Help me understand "over exercise"

Sheisinlove109

What does over exercise mean? At what point am I wasting my time?
Female
Original weight 354
Current 264. Time taken to lose 8 months.

I'm eating mostly right (I stay within my calories everyday and eat to perform at the gym but will eat random yummies occasionally). No bingeing (never did), get good sleep, lots of water, no cleanse, no pills, no low carb, just good old hard stinkin' work.

I started off first three months at 65 min on elliptical 6-7mph. Stalled a little, switched to elliptical 45 and weights 45ish min a day. Stalled a little again decided to dump elliptical and do arc trainer 45 min and 45-1hr weights.

Current regimen: 45 min arc trainer, 45-1hr weights, 10 min arc trainer.

My question: I'm working like crazy. Major sweat hard work for me. I burn according to machine about 1000 calories total. I do this DAILY. Missed 4 days since January.

I know they say let your body rest but I really enjoy it. It's such a stress reliever and I love that it is something that is all about me. From couch to love the gym has been an interesting road but that's a story for another time.

So my question: how do I prevent these stalls? I'm not a treadmill or bike person... and at what point is my body ignoring the burn?

I get such different information. I want to be 150ish pounds. I don't want it to take forever but don't want/need it to happen tomorrow. What is the right amount? Please advise.

SonyaCele

Congrats on losing 90 lbs!!!! you gotta feel great about that. There is no answer to what is the right amount. If you enjoy what you are doing, do it. I don't understand what you mean that you are stalling, you are still getting in exercise each day, where is the stall? Eat at a deficit to lose weight, go on the cardio machines for health and stress relief. If you enjoy it every day , do it every day. If you want to take a day off, take a day off. Make your lifestyle enjoyable and dont worry if you are "maximizing burn" You want to lose 100 more lbs, that could take 1 or 2 years. Just settle in to a lifestyle of eating the right amounts of the right food, and getting in some exercise each day and enjoy the ride.

HermanLily

Calories, weight loss is about calories in vs out

brdnw

I think you should look into high intensity interval training (HIIT). So do your ellipitcal at a high speed / difficulty for 20 seconds, then do it at a more base pace for 15 seconds and repeat. Interval training is far superior than doing static cardio. For me i rather run, so i do sprint interval 5 days a week for 20-25 minutes.

you didn't mention diet either...that surely has a strong impact.

keep lifting though as that is more beneficial than cardio.

mmapags

If you have the energy to have good workouts, I don't think you are over exercising. I could not do my strength routine back to back days. But I do a progressive, free weight, full body routine that is not meant to be done on consecutive days. I up my cardio on the off days, only use cardio for warm up/ cool down on strength days. I get some kind of activity 7 days per week. 3 strength sessions.

When you say "stalls", what do you mean? Has weight loss stalled? What cals and what deficit are you running? How tight is your logging and measuring? Have you taken a break from calorie restriction in the last 8 months?

Unless you are struggling with energy and/ or recovery, I don't think your exercise is the problem. It is very cardio heavy though. I might change things up a few days per week and lighten up on the cardio and increase the intensity on the weight training. It's good to change things up every once in while to cause your body to adapt.

JeromeBarry1

Your plan of exercising a combination of cardio and weight is magnificent!
Your success of 90 lb weight loss in 8 months is phenomenal!

Here's the thing. The more weight you lose, the slower it's going to be. Fortify your mind to accept that.

spiriteagle99

I have read that the elliptical is one of the most inaccurate machines in terms of measuring calorie burn. Perhaps only eat back half the calories.

Sheisinlove109

mmapags wrote: »

If you have the energy to have good workouts, I don't think you are over exercising. I could not do my strength routine back to back days. But I do a progressive, free weight, full body routine that is not meant to be done on consecutive days. I up my cardio on the off days, only use cardio for warm up/ cool down on strength days. I get some kind of activity 7 days per week. 3 strength sessions.

When you say "stalls", what do you mean? Has weight loss stalled? What cals and what deficit are you running? How tight is your logging and measuring? Have you taken a break from calorie restriction in the last 8 months?

Unless you are struggling with energy and/ or recovery, I don't think your exercise is the problem. It is very cardio heavy though. I might change things up a few days per week and lighten up on the cardio and increase the intensity on the weight training. It's good to change things up every once in while to cause your body to adapt.

Thanks you guys for your help...this has been quite the learning curve.

"Stalls" yes... weight loss. Some months I lose 8-15 lbs...other maybe 1lb. I don't feel like I alter my diet too crazy but I must be if it really comes down to CICO.

I think I should tighten up my logging..I guess I'll start weighing food.

For calories I eat between 1600-1800 daily.

mmapags

Yes, tightening up with weighing and measuring can help. Also, your deficit may be too aggressive at this point. Maybe bring it to 1.5 lbs per week? To lose 15lbs in a month is a lot. Also, consider taking a 2 week break from calorie restriction. This can help physically, hormonally and mentally. Lyle McDonald wrote a great piece about this that I'm having trouble laying my hands on. I'll try to find it to post it.

jgnatca

When I started to get in to running I had to start giving myself full rest days. This was to prevent injury more than anything. A bonus was that I got noticeably stronger after rest day.

If you want to get stronger as well as slimmer, you may want to incorporate rest days.

If activity makes you feel great you can switch your activities on different days so that different muscle groups are resting on different days.

For the weight routines similarly you will get stronger on rest days and if you progressively increase your reps/weights.

mmapags

mmapags wrote: »

Yes, tightening up with weighing and measuring can help. Also, your deficit may be too aggressive at this point. Maybe bring it to 1.5 lbs per week? To lose 15lbs in a month is a lot. Also, consider taking a 2 week break from calorie restriction. This can help physically, hormonally and mentally. Lyle McDonald wrote a great piece about this that I'm having trouble laying my hands on. I'll try to find it to post it.

Here it is! http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html/

canadianlbs

sunsweet77 wrote: »

What does over exercise mean? At what point am I wasting my time?

i'm tempted to say you're never wasting your time if you have fun.

more detail, i think i see two different streams here.

a)

Stalled a little, switched to elliptical 45 and weights 45ish min a day. Stalled a little again decided to dump elliptical and do arc trainer 45 min and 45-1hr weights.

[side question: 'stalled' means what in your world? weight loss or stamina/speed/strength? ] i think my observation's going to be the same either way, but anyway . . .

b)

I know they say let your body rest but I really enjoy it.

so the two-differents that i'm getting here is a) seems to be about goals and a destination, and b) seems to be about enjoyment-in-the-moment. i guess my own synopsis of 3 years lifting is: 'stalls' happen regardless. the real question is, assuming what you're doing isn't useful for progress towards a), do you enjoy it enough to keep doing it for reason b)?

my personal experience has been that burnout is real (i'm 52, have rheumatoid arthritis, have only so much capital to spend on physical things). but if i'm in a b) mood i'll look for lesser things to do for a while that don't stress my body's adaptation potential, until it's caught up.

ETA: i'm not all that interested in straight weight loss anymore. i'm very mildly motivated to lose another 10 pounds at most, but i'm just giving it the chinese water torture approach, personally. so for me it's a straight choice between liking the workouts for their own sake, and not wanting to overextend.

all i've really got on that front is that lifting is just like drinking. in theory you ought to know your limit when you go in and stay within it. so when it starts to take hold of me and i get the i'm-bulletproof-mwahahaha thing that tells me to keep right on going, to me it's just the kind of executive decision that grownup life is already full of. basically: "you'll be sorry tomorrow unless you stop now. your call"