For many weight-loss surgery patients exercise is a chore, a beneficial but unpleasant task that need be done because the dividends are so great. It can be difficult to muster enough motivation to get started at all on any given day. I understand. I am one of those people.

Having said that, I will add that despite an occasional breech of focus, I exercise. It is pretty much the same as anything else: sometimes I enjoy it, sometimes I am neutral about it, and sometimes I do it but would rather not. There is one thing I am certain about though; I would rather exercise than return to the fatigued, unhappy, hypertensive, diabetic, unattractive, ridiculed, overeating, lethargic, depressed, self-destructive, negative, disinterested, physically ill, prescription-dependent obese person that I once was.

Given the choice...well, come on now and hello treadmill.

Exercise and Weight Loss

I will assume that because you have either had a weight-loss surgery or would like to have one of the weight-loss surgeries, your desire is to lose weight. If this assumption is accurate, then I should like to share that exercise helps accomplish that. Having stated the point modestly, I can say most directly that exercise does much more than help--exercise makes a remarkable difference in the total of weight loss, the rapidity of weight loss, and the maintenance of weight loss following bariatric surgery.

As stated in the Bariatric Surgery Source, the numbers speak for themselves. Studies have found that barbaric patients who exercise consistently have a 4.2% lower body mass index. In addition, those bariatric surgery patients who exercised at a moderately intense level for a minimum of 2.5 hours per week had a 5.5% greater excess weight loss after 6 months and a 5.7% greater excess weight loss after 12 month than those who patients who did not exercise accordingly.

A final study showed that adherence to physical activity was the most significant behavioral predictor of weight loss except for diet, following bariatric surgery.

The results of yet another study showed that bariatric surgery patients who walked or engaged in other moderate exercise for 200 minutes per week lost an average of 13.2 more pounds than those who did not. Baraitric Surgery patients who exercised also reported less suffering from depression and anxiety than those patients who did not exercise.

Rapid weight loss results in the loss of the muscle that calculates and controls metabolism. Exercise maintains lean body mass which in turn maintain metabolism and promotes healthy weight loss.

How Exercise Promotes Weight Loss

While it is true that exercise burn calories, this alone will not produce substantial weight loss. A moderate 30 minute jog will burn about 300 calories. A moderate 6 hour jog will burn off enough calories to lose about one pound.

Weight loss through exercise is accomplished by an increase in resting metabolism. Exercise boosts metabolism, and this higher rate translates into a faster burning of calories while you are at rest.