Break Days

frozen2late
frozen2late Posts: 13 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone,

I am new to keeping a healthy fitness routine and I want to know if anyone has some feedback for how many days off vs. on you spend at the gym.

i am trying to lose and then maintain 30 lbs over a long amount of time. Right now I spend 5 days at the gym with 2 break days but will I be more successful if I go 6 days?

I don't know much about muscle recovery or if I am doing this right.. so any feedback is helpful!

Thanks!

Replies

  • Justkritter
    Justkritter Posts: 143 Member
    I say 5 days is enough. You'll just have to look into your diet to see how much deficit you are doing and try not to put on too much deficit since you workout, that is for losing weight. For maintaining it, 5 days in the gym is also alright, its your calorie intake that you'll have to adjust so that you'll be eating just the right amount for maintenance. MFP can help you with that since there's like a maintain my weight option. And if ever you feel like you're still losing weight then maybe you could try eating back your exercise calories to see how it goes. I guess its all up to experimenting what works for us.

    As for recovery, a day or two off can do wonders to your body to relax and recuperate.
  • alyssamiller77
    alyssamiller77 Posts: 891 Member
    You have to listen to your body. I used to go to the gym every day. I would do weight lifting 5 of the 7 days and cardio every day. That worked fine for a long time but as I got into more of a heavy lift workout, my body couldn't handle it. My muscles were sore and my progress stalled and I started to notice I was actually regressing in strength and cardio endurance. So I shifted to a split routine where I do upper body one day, abs and back a second day and legs on a third day and mixing in only light cardio and taking one day a week off.

    As a "newbie" to the gym scene, my advice is start off slow, and build up. But if things start to hurt (I mean like hurt bad, not the exhaustion hurt you feel from a good workout) then back off. If you aren't improving, add in an additional rest day. There's no shame in that and your body will thank you.
  • Chief_Rocka
    Chief_Rocka Posts: 4,710 Member
    It depends on how intense your workout is and what your recovery abilities are.

    At least one full day off per week is a good idea for everyone.
  • bumblebums
    bumblebums Posts: 2,181 Member
    I take one break day a week, but I also alternate weight lifting and running days. Otherwise my shins can't take it, and I get bored. HTH!
  • frozen2late
    frozen2late Posts: 13 Member
    I say 5 days is enough. You'll just have to look into your diet to see how much deficit you are doing and try not to put on too much deficit since you workout, that is for losing weight. For maintaining it, 5 days in the gym is also alright, its your calorie intake that you'll have to adjust so that you'll be eating just the right amount for maintenance. MFP can help you with that since there's like a maintain my weight option. And if ever you feel like you're still losing weight then maybe you could try eating back your exercise calories to see how it goes. I guess its all up to experimenting what works for us.

    As for recovery, a day or two off can do wonders to your body to relax and recuperate.

    I read on another thread that it is important to eat your workout calories back anyway. I have eaten back my workout calories (as much as I could) and did 5 days. I was hoping bumping it up to 6 days would increase my success.

    I have seen a huge change in 2 weeks, not number wise, but inches wise and my body is transforming.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    I have seen a huge change in 2 weeks, not number wise, but inches wise and my body is transforming.


    Then don't change anything. What you're doing is obviously working. My guess is that you'll see the number start going down soon - it sounds like probably water weight.

    And two rest/break days a week is great.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    1st off, you can't exercise away a bad diet. The key to successful weight loss and maintenance is understanding your caloric intake...if you want to lose you need to eat at a deficit...if you want to maintain you need to eat to your TDEE. Way too many people try to create their deficit through exercise and end up with no results at all. I don't know how many people I've come across who say things like, "I'm exercising 5-6 days per week and I haven't lost a pound in the last couple months." Well...that's usually because they've done nothing to address their diet...they're eating at a maintenance level and they're maintaining. Just working out doesn't mean you're going to lose weight.

    You can, and many people do lose weight with no exercise at all. I don't advocate that because I do believe that regular exercise is necessary for heart hearth, general fitness, and maintaining strength and lean body mass...all of those things can be accomplished within an hour 3-5 days per week. I'm also a firm believer that people who exercise regularly and/or are generally active in their day to day lives tend to maintain a healthy weight and generally just look better and feel better. A wise and very fit woman once told me, "diet (noun...not "dieting") for weight control, exercise for fitness" and I believe they are words to live by.

    I personally do 6 days per week and take one day off. I have 3 lift days and 3 cardio days...I'm always in and out in 45 minutes to an hour. I take Sunday off and watch football and play with my kiddos.
  • frozen2late
    frozen2late Posts: 13 Member
    1st off, you can't exercise away a bad diet. The key to successful weight loss and maintenance is understanding your caloric intake...if you want to lose you need to eat at a deficit...if you want to maintain you need to eat to your TDEE. Way too many people try to create their deficit through exercise and end up with no results at all. I don't know how many people I've come across who say things like, "I'm exercising 5-6 days per week and I haven't lost a pound in the last couple months." Well...that's usually because they've done nothing to address their diet...they're eating at a maintenance level and they're maintaining. Just working out doesn't mean you're going to lose weight.

    You can, and many people do lose weight with no exercise at all. I don't advocate that because I do believe that regular exercise is necessary for heart hearth, general fitness, and maintaining strength and lean body mass...all of those things can be accomplished within an hour 3-5 days per week. I'm also a firm believer that people who exercise regularly and/or are generally active in their day to day lives tend to maintain a healthy weight and generally just look better and feel better. A wise and very fit woman once told me, "diet (noun...not "dieting") for weight control, exercise for fitness" and I believe they are words to live by.

    I personally do 6 days per week and take one day off. I have 3 lift days and 3 cardio days...I'm always in and out in 45 minutes to an hour. I take Sunday off and watch football and play with my kiddos.

    This is really helpful. I set MFP to help me lose 2 lbs a week. I really try to eat back at least 1/2 of my workout calories to be able to sustain the amount of running I am doing. Sure enough last week, I lost 2 lbs but went down an entire pants size.
    I didn't log it into MFP though - I am working on being better about it.

    Do you have any suggestions on Deficit calculators?

    Right now I am eating 1200 per day .. i feel like that is working out for me. On workout days .. I try to eat around 1500 and cant even reach the 1200 goal after the workout cals are factored in

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