Intermittent Exercise

PurpleGirafe

I don't have much stamina. I know that going hard for longer is the best thing. However, I can't do much for long. I've been doing like 10 mins of jumping jacks once every hour or every thirty minutes. When I log them in MFP, they add up and don't remain separate. Does that matter?

It just seems that if I actually did an hour of jumping jacks without stopping I would burn more than 10 minute sessions broken up over 6 hours...

meerkat70

Movement is better than no movement. But if you did build up, yes, it would be better.

Nobody immediately *has* stamina. It is something that you build overtime with consistent effort. Add some other activity to your jumping jacks, build up slowly till you can do more.

PurpleGirafe

I am doing other stuff too. My concern is the calorie count is off. Is the difference marginal or should I be concerned?

I'm also walking, jumping rope, sit ups, crunches, push ups, planks, wall sits, lunges, squats, and dips. I am trying to get a minimum of 4 hours of total work out time in every day.

quirkytizzy

That seems like a lot of exercise to aim for at 4 hours a day. You might burn-out or injure yourself. Also, the body changes its composition when it's at rest - that's when the muscles repair themselves and knit together tighter. So even if you are doing some exercises together, a whole, whole bunch at once might not give you the results you want.

(Doing them together increases the heart rate, which does burn more calories. But that's not always what I aim for.)

I have to space out my exercise, even on days when I do both. Twenty minutes of easy-going Pilates and then I get on the treadmill for 30 minutes, four times a week. Pushing to increase the time I can do those activities as a whole isn't good for me right now, so I'm just trying to work on bumping up the *intensity* of those workouts. (Push my jogging intervals 10 or 15 seconds longer on the treadmill, extend my legs for the ab workouts in Pilates.)

We build up over time or else we'll get sore, grumpy, and discouraged.

chervil6

i just think every little bit of exercise you do helps loads , no matter what it is ......u can alter the cals burned when u enter your exercise , so if you think its wrong just alter it ... hope this helps :happy:

Dave198lbs

I don't have much stamina. I know that going hard for longer is the best thing.

who told you that?

you do not need to "go hard" for exercise to be effective

you just have to "go" at any level you can

beachlover317

4 hours a day - all at once or spread out over the day - is excessive. What is your goal in all that exercise? How much are you eating every day? Are you eating enough to fuel your body for all that working out?

Over exercising can cause burn out, injury, or if you're not eating enough you will lose more muscle and lean body mass than fat. What is your goal in all that exercise??? Dieting is stressing the body. Exercising is stressing the body. Over doing either puts your central nervous system under extreme stress and that could have drastic resutls on you.

Do some research and find out how to exercise and eat SMART for results.

Dave198lbs

. I am trying to get a minimum of 4 hours of total work out time in every day.

no offense but that is an absurd goal and will lead to burn out big time...it will lead to injury and fatigue and is just unrealistic and may do more harm than good

glovepuppet

you can't make it up as you go along if you don't have the right knowhow.
i think you should look up a diet & exercise plan that you can work to. something that starts slow and builds up, to reduce the risk of injury. also, if your understanding of healthy diet is as far off the mark as your understanding of healthy exercise then you could end up damaging your health.

BMcC9

I am doing other stuff too. My concern is the calorie count is off. Is the difference marginal or should I be concerned?

There is a lot of excellent advice about how much is too much and over-exercising. so I won't repeat. (Although I must say, being able to do 10 mins straight of jumping jacks DOES show stamina ... and strong knees! I just hope they are being done on a surface with give in it, or the constant high-impacts WILL cause problems later on)

If your main concern is the calorie count being off - and you have funds - why not get a HRM of some type that also shows calories burned? Lots of threads out there about various types, and you can always save some money by looking for them on eBay and your local e-want ads site. Some even sync with MFP to make logging even easier (FitBit is one, there may be others ... I don't own one, but there is a FitBit Users Group)

Something like that reads what you are doing, and the intensity you are working at, in real time. SO over all, it is more likely to be a realistic reflection of your calories-out than the MFP ball-park.

and the MFP ballparks are more like guidelines than hard-and-fast. So you can compare numbers against themselves (am I hitting my goal frequency, or burning more calories per week now than a month ago etc)

clarkeje1

Movement is better than no movement. But if you did build up, yes, it would be better.

Nobody immediately *has* stamina. It is something that you build overtime with consistent effort. Add some other activity to your jumping jacks, build up slowly till you can do more.

I agree. Also 4 hours of exercise every day is way too much. 1 hour a day 6 days a week is plenty.

BMcC9

. I am trying to get a minimum of 4 hours of total work out time in every day.

no offense but that is an absurd goal and will lead to burn out big time...it will lead to injury and fatigue and is just unrealistic and may do more harm than good

Very true, if what you mean is "hard core exercise". That is what professional athletes do in a day.

4 hours or more of total "activity" (anything that isn't sitting on the couch - like shoveling snow, then walking the dog, then briskly washing dishes etc) is good. But it becomes "background" and you don't even realize you are burning cals in the "non-official-exercise" parts of your day.