Is doing cardio 2x per day a bad idea?

WendySue75

DO IT... DO IT... DO IT.. I do 30 day shred in a.m., then when I'm feelin' it, I jog (5.0mph) on treadmill (cause after the workout, I have energy) then I walk 3.0 miles @ lunch, then most nights I walk 4.0 miles.... CARDIO... is heart afterall, so I don't think you can over do it by doing twice a day... I look at it this way.... I do it in the a.m., to gear my metabolism up for breakfast... then after lunch to burn lunch, then if you do it after dinner, it will work out, not only dinner, but throughout the night while you sleep. I do know they say NOT TO WOKOUT 2 HOURS BEFORE BED... overall, do what your body is telling you, but don't be afraid to push a little, that keeps the body alert & ready for change!!

JoshuaL86

Ok, so I'm trying to drop a bunch of weight (45lbs down, another 150 to go) and I've been doing cardio every morning for about 5-6 weeks now. I've started getting used to 45 min at 2.5-3mph but toward the end of the day I still have enough energy for another round on the treadmill, and it's really become my favorite part of my day.

I am trying to avoid lifting weights until I get closer to my target weight because I'm doing keto, and I really don't want to mess around with carb cycling. I'd really just rather do cardio two-a-days

So my question is if I do cardio twice a day, am I going to see increased benefits in weight loss and metabolism? Or should I instead stick to doing it once a day but focusing on increasing my distances and speeds? Or something entirely else all together?

Do it if you have the energy BTW I'm a big guy too. I find it a lot easier to increase incline rather then increasing speed. It also burns higher amount of calories at lower speeds. The other day I did 3miles at 2.5 between 10-13incline ended up burning 1170 calories.

Good Luck

I agree! When I'm on the treadmill, I set the incline to 7.5 % and the speed to 3.3 mph, and I burn about 650+ calories in 45 minutes. It's a good intense workout. I find you will burn more calories with a higher incline than you will with a faster speed.

onequirkygirl

You know how people on Biggest Loser drop crazy weight? The answer is hours and hours of grueling cardio. HIIT workouts especially will help you burn more calories during the day (Google that.) It's doubtful that you'd have too much cardio.... But don't be afraid to strength train... why not combine large muscles with cardio intervals? That is the most efficient method to burn fat.

You aren't going to go wrong for two intense cardio sessions lol.

hpsnickers1

Yes, it can be. There is a fine line between training hard and over-training. Excessive exercise - especially chronic cardio - is stress and the body will treat is as stress. Too much cortisol is not a good thing. And the body has to recover from exercise so it is stronger the next time. You keep "breaking down" with no time to repair you'll end up injured. And expending too much energy for too long (without taking more energy in which in a nutrition deficiency - which is a calorie restricted diet. Heck even a regular diet with nothing but processed, packaged foods is a nutrition deficient diet - even when you're overeating) isn't a good thing either (that's when starvation mode becomes real).

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/chronic-cardio/#axzz1oLTdpn3F
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/case-against-cardio/#axzz1oLTdpn3F
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/chronic-cardio-2/#axzz1oLTsLE1o
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-deal-with-overtraining/#axzz1oLTsLE1o
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-many-calories-does-muscle-really-burn-and-why-its-not-about-calories-anyway/#axzz1oLU2Fdvj

hpsnickers1

One more:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/health-benefits-moderate-exercise/#axzz1oLU2Fdvj

The weights will do more for you than any amount of cardio - that's what burns fat. Cardio will just help break down your muscle.
Try doing cycles of back to back sets of heavy weights. Your heart rate will get just as high - strength is just as good for your cardiovascular system - I would say better - than any amount of stressful cardio

Get away from carbs, increase your healthy fats, help your muscles re-learn how to use fat for fuel and not only will you not get any lactic acid build up (a by product of glucose burning) you won't have to worry about "carb-cycling".

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/a-metabolic-paradigm-shift-fat-carbs-human-body-metabolism/#axzz1oLVQqGv4 (our muscles were meant to run on fat, not sugar!!)

Graciecny

If you have a desk job you can still move more. Get up and walk around the office and talk to people instead of sending them emails, use the stairs, in the evening, instead of plonking yourself down on the sofa, keep moving around. Things like that.

I'm not preaching, I am not claiming anything new, this is all common knowledge.

