up with our exercise physiologists to restart an individualized exercise program. Post-operatively, the exercise physiologists will tailor exercise prescriptions to account for pre-surgery exercise habits, post-surgery recovery, and any other exercise limitations/restrictions that may exist.

The role of exercise for surgical patients is invaluable. Not only will exercise help prepare the patient for a more successful surgical procedure and recovery process, but it will also be the most important post-surgical component of sustained weight loss. After surgery, we encourage our patients to undergo the same fitness assessments that we offer within the medical track of weight loss. The fitness assessments will be a valuable tool in determining baseline fitness levels as well as tracking improvements with your overall cardiovascular health.

» Read more about the role of our exercise physiologists