Exercise - Quality vs Quantity

If what you're doing now is working and you like it, keep doing it. When it no longer works, change something.

Most of the people who are logging those incredible burns are full of **** and just fooling themselves; most of them are drastically overestimating.

Personally, I use my diet for weight control and I exercise for fitness. My fitness goals determine my workout intensity, how often, what I'm doing, etc...not calorie burn.

Also, higher intensity workouts are going to yield better results than a lot of steady state, slow going cardio. I'm not saying to never do it, but you really should be having some intensity work as well. Your body becomes very efficient at doing those slow steady state cardio stuff and you burn even less.

So you mainly are exercising to burn calories, and you got the time. Not a problem.

Your body improvements will mainly be endurance related, better fat burning, and better aerobic capacity.

If that's all you need at this point, go for it.

But if you want strength or power or more muscle that goes with it, you'll have to put an actual hard load on your body, then give it rest so it can recovery and repair stronger, and then do it again.

Right now you are in the badly named fat-burning HR zone probably. But for years it's been better called the Active Recovery HR zone. Because you could still do some aerobic in that zone, and it would usually not be a load on your body that required recovery from, and in fact could do it on days after lifting and not mess up said recovery and repair.

Just means you can do that for long periods day after day with no problems.

You'll soon start finding with HRM that you have to increase pace to keep the HR even in that zone, as easy as it is. Because for the heart to still have a workout, you have to push harder. Then your muscles will start getting a better workout needing to push harder for your heart/lungs.
It also means your HRM calorie readings will get worse accuracy. Because even though your HR is staying the same, because your fitness level went up, and your pace went up, if your weight didn't change much, you are still burning more calories.

You might test your treadmill and HRM though for decent calorie burn. If treadmill asks for weight, it may be more correct.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/774337-how-to-test-hrm-for-how-accurate-calorie-burn-is

Somehow I missed the comment about lifting already. Stick to the correct zone to allow that recovery and repair from the lifting.
Start doing it harder to see the impact that causes to your lifting - most aren't even aware, because they add lifting to an already hard cardio routine.

First, I'd say keep doing what works, if you are losing weight.

My second thought is about calorie burn. I learned a while back about net burn, which is the difference between actual burn and what you would have burned if you had not exercised. In my case, that is roughly 60 cal per hour. Someone who is not breastfeeding would burn less. So if I work out for half an hour and MFP tells me I burned 220 cal, I only record 190. I thought MFP would record net, but after checking other places, I decided it didn't.

The last thing I would say is, if you are going to read anyway, why not do it on the treadmill or bike? If you are happy with your level of fitness, it's all good. If you want to improve your VO2max, like I do, then HIIT exercises would be good to incorporate at least once a week.

Try different things. The best exercise is the one you do. If you try something and hate it, ditch it and try something else. I would hate 30 day shred every day. It would bore me to tears. But maybe I could do it once or twice a week. I like strenth training, so I do it. That kind of thing.

Good luck!

I just want to summarize my understanding of your post & clarify a few things, because I had to read it twice:

It sounds like you're a bit bored, but restless. Do you like what you're doing, or not? (You say you like your workouts, but also, that you're not sure what to do with your time.)

It sounds like you are worried about calories burned, but do not prefer faster-paced workouts, is that right? And you feel guilty about time you are not exercising?

Also, can I just confirm that, in a single day, you have got:

- 1.5-2 hours on the elliptical +

- 0.5-1 hrs on the bike + sometimes

- 1 h on the treadmill, for a total of 3-4 hours of steady-state cardio a day - is that right?

Hey, I appreciate your question and can relate somewhat to your issues. I'm a 30 y/o woman who has struggled my whole life with weight. I have literally been "studying" nutrition and exercise since I was 14 (when I was 260lb). Over my teens and 20's I lost and maintained my weight in 160's and 170's (I'm 5' 9"), but was NEVER happy with my body because it was flabby and looked like a much smaller version of my big body. I fit into smaller sizes and knew I was healthier and I told myself that was better than nothing. I think that is true still, but after reading through some of the posts on this community forum, I am having some changes of heart about my approach that I've used for 15 years...and perhaps you yourself are reaching that point through your question...

My approach to my 260 to 160 drop was slow and steady for the MOST part, but I experimented with A LOT of different versions of that. I wouldn't even say it was all SLOW...but it was always cardio cardio cardio, just different versions and intensities mixes of your traditional cardio. I started as a teen with WALKING. ALL THE TIME. Hours a week. Not fast...but I cut my food intake by half too. I dropped 30-40 pounds in one summer doing this. Later on, I did year stints with TURBO JAM nightly, I did a year of TAE BO nightly, I have done Richard Simmons (hey, I'm HONEST!!! he rocks. and I had to start somewhere 15 years ago and this is what was on my mom's shelf), I have done random "zone" workouts and Kathy Smith videos. I have also done lots of gym going and HOURS upon HOURS upon HOURS of tredmills, ellipticals, arch trainers and to a MUCH MUCH lesser extent stair climbers. Most lately, I have taken up outdoors jogging, slowly. But one thing I didn't ever really do was weight lifting, toning, muscle building. I did intervals a lot in cardio. I would do HR=140 and bump it to 170 for a minute or two and let it drop back down and then bump it again...And...despite all this...I am still 30 to 40 pounds above my ideal ideal weight. I've slowly gained weight back since college because I do not have the time to do the extended length workouts and stress robs me of my mental stamina with a high pressure type job and so there have been months in the past couple years my workouts have been NON EXISTENT. And my food choices go horribly wrong very quickly too whether I work out or not. I think sometimes, you feel like you are doggy paddling and you know you are fighting the fight, you feel the struggle inside you daily...yet you see you are still lost at sea, not getting where you know you should be...and you aren't sure what to do because there are so many directions you can go.

I am there. I am a little lost right now. I am exercising consistently again. I have cut my calories back to 1200ish. I am making wiser choices of food again. I am reducing my stress. I am looking for the answer now as well. I think a plan is starting to form in my mind after reading these posts, thinking about ALL the different times I've made progress and what was I doing...thinking of the times I not only lost weight, but looked "toned" and I started looking 'strong" and fit...not just smaller and lighter. My best luck in both weight loss and tone came with combination of serious calorie cutting (more than what a lot of MFP ppl would like to hear). I would usually have only 500 calories surplus for the day back when I was really looking better because I'd eat 1200-1500 and then sweat in cardio intervals for an hours or two (burning about 600 cal an hour). Again, even then I never got the "ideal" body.

Since this is getting too long...I just wanted to say, doing what you are doing is going to make you smaller and lighter and it will take some time since you are not cutting your calories drastically (which is fine, it's up to you). But perhaps the answer for us women, who want to take our bodies to that next level, is in the combination of intervals of high intensity with steady state and then also MUSCLE BUILDING. I think I have always neglected this toning, muscle part because it feels like you are not...burning calories (GASP...I'm so guilty here) and it bores me. I think your current hours of working out may not be the best answer if you are trying to go for something healthy weight and toned. You will definitely need to shake that workout up and it may mean you don't work out as LOOOOOOOONG. Or it may mean, keep working out 3 hours a day if you like to get extra burn in with the tredmill and a movie but definitely spend an hour here and there doing a HARD CORE cardio and an hour here and there building muscle and isolating groups (not cardio). Or find a workout that incorporates both at the same time. Also, it sounds like your body might be acclimating to your routine...like a person who works at an active job might lose weight at first, but eventually the body adjusts somehow. You need muscle confusion, haha. But so do I. I am definitely confused.

That was a lot. SORRY? :blushing: