How many times do you workout per day/week?
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tasha12004
Posts: 232 Member
Just curious to know how many times you workout each day/ week. I started to really focus on my weight loss and am now doing 2 times a day 5 days a week ,and the other 2 days I'm doing one workout day. Just wondering is that going to help me or not really make a difference?
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Replies
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Make adjustments to your diet to lose weight. Exercising twice a day doesn't seem like a sustainable plan. It wouldn't be for me.5
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Weight loss requires a calorie deficit. You can achieve that by eating less or moving more or a combo of both. While it's generally easier to cut calories than to try to exercise them off, anybody who is pretty sedentary/inactive should be aiming to get up and moving on a regular basis, simply for the matter of good health.
That doesn't mean you need to do 2-a-days. In fact if you are coming from a sedentary/inactive point, I would caution against them as when you couple them with cutting calories, you will probably become even more sluggish during your non-exercise time.
Anyway, to answer your original question, right now I am lifting weights 5x a week for 45-75 minutes. I aim to get 8k steps on those days and 10k steps, or the equivalent via cycling on the other two days a week. I'm doing this while eating at maintenance. When I switch to cutting early next year I will probably switch back to lifting 3-4 days a week.1 -
Unless you have some sort of training goal that requires more than one workout per day, there really isn't a point to doing so.0
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I workout a crazy amount, like up to 10 classes/week, lifting 3x, PT 2-3x, run 3-4x. But I don't do it to lose weight, I do it because it's what I enjoy. Still I always have at least one rest day a week, where all I do is walk, and I didn't just suddenly jump in at this level. I started by walking across a room and slowly but surely increased the amount I do. Oh and I make sure I eat enough to fuel this activity level.2
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I lift 3 times a week, often do a yoga class too, and get about 12,000 steps a day.
I find trying to lift heavy weights more often is detrimental for me, and I just get tired, cranky and don't make progress.0 -
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NorthCascades wrote: »
A very good and very under-appreciated reason!!!
I often work out 2x a day more for schedule reasons than any other reason. I do a Classical Stretch workout in the early morning--very relaxing, great for strength, flexibility, and I don't get sweaty. In the afternoon after work I may walk or do a Zumba workout several times a week.
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Of course working out more will burn more calories, all else equal. The only question you need to figure out is whether the incremental calories are worth the extra trip to the gym.
For example, I burn about 250 calories per 30 minute session on the elliptical and decided that it wasn't worth it to me for strict weight loss purposes. I used to run 4 times a week and get on the elliptical 2 times per week but now just skip the elliptical days because for 500 calories, I'd rather just get a little more sleep on those mornings.
The running does more than enough for my health and calorie burns by itself such that the 'extra' elliptical workouts aren't worth my time.0 -
Well, I'm not coming from a sedentary level. I usually go to the gym 3 times a week but hit a huge plateau. I am eating around 1200 calories-1400 a day and I usually burn 300-500 calories per workout(30 mins-hour). I started doing 2 times a week simply because I like to get that hard cardio burn in right before I wind down for the night. I'm just hoping that it does help. A lot of trainers/ people have told me I need to have a rest day or 2 in but when I stop one day I feel like I don't want to go back the next. It's really been a struggle to keep consistency in my routine/diet. I have already lost 21 pounds I'm just looking to get to my next goal which is 9 pounds away. My ultimate goal is 19 pounds away.1
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Do the math. If you are adding 5 workouts a week at 300 per, that's 1500 extra calories, or an extra pound every 2-3 weeks.
One note - the more you burn the more you need to eat. If you're eating 1400 calories net of exercise right now and add an extra 300 calories per day via an extra workout, you will need to up your calories to stay at the minimum 'safe' level over the longer term (1200/day).
Yes, from a pure weight loss perspective, this will reduce the weight loss impact of those extra sessions.0 -
Do the math. If you are adding 5 workouts a week at 300 per, that's 1500 extra calories, or an extra pound every 2-3 weeks.
