Exhaustion

shanerylee

Hello all!
I have been a member for 5 weeks and have now bumped up my cardio up to twice a day for the most part, either a 45 minute-70 minute session each time. Does anyone else get physically exhausted. I worked out last night around 8PM and then again at 11:30am today, and its now 4:PM and I am physically tired. Is this normal?

MTGirl

Are you eating back your exercise calories? You may be exercising TOO much and actually hurting your body instead of helping. I ran across a little tidbit in Fitness Magazine the otherday - it's the recovery that benefits your body, not the exercise. You must have that recovery time. JMHO!

shanerylee

I am eating them back! The hard thing is that I hadnt started really seeing the scale move until I started doing excercise twice a day! I have a lot to loose. Thanks for your opinion

TCASMEY

There is a book by the BIGGEST LOSER doctor and he is a big advocate of 2x or more a day exercise. I found it interesting because no where in this book does he advise eating back your exercise calories. Make sure you are getting enough sleep and eating enough protein, carbs, and good fat. I just started the 2 times a day exercise program and only eating back a few calories. I have not seen the scale move but I actually feel like I have more energy. If you have started this recently your body needs to adjust.

CAworkout

I get that same way sometimes. I'm by no means a doctor or an expert, but I notice that if I work out too much for an extended period of time, I will physically burn myself out. My normal workout schedule is working out every day except for Friday, most days I'll do one hour but normally 1-2 days per week I'll do 2 hours of exercise. If I don't take an occasional day off in addition to my normal Friday I find I'll start feeling really run down, which makes everything harder. I've also heard that it's the recovery portion of exercise that helps you reap the benefits, so maybe cut down the frequency a bit to give your body more recovery/repair time. Or if you don't want to cut out days or frequency (I know how hard it is to miss a workout when you want to be so dedicated), maybe back off on the intensity on some workouts. Hope that's helpful!!

MTGirl

Make sure you are taking rest days though - that usually helps with exhaustion. Glad you are eating your exercise calories - at least you are fueling your body! CA said it, if this is new you may need some time to adjust to it. If you are exhausted, take a day off though because your body can't handle that much of a load. Maybe you could alternate - 2 x's one day, 1 the next, etc.?? Maybe someone else will come along with good ideas!

TCASMEY - there are lots of posts about why it's a good idea to eat some or all of your exercise calories back. I would refer you to those rather than start a new discussion on it - the stickeys would be a great place to start if you are interested in an understanding of the concept as it is set up in MFP. Also the link in my signature line was a great discussion.