Can you ever do too much exercise?

Cheryl2205
Cheryl2205 Posts: 12
in Health and Weight Loss
I start my morning with the 30 day shred then at lunchtime i go to the gym ( today im doing a spinning class) then at night i do yogalates to relax and stretch off my muscles. I am on a daily calorie allowance of 1200 calories and dont usually eat back my cals from exercise ( but i will be today) however my collegues at work think im doing too much exercise!

Can you really do too much of a good thing? They are saying i will wear my body out and then just give up completely but i have been doing this now for a couple of weeks and still feel great.

Would just like people opinions. Thanks

Replies

  • creature275
    creature275 Posts: 348 Member
    its called over-training its possible but it heavily depends on your own level of fitness, I train either two or three times a day, about an hour of cardio, then two lifting sessions of 16-20 sets of 4 or 5 lifts each muscle group, two groups a day, or sometimes ill superset the groups, but Ive been an athlete for years and years. so yes you can ovetrain but like I said it depends on your own level of fitness, in your case your probably fine, if your body feels ok, your joints arnt in pain and your getting stronger not weaker then you should be fine.
  • jesz124
    jesz124 Posts: 1,004 Member
    Only my opinion...but I think you can yes. Especially on a calorie deficit. Some days you just seem to totally run out of steam. I don't really get days like that anymore as I have changed my daily amount of calories, and where they come from (mainly protein) which has helped me. I do think it's an individual thing though, it depends on your level of exercise intensity, your fitness, your diet.
  • shoneybabes
    shoneybabes Posts: 199 Member
    yes yes yes yes.

    Over training SUCKS the big time. I have experienced it and it took me months to get out of it.

    I was training for ultra's and was running and cycling everyday(with one rest day), I picked up an injury and became recurring and with the over training it made me stop running for months at a time. I did not feel good about it at all and started avoiding it.

    Take it easy you don't have to work 100% full throttle everytime, make sure you have rest days and alternate your choice of training.

    How often are you training? Is this everyday that you do all this exercise?

    I would recommend that when you have a particularly hard training day, take the next day off to recuperate because recovery is important for building muscles. Everything I have ever read talks about rest days.

    I learnt the hard way :( I went from 100-150km a week of running/cycling and I was also climbing on top of the cardio. I had to take some serious time out to recuperate and get myself to a physio to fix the recurring injury and am slowly building up my cardio again, this time I am not running everyday and I take rest days. So good luck with your training
  • shoneybabes
    shoneybabes Posts: 199 Member
    oh and you won't crash and burn in a few weeks, a year- year and a half I crashed and died, but the warning signs were all there. Also ignoring them is not a good idea. Listen to your body.
  • Elisabeth2506
    Elisabeth2506 Posts: 25
    My personal trainer said that working out for more than 45 minutes per day risks burning muscle instead of fat.

    Not sure whether I believe, or want to believe that, as I'm quite happy doing one or two hours in the gym a day.
  • Cheryl2205
    Cheryl2205 Posts: 12
    Thanks for all the replies!

    @shoneybabes : yes i do this amount of exercise at least 5 times a week, at the weekend its usually 30 day shred, housework, dog walking then yoga at night so again a far bit as i usually walk about 5 miles with the pups.

    Maybe i should tone it down a little then and maybe do things on alternate days, just dont want this to impact too much on my weight loss as i have still got a fair bit to lose.
  • shoneybabes
    shoneybabes Posts: 199 Member
    I have spoken to people and read up in articles etc that fitness can be improved quicker if you do short hard bursts of exercise. So doing fartlek training/or short fast runs are better than maybe doing long slower ones. You definitely mix it up with the exercise so it keeps your body guessing which is good for the fitness.

    I don't know if doing yoga everyday is a bad thing but it depends what type of yoga you are doing. If it is relaxing or meditative yoga that is done daily then I would think it was ok. But if you were working on strong poses everyday I would maybe ease up on it a little because you will need time for muscle recovery.

    I definitely recommend at least 1 day of no exercise ( i reckon housework/walking dogs etc doesn't count if you do it regularly :D) But a day without raising your heart rate high enough that you are sweating is recommended.

    It can only make you stronger and fitter in the long term.

    Good luck

    I still have to learn to tone it back :blushing: I usually work in fast forward or full stop. I find it difficult to moderate, so you are a better person than I if you can do that!!
  • 126siany
    126siany Posts: 1,386 Member
    As everyone has said, it is quite possible to overtrain. Typical symptoms are fatigue and irritability, decreasing performance in your workouts, difficulty sleeping, unexplained weight loss, etc. If you take a rest day or two and see a noticeable improvement in your next workout, you were likely overtraining.

    Ultimately, working out at the rate you are will backfire on your weight loss goals as you are undereating. If you insist on exercising this much, you NEED to eat the exercise calories. A great deal of exercise + underfeeding means you are burning muscle at a pretty good clip. There are no calories or protein left to repair and rebuild them.
  • geekyjock76
    geekyjock76 Posts: 2,720 Member
    How much do you have to lose? With all that activity, at 5 days a week, I would not be surprised if you are actually contributing an additional 600 calories to your already large deficit from dietary calorie restriction. If you theoretically have a TDEE of 2100 calories (could be higher), and ate 1200, then you'd be netting 600 calories (a 72% deficit).

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