Short and long-term success for "athletes"

ejewing

I just went to a seminar last night and I am serious about VGS. I am a 300 lb morbidly obese guy who spent last summer pedaling a bicycle from Tucson, AZ to Council Bluffs, IA. For obvious reasons the experience was much more painful and challenging then it should have been. I want to do more epic rides in the future which brings me to my question.

After VGS is it possible to spend 5-6 hours a day on a bicycle burning 5-6000 calories/day?

I feel some shame in that I can overcome an epic challenge like biking 1350 miles in a month, but I can't even come close to getting my eating under control.

Does anyone have any experience about life 5-10 years out from surgery? both athletic and QOL?

candacet36

I am only 7 months post op but I can tell you that I run .... a lot!

I am training for a marathon and as long as I get in my protein I am just fine.

Also, this is the best thing that I have ever done! I have my active and healthy life back!

teachren

For sure!

I am not a cyclist (not yet anyway) but there is a guy on Obesity Help that goes by the nick Jujub. He is an avid cyclist and is doing some across america trek coming up. I would say he is clearly the poster child for VSG and cycling! :-) Plus he seems like a really cool guy.

He is on the VSG board. If I were you I'd try to get his take on it.

Good luck

Renee

Latse

I'm almost two years out from surgery and still don't think I could do a bike ride that long lol

There are not very many long term studies on VSG, it has been raising as the gold standard of bariatrics over the last 5 years, prior to that it was the first part of a duodenal switch surgery.

As far as being super long distance athletic afterwards, so long as you use small sips of water though-out your ride, not huge gulping drinks, you should be good for staying hydrated.

Calorie intake, you might need to rely on a product like energy beans, or something small that is high calorie you can eat while cycling, pre-loading on carbs isn't really an option because of the reduced stomach size.

Good Luck!

MyOwnSunshine

I am 2-1/2 years out and I could eat a LOT if I needed to. :-)

I think that you would need to deliberately plan high calorie, frequent meals to do something like that, but it should be fairly realistic.

Edited to add: I can also down water very quickly. I don't particularly need to sip... I can definitely chug a bottle of water after a run in hot weather.

ejewing

Thank you for all your input and encouragement. I can also think of high energy liquid options to keep fueled. Looking forward to the return of the old me.