can your body get used to exercise?

akilahleemarie
akilahleemarie Posts: 80 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
It is too hard mentally and physically to eat 1200 calories a day...I own a heart rate monitor and I know I burn about 600 calories an hour jogging, exercise bike, and elliptical...for child care reasons I cannot jog, and the bike is very boring...so I am going to start on the elliptical again...I have heard people say "you have to mix it up or your body gets used to it" I don't understand what that means exactly...with weights i understand...but with cardio i don't get it...i want to eat more, so i am going to depend on the elliptical for weight loss...so should i not worry about it just as long as i am burning calories on the elliptical? Maybe if I get into really good shape I will burn 500 calories instead of 600 in that hour...but some people talk like eventually your body gets used to it and you will not burn the extra calories...I don't see how this could be true...sitting on the couch watching tv for an hour vs. on the elliptical could never end up being equal to one another...anyone experience this so called exercise plateau?? thanks (=

Replies

  • hilts1969
    hilts1969 Posts: 465 Member
    It is too hard mentally and physically to eat 1200 calories a day...I own a heart rate monitor and I know I burn about 600 calories an hour jogging, exercise bike, and elliptical...for child care reasons I cannot jog, and the bike is very boring...so I am going to start on the elliptical again...I have heard people say "you have to mix it up or your body gets used to it" I don't understand what that means exactly...with weights i understand...but with cardio i don't get it...i want to eat more, so i am going to depend on the elliptical for weight loss...so should i not worry about it just as long as i am burning calories on the elliptical? Maybe if I get into really good shape I will burn 500 calories instead of 600 in that hour...but some people talk like eventually your body gets used to it and you will not burn the extra calories...I don't see how this could be true...sitting on the couch watching tv for an hour vs. on the elliptical could never end up being equal to one another...anyone experience this so called exercise plateau?? thanks (=

    You just get fitter so burn a bit less if you do the exact same thing, the secret is to put the effort in as you get better

    pretty sure Mo Farah burns plenty of calories exercising
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    Maybe if I get into really good shape I will burn 500 calories instead of 600 in that hour...

    That's exactly backwards. The fitter you get, the more you can burn per unit of time (adjusted for weight).
  • 4legsRbetterthan2
    4legsRbetterthan2 Posts: 19,589 MFP Moderator
    You can work on only the elliptical but just vary your routine some. Do some sprints or intervals with resistance and things like that to mix it up. You can burn less if you body gets too used to the routine but I don't think it is enough to throw your weight loss off track or anything.
  • nicoleashleyfit
    nicoleashleyfit Posts: 13
    to keep my response simple..... in a sense of cardio. No your body cannot just get use to it and stop burning calories. Do I recommend relying on cardio for weight loss? no but that's a whole other topic.
  • WalkingAlong
    WalkingAlong Posts: 4,926 Member
    I think your muscles that move the elliptical do get more adept at it and over a lot of time you probably do get less of a benefit from it. And there is probably some adaptive thermogenesis where you get a little more efficient overall. But like you said, it's going to be slight in terms of calories, especially over the short term.
  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    I think your muscles that move the elliptical do get more adept at it and over a lot of time you probably do get less of a benefit from it. And there is probably some adaptive thermogenesis where you get a little more efficient overall. But like you said, it's going to be slight in terms of calories, especially over the short term.

    Adding to your comment:

    And if that does happen, you just increase the workload. If we accept the "body gets used to it argument", if greater efficiency means you are doing less work, then you get back to the same level by........doing more work.

    It's the Non-Issue of non-issues.

    Systematically varying your training stimulus is necessary for improved fitness and maybe injury prevention-- not for increasing calorie burn.

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