Is there such a thing as too much?

Well gosh, unless you're 4'9 I don't consider 136 lbs to be 'ballooning up' in any way, and I'm 5'0. I didn't feel like a balloon until I reached about 145-150. I think there are other things you should look at--your body image, your reasons for binging, and your purging in the form of intense exercise.

You need a rest day. When will your body repair itself if you keep forcing it onto the elliptical? Chronic aerobic exercise releases cortisol, which breaks down both fat and muscle. It's not just a problem for you, but for every endurance athlete. However, you're exacerbating it by leaving out rest days and not performing resistance training. That translates to a suppressed metabolism and immune system.

Since you already have working out down, I would start focusing on eating better. You must eat right too. If you have junk in your house throw it out we are going to eat what we have. Thats the same with children and adults. I always have more fruit and veggies at my house so my kids grab that even when there are bad junk around because its what they are use to eating. Get the junk out and up fruits and veggies. You will lose the weight in no time and feel better. Work out to work out not to try and get rid of last nights bad choices.


Alisha

I never really looked at it that way before. Thanks Songbyrd. My goal is to lose 10lbs and I like to keep up with exercise for health reasons and aid in fat loss. Do you have any suggestions on what my workout routine should be? Meaning how many days a week I should be doing cardio? Your help would be much appreciated!

That really depends on how long you've been training, how many calories are allotted to you, and what you feel comfortable with eating.

The ACSM recommends 60-90 minutes of exercise three days per week for weight loss. You can break that up into smaller chunks though. 180-270 minutes over the span of five days averages about 35-60 minutes per session. Not all of that needs to be cardio, and if you're spending much more than 90 minutes in the gym for one session, you're wasting time.

Resistance training helps maintain bone density and, when you're not in a big calorie deficit, can help maintain muscle mass. The catch is that you really can't be in a big deficit-no more than 500 calories, and 300 calories is really best. Your weight loss is slower, but your body composition comes out better in the end. The other catch is that chronic aerobic activity releases cortisol, which breaks down muscle more quickly than it can be built up.

Cardio improves your CV fitness, but only if it's moderately intense, 65%-85% MHR, so low-intensity cardio doesn't help. Other than that, all it does is waste calories. This helps you maintain a deficit while eating more. However, since we don't want to release tons and tons of cortisol, it's best to keep this at something of a minimum-just do what you have to in order to maintain a 500 calorie deficit and be able to eat more than 1200 calories. This isn't the same thing as binging and then exercising for 90 minutes at a time--this is enough to keep your heart healthy and maintain muscle mass.

We like to spend a lot of time in the gym...even if we're being ineffective, we like being there. But when you think about it, a lot of time is spent resting between sets, doing unnecessarily low-intensity work in a "fat burning" zone, etc. It should be about quality. You only need to perform 1-2 sets per exercise, and the weight should be heavy enough to bring you to failure after about a 30 second rest and 12-15 reps. At 65-85% MHR, it doesn't take long to burn a couple hundred calories, and 30-60 minutes is all you need to improve CV health and aid in fat loss. I have seen the best results when I get in and get out, doing just what I need to in order to improve my fitness. Spending time making up for poor food choices is like taking two steps forward and one step back. A big part of this lifestyle is learning self control and moderation. :flowerforyou: