Does anyone else work out two hours a day?

hvantassell

I recently had a similar problem - no weight loss for 3 weeks. I work out an hour a day 5-6 days per week. I have increased this slightly (by 15-20 minutes) and have only added cardio for those extra minutes. I wear a heart rate monitor and have noticed that my body seems to adjust to whatever exercise I am doing, thus my heart rate doesn't rise as high and I burn less calories. I switched things up this week and lost two pounds! Instead of increasing your exercise you might want to try doing something different.

lhourin

No, never, I think that's too much and also personally couldn't do it for that long because my *kitten* is totally kicked after sometimes less than a 1/2 hour. I'd go for way more intense and a LOT less time, especially if you've hit a plateau.

For the record, I was not going for weight loss, but got a lot leaner--and actually did lose some weight--when I cut my workouts down from about 45 min to closer to 25-30. They are very intense (lots of jumps, burpies, weights, etc--fast-paced, difficult exercises, NO rest...) and not sustainable for much longer than I do them. Also, I have had clients and friends who do distance events (tris or marathons) and they generally do not have good results with so much training (a couple of hours a day). When they want to lean out, they shorten their time and distance. But, keep in mind, they do not have a ton of weight to lose. Still, though, if you were my client, I'd definitely suggest a lot less time working out...or at least vary what you do and have SOME days where you work out intensely for a short period of time. It's easy to hit exhaustion quickly when you are really pushing yourself.

lhourin

And, yes, like hvantassel said, your body absolutely becomes efficient when you do the same thing all the time. You definitely need to mix it up and also do less time. Your body is probably "bored" (ie efficient and has to work less hard to do the same work it used to) and also overworked, which is not the best combination.

Good luck! Experiment and find something that works for you...that involves a lot less time!

RunFarLiveHappy

Sometimes 2 hours, sometimes longer on my long run days... Sometimes I take 2 classes at the gym which are an hour long each...

neanderthin

so I think I am going to up my gym time and up my calories and hope the two balance out

Increasing your calories will make your deficit smaller.
Increasing gym time will make your deficit bigger.

They don't balance out, they cancel each other out so you're right back to where you started.

Not necessarily. I don't know the context your referring to considering the quote, but eating more can facilitate extra gym time without creating a bigger deficit, that's not a bad thing. Extra calories consumed may not actually equate to an equal amount of gym time......it could be beneficial in either scenario depending on someones goals.

Her goals are weight loss. For performance reasons I would agree with what you're saying. I didn't say her deficit would be bigger. I will use a cheap example, she eats 1,300 calories a day and she increases it to 500 calories a day and she burns 500 calories a day(this likely won't happen) she will be at 1,300 net calories, right where she started.

More than likely, she won't burn an equal amount. She will more than likely burn less, it's easier to take calories from diet, not so much easier to burn it off.

I hear ya. I've never actually counted calories while losing my 60 lbs, now I'm mostly mucking with composition. I found calorie restriction very one dimensional. The method I use now is lift weight. When progress stalls in lift weight, I eat more, not a lot, but more and increase lift weight until I stall again, then repeat that process. I can't be bothered with counting considering the inaccuracies........then again I'm not looking for immediate results, the process is what I like and enjoy, and I'll continue this way indefinitely.

That sounds pretty interesting, never seen/heard anything like that. I have been doing this for a very long time, what type of progress are you making?

Originally when I was 245lbs about 7 years ago and decided it was time for change, I'm not getting any younger, I starved myself, not literally, but it seems like it at the time, taking into consideration I was overeating, which was more relevant than I though looking back. Lost 40 lbs over 7 months and got under 200, which was my goal. Never did any weight training, and my exercise at that time was cycling, hockey and golf basically, but no gym time. A good friend got me interested in lifting and said it would help get rid of some of the fat I still had kicking around, lol. Of course made a lot of strength gains at the beginning and immediately saw an increase in muscle mass and at that time I was eating maintenance, that's when it all started. If I want to shed weight I eat less food and try to maintain lift weight and when I can't and start going the other way I eat a little more, just a little to help maintain lift weight, but knowing while I'm losing weight, that I will continue to lose ground on my lift weight, so best case scenario is I look leaner in the mirror, the mirror is the ultimate and only gauge of my progress. I do from time to time check my weight and count my calories to make sure that what I fundamentally started out thinking is still close, like macros, and overall nutrition. I'm bulking right now, not really, just trying to add some muscle. I was in a pretty serious accident and couldn't workout for 1/2 year and lost lots of muscle and eventually ended up around 180. I'm just over 205 now and will stop when I reach 215, and start going the other way. Lots of fun.

kazzsjourney

I did for quite a long time....i essentially "burned out" you need more in life then exercise. Now i try to do a hour 5-6 days a week which I think is plenty.

