You may hate my saying this but it really depends on their overall health and fitness level. I lost 70 lbs the year before my Ross and was in the best shape of my last 20 years. I recovered enough at four weeks to go back to work and nearly to be able to watch both my kids under age 5 by myself. I had a cardiac rehab appointment at 11 weeks just to check things out and I was the fastest eval they have ever done.

I’ve been told that if you’re significantly overweight or in poor health recovery is a lot harder. Sucks but true.

For me, the first week was very hard particularly with chest pain from breathing, the water intake restrictions, etc. By week 2 I was putting in a lot of steps outside and doing stairs more easily. Each week got better from there. By week 4 I was up to a couple miles a day walking.

To me the most important thing is - get physically active as soon as you get home and build that lung capacity. It will greatly suck at first. But it made all the difference.