How much exercise did you do?

tjones7
tjones7 Posts: 306
edited September 21 in Fitness and Exercise
Hello All,


How many minutes of exercise per session where you doing before you starting seeing results and how many minutes are you doing now? My friend and I were discussing weight loss and what's more effective. Some people say it eat more food and others say increase your workouts.

For me, I rarely do 60 minute sessions. The most is probably 45. I have gone as low as 20 minute circuit training. I am still a beginner but I want to see BIG results so I am hoping you could tell me what has worked for you.

thank you

Replies

  • mworld
    mworld Posts: 270
    its mostly going to be from the food for me. While i was gaining the weight I was doing 4-5 1+ hour workouts at the gym that included running a 5k before or after each workout a few of the days.....but it was the portion sizes and the sweet tooth that were killing me.
  • Rocko717
    Rocko717 Posts: 5 Member
    My personal trainer always said, "You can't out train your diet". So make sure your diet is in line and go from there. I thik 45 minute work outs are fine. A good quality workout is key and staying consistent. That being said, I do Chalene Extreme 4 days a week ( I skip the burn it off and recharge day and replace with Running) and Run the other days (at least 2.5 - 3 miles)
  • aippolito1
    aippolito1 Posts: 4,894 Member
    I started out doing a minimum of 30 minutes per session and lost 12 lbs in 2 weeks. Now I'm doing 15-20 minute intervals of walking & running, as well as 30 minute walks (in the same day) and I do strength training for 30-40 minutes 3x/week. I do 2-a-day cardio sessions mostly on days I do strength training just because of my work schedule. On cardio only days, I usually just do 30 minutes of the elliptical.

    For me, it's not about time, but intensity. I'm doing 30 minutes on the elliptical STILL but am burning closer to 11 calories per minute, whereas before I was burning only 9-10 per minute. Also, on walks...I'm walking faster than I was when I started. Strength training, I'm doing more actual WEIGHT lifting to build muscle, versus just lifting weights for my arms and then doing toning exercises (which I'm also still doing). I also am doing a circuit strength routine for my whole body, which I started a while ago but gave up and now have been doing faithfully 1-2x/week (I alternate this routine with weights for arms, because it works mainly my lower body) for about a month and a half.

    So, my workouts overall are just more intense and I haven't been losing weight for awhile but I've been losing inches... so I guess it depends on what you're looking for.
  • manderpander22
    manderpander22 Posts: 18
    Long sessions aren't my thing. I prefer shorter more intense sessions but I may do them more often, like 1-3 times per day. I got good results with that, lost 50 pounds before I joined MFP. Just find what works for you.
  • tjones7
    tjones7 Posts: 306
    mworld.... but where you eating your allotted calorie count. I don't eat my allotted calories and some were suggesting that that was my problem. Have you always done 1 hour workout sessions?
  • karinalynne
    karinalynne Posts: 8 Member
    I usually try to exercise 45-60 minutes, 5x a week. In the beginning it's' important to work up to longer workout sessions but the longer ones really are much more effective at keeping your metabolism raised for a longer period of time and the cardiovascular results are much better too :) Diet is SOO important too though; small meals, throughout the day, restricted calories and lots of fiber. It's a lot easier to eat 1,000 calories than it is to work off 1,000 calories :wink:
  • karinalynne
    karinalynne Posts: 8 Member
    Oh--- and absolutely, if you're not eating enough calories, that's your problem.

    it's called starvation mode and it's this handy little thing our bodies inherited from our ancestors that makes it so if we don't eat enough calories for our body, it thinks we're starving so it holds onto everything that we do eat (I mean EVERYTHING) and stores it as fat. It lowers your metabolism drastically, especially over a prolonged period of time, so once you start eating regularly again your weight skyrockets. This is my advice to everyone, anyone: the absolute LOWEST you should ever expect to eat on a given day is 1,200 calories. Anything less than this and you risk going into starvation mode, which actually has the OPPOSITE effect of what you're trying to get by starving (weight loss).
  • mworld
    mworld Posts: 270
    mworld.... but where you eating your allotted calorie count. I don't eat my allotted calories and some were suggesting that that was my problem. Have you always done 1 hour workout sessions?

    Oh, when I was gaining, i was eating over my calorie amount, I just didn't realize it - there were lots of little unaccounted for things in my day that I didn't realize were the reasons.

    I don't always do 1 hour workout sessions. I like to do 20-30 minute High Intensity Interval sessions with my running to mix it up and create a day where I am done fast, but still burn a ton of calories. I usually go about 3- 3.5 miles during that 20-30 minutes, so it can still burn above 600 calories in that amount of time.
  • tjones7
    tjones7 Posts: 306
    My personal trainer always said, "You can't out train your diet". So make sure your diet is in line and go from there. I thik 45 minute work outs are fine. A good quality workout is key and staying consistent. That being said, I do Chalene Extreme 4 days a week ( I skip the burn it off and recharge day and replace with Running) and Run the other days (at least 2.5 - 3 miles)


    what is Chalene extreme?
  • tjones7
    tjones7 Posts: 306
    thank you everyone for responding. ????? do you guys follow the calories given my MFP?
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