Exercise Help

CrabbyCancerMama

I'm down 70lba since mid January and have been working out 5x a week for 2 hrs a session but my workouts seem tt be getting more difficult. I thought it would get easier? Any advice? I alternate upper and lower weights and run 3 miles each workout

Spliner1969

Sounds like you're maybe just worn out from exercising 5x a week for 2 hours. I tend to do 6x a week for 1.5 hours at a time and some weeks I simply have to drop it back to 4 or 5 days just to catch up. I'd try going maybe every other day for a while and see if your energy levels return. If not, maybe you're at too high a deficit. When you have lots of body fat your body can tap into those fat reserves for energy which is good because you'll burn fat faster, but as you lose that fat your body has nothing to tap into, or less of it, so you might need more help keeping your energy up in the form of extra protein or carbs. Try re-adjusting your macros too for a while. Once I got near my goal weight I adjusted myself down to losing 1lb or .5lb a week until I hit my goal weight then went 5 lbs below it before transitioning to maintenance. But it started to get really hard to lose weight toward the end because there was less to lose in the first place. Upping my calories gave me more energy to exercise and helped me shed those last few pounds faster than I thought.

trigden1991

If you can workout for 2 hours then your training is not intense enough.

jemhh

A few questions:

• What are your height and weight currently?
• What is your goal weight?
• How many calories are you eating (not netting) on average each day?
• What lifting program are you on? If it's not an established routine, could you give a brief breakdown of the exercises and the number of days you are lifting?
• Do you run or lift first?
• Have you ever taken any breaks from exercise or deloaded (scaled back on your lifts)?

CrabbyCancerMama

jemhh wrote: »

A few questions:

• What are your height and weight currently?
• What is your goal weight?
• How many calories are you eating (not netting) on average each day?
• What lifting program are you on? If it's not an established routine, could you give a brief breakdown of the exercises and the number of days you are lifting?
• Do you run or lift first?
• Have you ever taken any breaks from exercise or deloaded (scaled back on your lifts)?

Height 5" 7 weight 202. Short term goal is 170. Final goal of 150. Calorie intake around 13 to 1500. I lift first always. MWF I do all leg circuit machines T, TH I do all circuit upper body machines. sometimes I squeeze in a Saturday workout with upper body too. I take weekends off and last week I was out of state so I didn't workout for 6 days those are my only breaks. my kids are up 2x a night almost every night so I'm sure that doesn't help anything

TR0berts

Regarding the workouts getting more difficult: they should, if you're progressing. The closer you get to your strength potential, the more difficult (generally speaking) it will be to complete all of your reps and sets.

Also, if you didn't work out for a week, and you tried picking back up where you left off, yes - that's not surprising that you'd find it difficult. It might be a good idea to back off just a little and build back up.

CSARdiver

Without overstressing yourself you can up the intensity of your workouts and cut that time in half. Find any full body workout bi-weekly schedule that fits your goals and target your workouts. Increase the intensity and incorporate some form of increasing resistance training. No reason to spend that much time in the gym.

Congrats on the success! What ages are your kids? I get mine working out with me - 8, 6, 3 and we all do calisthenics together every morning.

Cherimoose

The usual reasons for workouts feeling more difficult are not enough calories, or doing too much exercise. Sometimes not enough sleep plays a part.
Occasionally it's from a medical issue, like anemia, etc.

jemhh

StacyOglesbee wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

A few questions:

• What are your height and weight currently?
• What is your goal weight?
• How many calories are you eating (not netting) on average each day?
• What lifting program are you on? If it's not an established routine, could you give a brief breakdown of the exercises and the number of days you are lifting?
• Do you run or lift first?
• Have you ever taken any breaks from exercise or deloaded (scaled back on your lifts)?

Height 5" 7 weight 202. Short term goal is 170. Final goal of 150. Calorie intake around 13 to 1500. I lift first always. MWF I do all leg circuit machines T, TH I do all circuit upper body machines. sometimes I squeeze in a Saturday workout with upper body too. I take weekends off and last week I was out of state so I didn't workout for 6 days those are my only breaks. my kids are up 2x a night almost every night so I'm sure that doesn't help anything

If you are logging accurately you should be able to eat more. I started out at 202.5 and lost 52 pounds so my stats are very similar to yours. I didn't count calories for the first 30 lbs but from that point on I did and never averaged (weekly) less than 1750. At that point I was generally lifting 3x/wk and running 3x/wk so our activity frequencies are similar as well. I really think you just need to eat more. Eating in a larger deficit has worked because of your starting weight. As we get leaner, we need to reduce the deficit and even though you have 50 lbs to go, you are lean enough to dial it back a bit.