SenseiCole

I do two hour workout 3 days a week and one hour 3 days a week and the last day cant be anything from just over an hour to three

when was training for a race i would do 3 to 4 hours once a week

pinkraynedropjacki

1hr run, 3-4 hours walking. Yeah I workout heaps. Then add me doing my squats, pushups, situps & dips right after my run..... yeah I kinda do more than 2 hours a day.

pinkraynedropjacki

I do 30 minutes of HIIT 4 days a week plus some strength training. You are eating your muscle away with that much exercise

Huh? I thought the whole idea was NOT doing exercise eats muscle away.

:noway:

MercenaryNoetic26

Ain't nobody got time fo dat!

Seriously. If you have time for that, have at it. But if your eating is whack that whole idea is whack. :noway:

chrisdavey

I do 30 minutes of HIIT 4 days a week plus some strength training. You are eating your muscle away with that much exercise

Huh? I thought the whole idea was NOT doing exercise eats muscle away.

:noway:

Use it or lose it. Doing resistance training (and getting adequate protein) will help retain LBM.

Mass cardio and no resistance training (even with adequate protein intake) = large losses of LBM. Ask me how I know :indifferent:

myofibril

I do 30 minutes of HIIT 4 days a week plus some strength training. You are eating your muscle away with that much exercise

Huh? I thought the whole idea was NOT doing exercise eats muscle away.

:noway:

Use it or lose it. Doing resistance training (and getting adequate protein) will help retain LBM.

Mass cardio and no resistance training (even with adequate protein intake) = large losses of LBM. Ask me how I know :indifferent:

Listen to this dude.

Incidentally if you do want to work out for two hours per day involving high amounts of steady state cardio then split it into two one hour session and leave quite a few hours between them, preferably morning and evening. The hormonal environment turns catabolic around 80 minutes from the studies I have seen (unless you know what you are doing with workout nutrition and supplementation.)

lovemitch125

Heck no...that's insane! I have better things to do with my time than spend 2 hours a day working out!

:laugh: exactly. Keep a workout plan you can stick to even when you are maintaining.
Myself for example: 12-25 minutes cardio ; 20 minutes abs ; 20 minutes weight training = 52 minutes - 65 minutes / 6 times a week.
I go in the morning, usually around 830am-930am.

This has been working very well

Galloping4God

I tend to workout close to that in 2 different sessions of two different (and sometimes three different) intensities.

CrazyTrackLady

This could be twice a day for 1 hour intervals or for 2 hours at a whack? I read this article about that victoria secret model and she said her routine involved working out 2 hours a day 6 days a week. Now granted she had drastic circumstances, my diet wont be nearly as small I want to be healthy. But I was thinking that two hours a day 6 days a week could be what I need to get out of the 190s, I have been plateaued at 195-193 for 20 days now working out 4 days a week and eating healthy (minus this week).

What do you think, too drastic or is it good in moderation, does anyone do something similar? I lost 20lbs and then stalled, not sure if its the fat turning to muscle or what but I need to adjust something

You are using a MODEL'S exercise routine to determine if you should work out as much as she does? That's like asking if we should follow the models' diets as well.

Models are paid to, and expected to remain, thin at all times (unless they are specifically larger sized models). To aspire to work out as much as they do is ridiculous, in my opinion, if you have no desire to get THAT thin.

Worry about the inches you want to lose, for you. Don't try to hold yourself to such a ridiculous standard.

PS: IF no one has told you yet, fat does not turn to muscle. Fat cells shrink, muscles grow.

mink63

For about a month I worked out for an hour in the morning and an hour at night (both cardio) and I only lost 1 more pound that month than the month before. Maybe if you do 1 hour of cardio and 1 hour of lifting that's a different story. But with all the cardio I just wasted my time and always felt on edge and in a bad mood.

elyelyse

for the love of everything holy, will someone make a sticky about how you can't build muscle eating 1200 net calories a day and doing cardio?? i don't mean a link inside a sticky, i mean a post at the top that never goes away that says "NO YOU AREN'T GAINING MUSCLE." please? :sad:

atb0821

Nope! Not time fo dat.

FreeHugs0150

Wow....wish I had time for 2 hour work outs...but I work a lot. I work out at least an hour at least 6 days a week and im steadily losing. I also eat back my exercise calories...well not all. I was told by my trainer that anything over an hour makes your body go into a different mode and it becomes bad for you or doesn't do anything. But to each their own.

slkehl

I couldn't justify spending that much time improving my physique. Unless it's necessary for a job like modeling, it just seems kinda selfish to me.