Impact of Supervised Exercised Training Before Bariatric Surgery on Body Composition

The aim of this study was to determine if a program including exercise training before surgery is effective in maintaining muscle mass 1 year after bariatric surgery. This is a nonrandomised, retrospective, single-centre study. Patients were operated on between January 2021 and December 2023. During the preparatory course, patients are offered to join the metabolic rehabilitation protocol. This consists of 3 h of day hospital three times a week during eight consecutive weeks, before surgery. A total of 178 patients were included in the study: 63 (35.4%) in the exercise group and 115 (64.6%) in the control group. A total of 150 (84.3%) were female, with a mean age was 42.0 years and a mean body mass index (BMI) was 41.8 ± 6.0 kg/m². Patients in the exercise group were older than patients in the control group, 45.6 ± 11.8 versus 40.1 ± 10.7 years old (p = 0.002), they had higher LDLc 1.34 ± 0.41 versus 1.21 ± 0.33 g/L (p = 0.05), and more of them were diabetics (p = 0.01). There were no significant differences between the two groups, but the increase in muscle mass seemed higher in exercise group versus control group: 6.3% ± 5.2% versus 5.2% ± 4.4% (p = 0.14). HDLc and delta LDLc seemed higher in the exercise group versus control group: 0.57 ± 0.13 versus 0.55 ± 0.12 g/L and - 0.29 ± 0.27 versus - 0.22 ± 0.26 g/L, and CRP tends to be lower in the exercise group 1.1 ± 1.2 versus 1.8 ± 3.4 mg/L, but these results were not significant. The implementation of a rehabilitation protocol before surgery is difficult in patients with obesity. Nevertheless, it probably allows the patients to establish regular and lasting physical activity.