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The Effect of Exercise in Patients Awaiting Bariatric Surgery

The Effect of a Preoperative Exercise Programme on Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Resting Metabolic Rate and Autonomic Control in Patients With Severe Obesity Awaiting Bariatric Surgery

Status
Recruiting
Phases
NA
Study type
Interventional
Source
ClinicalTrials.gov
Registry ID
NCT05235945
Acronym
BariPrehab
Enrollment
48
Registered
2022-02-11
Start date
2023-06-16
Completion date
2025-12-31
Last updated
2025-05-21

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Bariatric Surgery Candidate, Obesity

Keywords

exercise, fitness, pre-operative, prehabilitation, bariatric, obesity, surgery

Brief summary

The aim of this project is to understand the impact of a four week preoperative exercise programme on fitness and metabolic rate and weight before surgery. A multi-site randomised trial sponsored by UCL, recruiting patients awaiting bariatric surgery for obesity at University College London Hospital (UCLH), Whittington Health NHS Trust, or Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. The investigators will measure fitness, metabolic rate, body weight/composition and grip strength in all participants, before and after a four-week supervised physical activity intervention. The investigators will also interview participants about their participation in the study in regard to the planning of future studies.

Detailed description

The aim of this project is to understand the impact of a structured personalised 4-week exercise programme on resting fitness and metabolic rate in patients awaiting bariatric surgery for obesity. The hypothesis is that patients awaiting bariatric surgery who undertake a preoperative exercise programme will experience attenuated changes in functional capacity (fitness) and metabolic rate compared with usual care (no exercise programme) along with alterations in autonomic control. The investigators propose a randomised controlled trial that will recruit 48 patients with obesity scheduled for bariatric surgery at UCLH, Whittington Health NHS Trust, and Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. Participants will be randomly assigned to either usual care (exercise advice only) or combination exercise intervention group, during a four-week lead up to surgery, on a 1:1 basis. Participants randomised to the intervention group will participate in 7 physiologist-led exercise sessions online and also be instructed to complete 7 self-led 30-minute exercise sessions over the four-week intervention period. This equates to a total of 14 exercise sessions across the four-week (28 day) intervention. Additionally, participants will be encouraged to be physically active on as many days as possible, in bouts of 10-minutes or more. The programme is designed to meet the National Physical Activity Guidelines of at least 150 minutes of low-moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous PA per week, or a combination of the two. The investigators will measure physical fitness, metabolic rate, and how the heart responds to hormonal changes (the sympathetic nervous system) in all participants, before and after the four-week study period. The investigators will also interview participants about their participation in the study in regard to the planning of future studies. Baseline data collection will occur at least six weeks prior to surgery as detailed below. Both groups will be invited to attend follow-up assessment at 4 weeks where they will undergo the same series of tests. The total duration of participation will be approximately 4 weeks.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALOnline exercise intervention

Described in arm descriptions

Sponsors

University College, London
Lead SponsorOTHER

Study design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
SINGLE (Outcomes Assessor)

Intervention model description

Randomised controlled trial

Eligibility

Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

1. Adults, aged 18 and above. 2. Patients enrolled in the UCLH, Homerton or Whittington Hospitals bariatric surgery program with BMI \> 30 kg/m2 3. ≤5 % variation in body weight over preceding 3 months. 4. Willing and able to comply with the trial protocol. 5. Willing and able to provide written informed consent 6. Male or Female

Exclusion criteria

1. Pregnant or lactating mothers. 2. Weight over 180 kg (due to weight restrictions of equipment used). 3. Current use of betablockade. 4. Concurrent participation in other clinical intervention trial. 5. Clinically significant medical co-morbidities (e.g. uncontrolled hypertension, unstable cardiovascular disease) that could place at risk of an adverse response to exercise. 6. History of atrial fibrillation, unstable angina, acute coronary syndrome, congestive heart failure New York Heart Association class III-IV within the preceding 12 months.

Design outcomes

Primary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Fitness (VO2 in ml/kg/min)4 weeksVO2 (at anaerobic threshold (AT) and peak exercise) using gas-analysed cardiopulmonary exercise testing.

Secondary

MeasureTime frameDescription
Maximal grip strength (kg)4 weeksHand grip dynamometry, best of three repeat measures on each hand (left and right)
Body mass (kg)4 weeksBody mass in kilograms using body weight scales.
Autonomic control (heart-rate variability)4 weeksHeart-rate variability measured via electrocardiogram (ECG), assessing the variability between heart beats at rest, resting heart-rate, and exercise heart-rate response
Resting metabolic rate (VO2 in ml/kg/min)4 weeksEnergy expenditure at rest, collected using respiratory gas-analysis via metabolic cart.
Body composition (%FM, %FFM)4 weeksPercent fat mass and percent fat-free mass using bioelectric impedance analysis (BIA)
Physical activity patterns7 days7-day physical activity patterns (sedentary time, low, moderate and vigorous physical activity) measured using accelerometer data
Participant satisfaction feedback4 weeksParticipants satisfaction/acceptability of the mode of delivery and content of the intervention will be collected via semi-structured interviews. Participants will be asked how much they liked specific aspects of the program, and will answer using a 5-point Likert scale. They will also be asked to provide general feedback, and answers related to behaviour change using open-ended questions.

Countries

United Kingdom

Contacts

Primary ContactDaniel Martin
daniel.martin@plymouth.ac.uk+44 1752 600600

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026