4 Aug 2021
#35 ENGLISH: Amanda Interviews Dr. Botezelli - Segment 4: Bariatrics and Exercises - How often should the exercises be performed BEFORE and AFTER BARIATRIC Surgery?
Amanda: Welcome back everyone, today we are talking about Bariatrics and exercises, and this is our fourth and last question for today's interview and I would like to hear from Dr. Botezelli, how often should the exercise be performed whether it is before or after you have your Bariatric surgery?
Dr. Botezelli: So, more is better, if you can do it every day, it is better, doing like 20 minutes per day, it's better than doing one hour every other day and this is also more reliable. So, if you want to start slow (as we said in the previous segment), like trying to take your stairs instead of the elevator, start to do walking across the street, go walking to the grocery, start to do some squats near your desk, in your house, more is better. If you can do it for like 20-30 minutes per day, it's amazing. The ideal would be one hour per day, every day, but you don't need to start with that. It's better to start slowly, changing your daily routine, so during work, you can take a couple of breaks, before lunch time for example (if you have 30 minutes or 60 minutes of lunch time, do 15 minutes of exercise then have your lunch). When I go back home, before I start preparing my dinner or before I take a shower, just do 10-15 minutes of exercise, so you can break exercises throughout the day, it doesn't matter that much, especially because you're starting, you can break exercising in different sessions. Usually, when I prescribe exercise, I send two routines for my clients, so they can’t escape. Like run (high intensity exercise) in 30 minutes and then you can break in two circuits, like two sets of 10-12 minutes each, and then there is a break in the middle. So, you can start your day doing one set of that exercise and another set when you get back home, so you have around 25-30 minutes of exercise. Or if you want, you can do the one-hour exercise. The difference with the one-hour exercise is that you burn more calories, so it's more efficient to lose weight, you lose weight faster. But the other exercise (specially before and after Bariatric surgery), will do the job to keep your muscles and your overall health. You don't need to start like trying to run a marathon (I see these mistakes all the time), people wanting to go to the gym like six-seven times per week, it may be a too stressful situation because you're changing too much variables, you feel pain in your body, so start slow, it is the longevity of your strategy, it is like years and years and years. I always remind people that you did not gain weight in one month or two months, don't expect to lose weight in one or two months, this is not going to happen, you need to see that's like a lifestyle change, a life change, this is the important part.
Amanda: And we talk about lifestyle change in the Bariatric journey all the time in our Bariatric Wellness Coaching, that is exactly what we do. And that is something really important that you mentioned, because I remember when you sent me my exercise routine, in the beginning I was able to rest one day and for me, it was so important to really keep it as a habit, and you and I have had many sessions about this. Sometimes people say “I'll do it today” or “I'll just skip it tomorrow” and then tomorrow comes and then the next day comes and it's easier for you to say I will skip that, but then I will do more exercise, and it's not really about that. For me, for my own routine and my own habit, I didn't feel like I really needed to rest. I rested for a couple weeks in the beginning, but as you and I have been talking about my routine and as I built more strength and more energy to and all of that with my eating habits and everything that was a combination of all, I felt better doing more exercise. In the beginning it was 30 minutes, then later I was doing 45 minutes and it wasn't affecting me. Then, I increased it to one hour.
