Am I working out too much?

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samarie119
samarie119 Posts: 8
in Fitness and Exercise
I go to the gym for about an hour to an hour and a half 6 days a week and spend at least 45 mins on cardio and the rest of the time, I do some weight training. I've also been doing very well when it comes to eating habits and I try to burn off most of what I consume. I've lost a little weight, but I'm not seeing a change in my body yet and it's been almost 4 weeks since I've started. Am I exercising too much?

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  • tweety170
    tweety170 Posts: 167
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    It's more likely that you're not eating enough. Google basal metabolic rate. Your body uses a certain amount of calories everyday just to do normal functions like breathe and walk around. If you exercise and burn off ALL of those calories, then your body doesn't have the fuel to perform normal functions and goes into starvation mode. You don't have to starve yourself to lose weight, just eat healthy meals. You should make it a goal to eat back at least half of the calories you're burning.
  • julwills
    julwills Posts: 286 Member
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    You may actually need to eat more. If you're not giving your body adequate calories it won't burn the ones it has for fear it won't get enough. Try eating a bit more for the next week or so and see if you see a difference.
  • morganadk2_deleted
    morganadk2_deleted Posts: 1,696 Member
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    read this!


    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo


    also

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/61706-guide-to-calorie-deficit
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    First of all, you should be trying to burn off everything you consume. You should be meeting your calorie, including eating your exercise calories. Your body needs a certain amount of calories in order to function properly and to keep you burning fat. If you get less than you need your metabolism will slow down and you'll store fat instead of burning it. You already have a calorie deficit calculated for you, you don't need to worry about that.

    Now, regarding exercise, you should give yourself 2 days off a week. You can work out 5 days straight if you want (I try to because of my schedule) but it's better to take a day off after two or three days of exercise. And 45 minutes of cardio might be a little much. It's better to do about 30 minutes of high intensity cardio, or you can do a little longer if you do interval training.
  • Uronlydreaming
    Uronlydreaming Posts: 28 Member
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    My Resting Metabolic Rate, RMR is 3200. My ADLs, activities of daily living are moderate. I walk 2-3 miles per day, 5-6 days per week. If I eat cleanly, and I try, I have to eat an insane amount of food to keep my metabolism from slowing down. If I walked 1.5-2 miles, 4x per week, I could eat a bit less and possibly lose weight even faster. You understand? Working out more doesn't equate to losing weight faster. It just as easily equates to a metabolic slowdown if you don't eat enough cals.

    Best wishes,
    Eric
  • mycatisfat
    mycatisfat Posts: 8
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    I am just honestly curious and not promoting anorexia or calling anyone anorexic, but I am confused with all of these responses. If it was true that a person wouldn't lose weight after burning all of the consumed calories, then how do people with eating disorders lose weight?
  • menchi
    menchi Posts: 297 Member
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    4 weeks, 7 pounds: It sounds like you are doing what I do. I go to the gym everyday (30-40 min cardio, weights if there aren't too many people waiting, otherwise I spend more time stretching and doing crunches) and some days I also do ballroom dancing for 1-3hours. I've been at dieting for about 6 weeks now and I've lost 10 lbs which seems reasonable to me. I started thinking I just need my eaten calories to be at least 1200, and then realized that it should be 1200 (it's what MFP set, and since I feel fine, I'm going with it) net calories i.e. reach the goal set by MFP by also eating my workout calories. Overall I feel great (probably because I corrected my error quickly) and it's been a pretty slow but steady pace with the weight loss. I also take waist, hip and thigh measurements when I log my weight. I noticed that they only started changing recently about a week ago so I'm guessing it takes a while for the body shaping to happen. I think the amount you exercise should exercise depends on two things: 1) does it make you happy? 2) are you eating back the exercise calories? If it's yes to both, then I think you are doing fine.

    @ Dianamariej, being in starvation mode still allows you to lose weight because energy in is clearly less than energy out. What your body does is break down muscle for energy. As a result this decreases your metabolism (b/c muscle uses a lot of energy) so that your body can survive the lowered calorie intake. The reason people say you will "gain weight" is that you will likely binge after being so hungry and eat back much of the weight you lost and your body will store it as fat. But if you remember, starving made your metabolism go down so now it's even harder to lose the binge weight. Hence, in the long run you will gain weight.
  • backinthenines
    backinthenines Posts: 1,083 Member
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    I am just honestly curious and not promoting anorexia or calling anyone anorexic, but I am confused with all of these responses. If it was true that a person wouldn't lose weight after burning all of the consumed calories, then how do people with eating disorders lose weight?

    People with eating disorder lose weight because they eat a minimal amount not capable of sustaining the body's natural functions (which is why they end up with osteoporosis, bad teeth, hair falls out, bad skin etc). On top of that many of them exercise A LOT. So the body starts using everything it's got to survive, i.e. it breaks down it's own muscle etc to live.

    It's really not something you should ever try, because it messes up your metabolism in a major way. It messes with an area in your brain called the hypothalamus. It controls hunger. Once that's out of balance it can take a long time to come right again.

    Just exercise sensibly and eat sensibly and you will see results. You just need to be a bit patient. Weight that has piled on over a couple of years won't come off in 2 weeks!
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
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    I am just honestly curious and not promoting anorexia or calling anyone anorexic, but I am confused with all of these responses. If it was true that a person wouldn't lose weight after burning all of the consumed calories, then how do people with eating disorders lose weight?

    Does anyone want to end up looking like an anorexic though?

    Lots of people get confused because they fail to look at this process in terms of FAT loss in contrast to weight loss. If a person simply wants to lose weight indiscriminately, including from muscle and internal organs (in other words cause the body to eat itself) then by all means cut calories to a drastically low level. If you want to lose ugly, unsightly fat whilst holding on to beautiful, sleek muscle then you need to work in harmony with your body's natural processes not beat it over the head with a stick. That means keeping your level of calorie restriction at a safe, sustainable level.

    Also eating an excessively low level of calories causes a sharp adaptative reduction in BMR. In other words if you are eating say 700 calories a day and you are not morbidly obese your body over a sufficient length of time will adapt to that as your maintenance level of calories. Of course your BMR will lower as your body mass decreases on both a safe and crash diet meaning a lowering of BMR. However, the percentage of adaptive reduction is far more in crash diets in my opinion. In other words, if you are eating 700 calories a day to create a drastic deficit you will eventually reach a stage where that is your MAINTENANCE level of calories. Who wants to live on 700 calories per day for the rest of their lives simply in order to stay the same weight?

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