These ideas are just fabulous - IF they are possible. For some of us, I can assure you they are not. I can't exactly take time off in the middle of a class to wander the halls and chat or climb stairs. I'm essentially leashed to a desk in a very small room for approximately 11 hours on my workdays. It isn't a choice, it's a fact. This just makes me want to beat my head against said desk. It's just super that what I am doing is futile. Faboo way to start the morning. :sad:

ArroganceInStep

Ok, so I'm trying to drop a bunch of weight (45lbs down, another 150 to go) and I've been doing cardio every morning for about 5-6 weeks now. I've started getting used to 45 min at 2.5-3mph but toward the end of the day I still have enough energy for another round on the treadmill, and it's really become my favorite part of my day.

I am trying to avoid lifting weights until I get closer to my target weight because I'm doing keto, and I really don't want to mess around with carb cycling. I'd really just rather do cardio two-a-days

So my question is if I do cardio twice a day, am I going to see increased benefits in weight loss and metabolism? Or should I instead stick to doing it once a day but focusing on increasing my distances and speeds? Or something entirely else all together?

Congratulations on your loss and I good luck with your efforts going forward.

Two-a-days are fine, someone mentioned a spike in hunger pangs which I definitely noticed when I worked out like that. If you enjoy it and it's helping you progress, by all means keep on trucking.

Can you elaborate on why you're avoiding weights? I think it may help folks understand a bit better and they may be able to provide more accurate advice.

Fattack

It seems a bit pointless to me. Just go for a walk. The most important thing is keeping moving as much as you can throughout the day. Doing 45 mins on a treadmill is pointless if you spend the rest of your day sitting down.

This is ludicrous. For instance, how would you advise those of us who work at desks?

You may think it ludicrous, but it's a basic fact of biology. Unfortunately biology doesn't conveniently match modern life styles. We are designed to move, constantly. There is a lot of study being done on this by sports scientists/human biologists at the moment. If you are in the UK, look out on BBC iplayer for Horizon - the truth about exercise, from last week. It'll finish tonight, so you have to be quick, but it explains a lot.

-What- exactly is a basic fact of biology? Incorporating more exercise daily is great if you can (I *think* this is what you are alluding to in a very roundabout way). For instance, I work at a desk. I sometimes take a walk at lunchtime if the weather is nice. Some people can take the stairs instead of the lift, etc.etc.

But to say that using a treadmill for 45 minutes is "pointless" is a sweeping statement that generates misinformation.

Huffdogg

If you have another 150 lbs to lose, there's no reason whatsoever that you can't lift, even on a keto diet.

tanklissa

I don't see why not!

SassyCalyGirl

It seems a bit pointless to me. Just go for a walk. The most important thing is keeping moving as much as you can throughout the day. Doing 45 mins on a treadmill is pointless if you spend the rest of your day sitting down.

This is ludicrous. For instance, how would you advise those of us who work at desks?

I wouldn't take advise from anyone that says any amount of exercise is "pointless".....just sayin

ArroganceInStep

It seems a bit pointless to me. Just go for a walk. The most important thing is keeping moving as much as you can throughout the day. Doing 45 mins on a treadmill is pointless if you spend the rest of your day sitting down.

it seems even more pointless spending the day sitting including that 45 mins that you can run on treadmill.

I'm not saying sit on your *kitten*. But most people would get more benefit from moving more every day than going to the gym for 45 mins. Seriously, watch the Horizon program, it explains it all much better than I can in a few sentences on here. If you have a desk job you can still move more. Get up and walk around the office and talk to people instead of sending them emails, use the stairs, in the evening, instead of plonking yourself down on the sofa, keep moving around. Things like that.

I'm not preaching, I am not claiming anything new, this is all common knowledge.

It's not that you have a bad point, it's just that your way of communicating it is really not going to jive with a lot of folks.

Being more active in your day to day life is a very worthwhile endeavor I agree, but that certainly doesn't make dedicated gym time pointless. Additionally, there are levels of physical fitness that you may never be able to achieve without actively working towards those goals. My max squat isn't going to go up by getting up at work and walking over to my coworker, nor is my fastest time on a mile swim going to improve by walking to the supermarket instead of driving.

The things you mention are good components of a healthy and active lifestyle, but the certainly don't make gym time worthless.

raven56706

just dont hold the handle bars... that isnt good for you.you are just cheating yourself

Grandysl

It seems a bit pointless to me. Just go for a walk. The most important thing is keeping moving as much as you can throughout the day. Doing 45 mins on a treadmill is pointless if you spend the rest of your day sitting down.

it seems even more pointless spending the day sitting including that 45 mins that you can run on treadmill.

I'm not saying sit on your *kitten*. But most people would get more benefit from moving more every day than going to the gym for 45 mins. Seriously, watch the Horizon program, it explains it all much better than I can in a few sentences on here. If you have a desk job you can still move more. Get up and walk around the office and talk to people instead of sending them emails, use the stairs, in the evening, instead of plonking yourself down on the sofa, keep moving around. Things like that.

