Too much cardio?

crewgirl86

Hello! I am seeking opinions about my overall goals and exercise plans. I am a 30 year old female, 5'7 and 168 lbs.

I have been actively working on my weight loss over the past ~1.5 years. I have lost about 40 pounds, slowly but surely through diet + exercise, while still finding "balance" in my life (ex: enjoying a few cocktails occasionally, and enjoying some of my favorite foods, too.) Although my loss has been slow, it has been steady and has felt sustainable to me.

When I started, I was doing more "light" exercise- steady state cardio (elliptical, walking) and dance classes. Over the past 6 months, I've increased the rigor of my workouts, doing HIIT cardio (running intervals and spinning classes), in addition to ~20 minutes/day of body weight and free weight exercises, mostly compound movements. Although the scale hasn't moved too much faster with this increase in exercise, I do believe I look more fit and toned from the changes in my workouts.

My goal is to lose ~1 lb/week for the next few months, putting me well within my healthy BMI zone by the holidays.

My plan, moving forward is:
2 HIIT spinning classes (50 min each)/week
2 interval runs, alternating between running, sprinting, and walking (~2 to 3 miles each)/week
1 dance class/week
20 minutes of body weight/free weight exercises, 6 days/week
1 rest day (no exercise at all)/week

My big question is- what are pros / cons of this plan? Is this too much cardio? I truly enjoy my cardio time- the spinning classes are fun and energizing, and running gives me peace of mind. But, what are potential downsides to doing so much cardio? I currently eat ~1600 calories/day and sometimes eat my exercise calories back. Would love to hear thoughts... Thanks in advance!

spiriteagle99

If you enjoy it, then I would keep doing it. I run 6-7 hours a week and walk another 7 or so, because that's what I enjoy doing. My only suggestion is to make sure you do a good 10-15 minute warm-up before doing your interval runs to lessen the chance of injury, or maybe turn one of the runs into a longer easy run.

RavenLibra

Mo such thing as too much cardio... for some confidence get a body composition read out of fat v lean muscle mass... along with resting heart rate... tdee... if you are working on running a faster mile... then you are on the right track...

ttippie2000

If you're doing intervals six days a week...I dunno. It might need some periodization. A good college track coach might be able to get you sorted. Track athletes have this worked out in a very data driven way. (I know enough to know I am not qualified to cover the details for a runner.)

One person who influenced me was a female 10k runner that set 24 personal bests in 25 races (High school friend...U. of Oregon track athlete...Mary Decker's training partner...best man at her wedding...long story). She had a hard day/easy day setup alternating with one rest day per week. Her idea was to make the easy day workouts all about active recovery, so she'd jog really slowly. Like boring, but be out there for a while. Everybody passed her in training but she killed them on race day. Essentially, she would allow her body to recover so she could go all out on her hard days, but with short duration. Short and intense. This approach is echoed by the bicycle racing coaches I have trained under.

Here's some signs that you need to adjust a rest interval or allow for more recovery: 1) You've very tired, 2) you're getting injured, 3) Your split times on your intervals is decreasing.

crewgirl86

Thank you so much- very helpful!

Azdak

I know intervals and higher intensity workouts can seem more fun and more rewarding, but I agree you need some LISS in your program. At the very least, I would substitute a longer, slower, steady-state run or other cardio activity for one of the interval runs.

bray149

Little heavy on HIIT. Great for fat burn but HIIT is specifically geared toward explode quick twitch power. What you begin missing out on is building endurance and good sustained cardio activity. I'd say unless you're actually training for a sport that requires more explosive power work a couple long steady cardio workout in to replace a few HIIT workouts.