One note - the more you burn the more you need to eat. If you're eating 1400 calories net of exercise right now and add an extra 300 calories per day via an extra workout, you will need to up your calories to stay at the minimum 'safe' level over the longer term (1200/day).
Yes, from a pure weight loss perspective, this will reduce the weight loss impact of those extra sessions.
If I don't give my muscles a rest or have a rest day, will that effect me negatively?0 -
tasha12004 wrote: »Do the math. If you are adding 5 workouts a week at 300 per, that's 1500 extra calories, or an extra pound every 2-3 weeks.
One note - the more you burn the more you need to eat. If you're eating 1400 calories net of exercise right now and add an extra 300 calories per day via an extra workout, you will need to up your calories to stay at the minimum 'safe' level over the longer term (1200/day).
Yes, from a pure weight loss perspective, this will reduce the weight loss impact of those extra sessions.
If I don't give my muscles a rest or have a rest day, will that effect me negatively?
Depends...if you're doing hard resistance or intense interval training, then yes. Rest days are when your muscles literally rebuild themselves after hard stress.
If doing lower impact steady state cardio, it's not quite as critical. Still, a rest day is good to ensure that you don't work out when excessively tired from the cumulative non-rest days that came before since this is a recipe for poor exercise form and injury.
For example, I run 5-6 days per week and while I vary the intensity/distances of my runs, I still tend to need a break after 5 consecutive days of running. At that point my body just feels beat up and is ready for day of rest. Trying to run on those days would be a guarantee of poor form and likely injury.1 -
tasha12004 wrote: »Do the math. If you are adding 5 workouts a week at 300 per, that's 1500 extra calories, or an extra pound every 2-3 weeks.
One note - the more you burn the more you need to eat. If you're eating 1400 calories net of exercise right now and add an extra 300 calories per day via an extra workout, you will need to up your calories to stay at the minimum 'safe' level over the longer term (1200/day).
Yes, from a pure weight loss perspective, this will reduce the weight loss impact of those extra sessions.
If I don't give my muscles a rest or have a rest day, will that effect me negatively?
Eventually yes, depending on your intensity of each workout. You may want to consider some of your work outs to be active recovery ones, like yoga or walking.0 -
the answer is pretty simple:
if you are not able to go until your absolute maximum during workout or lifting iron, you will be able to do it twice!
the funny thing behind: why the hell i should torture myself twice a day, when i can do it in half of the time IF i do it for real?0 -
I exercise 2-3 hours daily, BUT very little of it is strenuous. I grab my MP3 player, slip on my headphones, and walk instead of bussing it (I don't drive). If I have errands to run, I walk them. If not, I shoot for a 2-hour walk. The last time I clocked my pace, I was doing about 3.25 mph. If I can't get in at least 90 minutes of walking, I use a fitness glider in my basement for an hour.
Three times a week, I do a full-body strength training workout with light dumbbells that takes me about an hour and 15 minutes from warmup to cool-down, including rest breaks between sets.
Granted, my heart rate doesn't usually shoot up significantly for most of this, but... eating back half the calories MFP tells me I burned usually gives me about 450 more calories to play with. And eating those? My weight has dropped 80 lbs (note that I was exercising a lot less when I started ten months ago), and... I've discovered I actually have deltoids.0 -
That’s a lot, you are headed for a burnout. I work out hard six days a week. 5 of those days is intense 30 minutes, the 6th day is for about an hour and fifteen minutes.0
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On average I exercise 5 days a week for 1 hour each session. I have no desire to exercise twice in one day, but that is just me.0
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I ride a exercise bike for 35 minutes and then do weight training, stretching and floor work (leg lifts, crunches, etc) for about an hour.
Do this five days a week.0 -
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It varies for me. During the time of year that I can't get outside much it's rarely more than 30 min. When it's nice out I don't always do a workout, but I usually get a couple of hours of exercise level activity per day during the week and usually 4-5 on the weekends.0
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