HOW OFTEN AND HOW LONG SHOULD YOU EXERCISE?

Funkymommy88

I woke today not feeling so well, I don't know if it has got something to do with strenuous elliptical exercise and lower calories yesterday. How often do you guys exercise and what is an ideal duration time? Do you also eat back your exercise calories? Tips appreciated, thanks pals!

oootto92

This is all just from my personal experience:
The amount of exercise should be adjusted to meet your goals and your ability to reach them. As a young student with sedentary work schedule and a lot of free time I've set a target of 450 mins of activity every week. My goal is to lose fat at rapid pace while maintaining muscle. I think this is suitable goal taking account all the factors and I can still recover easily and have enough energy to get my daily grind done at school.

If you talk about the length of a cardiovascular exercise with a purpose to lose fat and increase overall fitness my recommendation for novice athlete would be doing 2-4 exercises per week with BPM ranging 110-140 as long as you hit the "wall". This is where you've depleted your glycogen storages from your body and it becomes really tough to carry on. This can be anywhere between 30 and 90 minutes depending on the intensity of the workout.

I wouldn't recommend working out for starters if you are still sore from the last workout. Muscle soreness is nothing to be afraid of but your joints and such may not have recovered enough and you might risk injury. I personally do not see any point in eating the calories back after workout if the purpose of the exercise is to lose fat. That's just throwing last 60 minutes on the elliptical into the trash.

sschauer513

Depends a lot on age, fitness level, what you're doing and what the end goal is. If just weight loss and not doing lifting to save muscle could easily get by with HITT / circuit training for 20-30 minutes a day and be fine. If you are doing lifting probably 1 hour a day depending on the program and some cardio after. But age really comes into play at 47 I can't lift and do cardio like a 17 year old. But listen to your body this is not a sprint if you have to take a day or even a week off to recover do it.

I personally do 45-60 minutes lifting (heavy for strength) and cardio 5 days a week with about 45 minutes lifting and 10-15 cardio. Also have scheduled deload weeks every 8 weeks. But do what fits your schedule and your life weight loss is done with your diet and not in the gym.

As for exercise calories and eating back I started doing about 50% but inaccurate burn was hard to get right so I went with https://www.muscleforlife.com/tdee-calculator/ and just give myself a higher calorie goal per day/week and do exercise without worry about the burn.

TavistockToad

Funkymommy88 wrote: »

I woke today not feeling so well, I don't know if it has got something to do with strenuous elliptical exercise and lower calories yesterday. How often do you guys exercise and what is an ideal duration time? Do you also eat back your exercise calories? Tips appreciated, thanks pals!

depends on your goals.

yes, you should eat back your exercise cals if you use MFP numbers, just make sure you have fairly accurate estimates for calories burnt.

callsitlikeiseeit

a lot of this comes into knowing your body. and that takes time.

ive been doing this 5 years now. i workout (mostly cardio) anywhere from 2-5 times a week (5 is always my goal but 3-4 is my average, cause .... life as a single mom). as far as eating back calories .... sometimes i do, sometimes i dont. depends on if i am hungry and how im feeling.

estherdragonbat

Depends on goals and intensity. I walk for 90 minutes to two hours every day I can. On days I can't, I do 70 minutes on a fitness glider. Neither is particularly intense but I burn around 550 calories doing it. I've worked up from doing minimum 25 minutes of each over a year and a half ago. Strength training is 5 days a week split between lower body (35 minutes) and upper body/core (55 minutes).

AnnPT77

If it's a new thing, ramp up gradually, starting with moderate intensity activity, perhaps 3 days a week. When that starts to feel manageable and good, consider adding other days, maybe varying the activity. Keep intensity lower for a month or six weeks, then start phasing in more intensity, but always allow one day between really intense workouts of the same type (like heavy lifting for the same muscle groups, or intense cardio).

Ideally, you want exercise to be fun, and energizing (after maybe just a few minutes of "whew!" feeling right after the workout). To get the best weight management benefits, you don't want to be exhausted and dragging through the rest of your day. If that happens, it saps calories from your regular daily activity (do less, sit/sleep more, etc.), and on net you burn fewer calories. (Non-exercise daily activity like job, chores, family, etc., account for more calorie burn, for most people, than exercise does. Exhaustion/fatigue reduces those.)

The right duration/frequency is what stays fun and energizing, and fits well into good life balance as you personally define it. That means having time not only for exercise, but also your job, family, social activity, non-exercise hobbies, and anything else that's really important to you. No one else can tell you how much time that is. Last I looked, IIRC, the basic US official recommendation was 150 minutes weekly of activity that raises heart rate, and 2 days of strength training. So, that could be good to shoot for, if it fits into your life.

Definitely eat back at least some exercise calories, if you let MFP set your calorie goal, especially so if your weight loss target is aggressive, and you're doing relatively much exercise. MFP built a calorie deficit into your basic calorie goal before exercise (assuming you followed instructions and set your activity level based on your job, home, and other non-exercise activity). Under-eating is a recipe for fatigue and weakness, and you don't want that.

Many people worry that exercise calories may be over-estimated. If that worries you, eat back 50% to start, monitor for 4-6 weeks, then adjust your calorie goal if needed.

I'm a li'l ol' lady, and retired, age 62, now in weight maintenance at 5'5", low 130s. I've been quite active for around 15 years now. It's summer, so I'm rowing (on water) 4 days a week when weather permits (on the water about an hour and a half), going to a 45-minute spin class 2 days, strength training 2-3 days for around 40-45 minutes, and throwing in some random bike rides or walks or whatever. ATM, I'm also rowing and doing related activities another 3 evenings a week, helping with my club's learn-to-row class, but that's temporary. This works for me, because rowing is pure fun, I enjoy my spin classes, I get a mix of activity, and (because I'm lucky to be retired) I still have time for other hobbies and chores. Only you can determine what will work for you.

Best wishes!

VUA21

Depends on your fitness level and how long you've been exercising regularly and your goals. When I first started, I would be exhausted after 15 minutes of walking, 30 minutes a day was my limit. Now, if I don't get my 30-45 min morning jog in I feel off, in addition to strength training and more cardio (usually a power walk) in the evening. Now I try to keep my total workout time to under 2 hours + my walk (mainly used to decompress the day), if I had no responsibilities or life I could almost live at a gym.