I'm not preaching, I am not claiming anything new, this is all common knowledge.

If it is "common knowledge" how come most of us here think that your statement is BS? Yes, one should always move as much as possible, including cardio training. I think the way you worded your initial post is what has most of us thinking that you dont really know what you are talking about.

tahoe5280

Thanks to everyone for the input, I found it really insightful. I went ahead yesterday and did a second cardio session (part one was 45 min, part two, I took it easy and went 30 min at a slower pace).

The good news is when I went for my morning walk, I felt stronger, more focused and I had more stamina than I have since I started. I did intervals of slow then quick for the first 15 min then spent the last 30 min at the higher pace. I've never had that much stamina before today.

The bad news is I did my 2nd session yesterday waaaay too close to the time I went to bed and spent 3 hours tossing and turning trying to get my body to relax before I could actually fall asleep. The easy solution for me would be to just do my 2nd session at least 6 hours before my bedtime and I am pretty sure I'll be fine. Fortunately, I have a pretty relaxed schedule, so I won't have a problem doing this.

PS: To answer those who are asking why I'm not doing weight lifting, I'm on a keto diet. I've read that while you're doing keto (unless you've been doing it for several months), your body may burn lean muscle instead of using fat as fuel, and they recommend carb cycling (periods of eating carbs for lifting weights, then dropping back into ketosis, or something). I've heard conflicting opinions from people about this, so I would rather just keep things simple and stick with just doing a beastly amount of cardio until I get down to about 195lbs. At that point, I'll focus on sculpting my body through weight lifting and see what diet modifications I need to do at that point.

Huffdogg

PS: To answer those who are asking why I'm not doing weight lifting, I'm on a keto diet. I've read that while you're doing keto (unless you've been doing it for several months), your body may burn lean muscle instead of using fat as fuel, and they recommend carb cycling (periods of eating carbs for lifting weights, then dropping back into ketosis, or something). I've heard conflicting opinions from people about this, so I would rather just keep things simple and stick with just doing a beastly amount of cardio until I get down to about 195lbs.

A keto diet is only going to catabolize muscle if you are already very lean. And if muscle loss is your fear, the best way to avoid it is to lift. Doing vast quantities of cardio is certainly not going to encourage your body to hold onto that muscle.

penroseg

bump

dad106

PS: To answer those who are asking why I'm not doing weight lifting, I'm on a keto diet. I've read that while you're doing keto (unless you've been doing it for several months), your body may burn lean muscle instead of using fat as fuel, and they recommend carb cycling (periods of eating carbs for lifting weights, then dropping back into ketosis, or something). I've heard conflicting opinions from people about this, so I would rather just keep things simple and stick with just doing a beastly amount of cardio until I get down to about 195lbs.

A keto diet is only going to catabolize muscle if you are already very lean. And if muscle loss is your fear, the best way to avoid it is to lift. Doing vast quantities of cardio is certainly not going to encourage your body to hold onto that muscle.

What he said.

When you do cardio, you are burning both fat and muscle.. and since you wondering about upping your metabolism, having muscle is the way to do it.

So do cardio, lift and see the weight start to drop.

ArroganceInStep

Thanks to everyone for the input, I found it really insightful. I went ahead yesterday and did a second cardio session (part one was 45 min, part two, I took it easy and went 30 min at a slower pace).

The good news is when I went for my morning walk, I felt stronger, more focused and I had more stamina than I have since I started. I did intervals of slow then quick for the first 15 min then spent the last 30 min at the higher pace. I've never had that much stamina before today.

The bad news is I did my 2nd session yesterday waaaay too close to the time I went to bed and spent 3 hours tossing and turning trying to get my body to relax before I could actually fall asleep. The easy solution for me would be to just do my 2nd session at least 6 hours before my bedtime and I am pretty sure I'll be fine. Fortunately, I have a pretty relaxed schedule, so I won't have a problem doing this.

PS: To answer those who are asking why I'm not doing weight lifting, I'm on a keto diet. I've read that while you're doing keto (unless you've been doing it for several months), your body may burn lean muscle instead of using fat as fuel, and they recommend carb cycling (periods of eating carbs for lifting weights, then dropping back into ketosis, or something). I've heard conflicting opinions from people about this, so I would rather just keep things simple and stick with just doing a beastly amount of cardio until I get down to about 195lbs. At that point, I'll focus on sculpting my body through weight lifting and see what diet modifications I need to do at that point.

