Work Out Outdoors for Added Health Benefits

After weight loss surgery, physical health isn’t the only aspect of your well-being that needs tending to—mental health is just as important. Luckily, there is something you can do to help yourself maintain your weight loss, physical and mental health that happens to be all wrapped up into one activity.

Your weight loss surgeon in Macon has already informed you of how beneficial daily exercise is for sustaining weight loss after bariatric surgery, but a recent study revealed that outdoor exercise in particular is associated with greater decreases in tension, anger and depression when compared to indoor activity. What’s more, this research revealed that just five minutes of exercise in an outdoor green space can improve self-esteem and mood.

In addition to enhancing and sustaining weight loss, here are several benefits of outdoor exercise:

1. Exercising outdoors can increase your likelihood of continuing to keep up with exercise regularly. It’s hard enough to find motivation almost every day of the week to exercise—especially when some days are more stressful than others. However, exercising outdoors may be just the kick you need to stay on track with exercising. According to research review conducted by the University of Exeter, exercising in the great outdoors is a reinforcing behavior—meaning it leaves you with a greater intent to repeat the activity at a later date.
2. Working out in nature instead of in the gym can also increase your energy levels. Though exercise in general will hopefully reinvigorate, just 20 minutes of outside activity can rev you up as much as one cup of coffee, according to a study from the University of Rochester. Next time you’re feeling a little tired and have some time to spare, head outside for a mid-day walk or jog to increase you energy levels.
3. According to the Harvard School of Public Health, people with excess body fat exhibit lower vitamin D levels and are therefore more likely to suffer from a vitamin D deficiency. Researchers believe this is because in people who are overweight, vitamin D tends to be stored in fat cells rather than circulated through the body.   Combine working out outdoors with the help of your weight loss surgery and you may be able to increase your vitamin D levels. Another study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that outside exercisers had high levels of vitamin D, suggesting this was all thanks to Mother Nature and the sun.
4. Outdoor exercise can also help improve your attention and focus, according to a small study from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This study found that when it comes to increased focus and attention, physical environment matters and in this case, an outside walk in the park was able to help more so than a walk in the city.

These are just a few reasons you may want to take your exercise routine outdoors after weight loss surgery. If you’re looking for places to work out in the sun in Macon or Albany, here are a few parks in your areas:

• Rotary Park off Riverside Drive in Macon
• Central City Park off Willie Smokie Glover Dr. in Macon
• Grove Park off Rosebrier Avenue in Albany
• Chehaw Park off Philema Road in Albany

Have you visited one of the parks? Tell us which one you like best in the comment section below!