Here's the thing (and I'm speaking in generalizations here based mostly from stuff I've read from bodyrecomposition.com. That site says it much better than I ever could). If you are very overweight, and have a high ratio of fat to lean body mass, when you lose weight your body will tend to burn more fat than it otherwise would. Additionally pure cardio will burn more calories, and thus lead to greater direct weight loss, than weight lifting will. These two facts might make it seem like heavy cardio upfront to burn weight and holding off on lifting until later is a good idea. And don't get me wrong, if you're happy with what you're doing, by all means stick with what works for you. I do think that you'll experience greater frustration down the road though if you stick with this plan.

Very obese people have the benefit of being able to build small quantities of lean body mass from lifting while eating at a caloric deficit. This is extremely important because when you get down to a lower weight and that's no longer possible, you'll have to eat at a calorie surplus (and end up gaining some fat in the process) to get that muscle that you would've picked up for 'free' already. In the long run it ends up being much more efficient to start earlier.

You also mention being unable to sleep with doing cardio right before bed. One of the things that I love about lifting is that I can do it as late as I like and it doesn't hurt my ability to sleep any. I recognize your schedule is flexible, but I think it would be 'easier' if you did cardio in the morning and lifting in the evening.

Although at high weights the calories burned from cardio really starts to add up. It definitely helps with weight loss, but it certainly isn't the biggest thing. A healthy deficit in your diet is REALLY what matters. You can do cardio for days, but it's always easier to out-eat your workouts. That being said, the burn from the extra cardio session, while nice, won't make or break your diet. Wouldn't you rather get a jump start on building strength, so that when you do get to 195 you're already strong?

Once again this is my opinion, and since we all know opinions from the interweb are NEVER wrong, take it with a grain of salt. I'm starting from a pretty high weight myself, and I've lost comparable to you and I think have comparable end weight goals. Light cardio and a heavy lifting regime coupled with a smart diet (I'm doing a slightly moderated Rapid Fat Loss diet, which is a PSMF, if that matters) is what's working for me. I think it might help you achieve your ultimate goals faster as well. Good luck either way.


PS: Read everything on bodyrecomposition.com, you won't regret it.

maxonehiphop

It seems a bit pointless to me. Just go for a walk. The most important thing is keeping moving as much as you can throughout the day. Doing 45 mins on a treadmill is pointless if you spend the rest of your day sitting down.

What?

Ditto on the "what?"
so people that have jobs where they sit for the majority of 8 - 12 hours a day shouldn't do any cardio? That is the whole reason I started doing cardio.

Riyam

You should only do it if you've hit a plateau, as a last resort!

nrsymom

Go for it!! Moving as much and as often as you can will only help your progress!

Erinslove

It seems a bit pointless to me. Just go for a walk. The most important thing is keeping moving as much as you can throughout the day. Doing 45 mins on a treadmill is pointless if you spend the rest of your day sitting down.

What?

EXTRA WHAT???

stephengray52035

Hey, I know this is a little old but I know people still google this subject and look for answers. I have wrestled for a very long time and I do not follow the weight cutting of my dad's era. I am in o the belief that you start 3 months out and do it right. This means good food intake, drink lots of water and work out 2 times a day, yes! 2 times a day 6 days a week is amazing for you and with the right calorie intake you will shed weight off in no time. Listen people, this is so basic it frustrates me! Especially when I see all these fat pills and liposuction crap on TV and the internet. All you have to do it burn more calories then you eat and make sure to cut out carbohydrates after 5pm. You need carbs when doing work outs 2 times a day and you need that energy to work hard in the gym. At night for dinner I eat fish and chicken and a lot of salad and veggies. For desert I eat lots of fruits such as bananas, apples, and greek yogurt that is plain and sugar free. I put honey and vanilla extract in it and it is natural and amazing. I cut out alcohol and any soda. All I drink is water. The cardio I do is incline at a 15% grade on level 4.3 for 60 min. That usually gives me 1,300 calories and 3 miles. I do that 2 times a day that equals 2,600 calories plus my 2,400 calories of basic life. That is 5,000 calories burned in a 24 hour period. I eat 1500-1800 calories a day so my calorie deficit is 3,200 calories. I burn roughly 2 pounds every 2 days and my weight loss has totaled 30 pounds in 30 days. I am not fat either, I was 6'2'' 240 pounds and am now 210 pounds 12.3% body fat. I am still going and this has worked for me. It took me 2 weeks to get up to the 2 of days and was worth every blister and every shin splint! Go hard or go Home. Hope this helps and if anyone needs help, look me up!

agentnolo

DO IT, IS GOOD TO SHOCK YOUR BODY ONCE AN A WHILE IN ORDER TO PASS A PLATEAU.