Too much exercise?

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chevysmommy41
chevysmommy41 Posts: 30 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Is there such a thing as too much exercise?
Yesterday I burned over 1000 calories (morning workout, night workout, and breastfeeding) my daily intake is 1270 calories.
OBVIOUSLY I ate back some of the calories I burned because of breastfeeding. I just wondered if there is a point where it goes from fitness to unhealthy?

Thanks in advance!

Replies

  • MonkeyMel21
    MonkeyMel21 Posts: 2,394 Member
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    Just listen to your body. Too much exercise can possibly lead to injury, and that sucks. And watch to make sure your supply isn't diminishing. Other than that, if you have the energy and feel fit and ready, then go for it! If you pay attention to yourself, you should know what's too much.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
    edited June 2016
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    Yes...

    That said, what did you do to burn 1,000 calories? Also, too much exercise and over training is going to be relative to one's fitness level...what might be too much for you might be completely normal for me or someone else...it depends on fitness level.

    Beyond that, you want to establish a fitness plan that is sustainable...one of the biggest mistakes I see people make is they want to lose weight...so they crash their diets and do incessant amounts of exercise for which they ultimately can't sustain...you want to establish something sustainable because you need to do it into perpetuity.

    I rarely have an exercise session that exceeds and hour...and then it's usually when I'm training for an endurance event and I need to get in the miles to train...most of my cardio sessions are anywhere from 30-60 minutes about 5 days per week and I lift 2-3x per week...you don't have to do all kinds of crazy *kitten* to be fit and healthy or to lose weight.
  • chevysmommy41
    chevysmommy41 Posts: 30 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Yes...

    That said, what did you do to burn 1,000 calories? Also, too much exercise and over training is going to be relative to one's fitness level...what might be too much for you might be completely normal for me or someone else...it depends on fitness level.

    I burn 400 calories a day just breastfeeding but I try to do about 30-45 minutes of weight training and then an hour (sometimes I get too into it and go over my time) of cardio. Yesterday that landed me (according to my jawbone 3) over 1000 calories burned total. I felt great afterward and I feel great today! Just wanted to make sure I'm not ruining what I'm trying so hard to achieve!
  • chevysmommy41
    chevysmommy41 Posts: 30 Member
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    I do weight training 2-3 times a week and cardio on the opposite days. Yesterday I was just over ambitious I guess and did both
  • tennileb
    tennileb Posts: 265 Member
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    I routinely burn 3500 or more on my long hikes (once a week, measured with HRM) but that is "normal" for me and my body , I only eat 500-700 of those calories back. Too much exercise is possible but each person has their individual level of too much, listen to you body, is your milk supply good, are you having any overuse injuries, or health issues?

    If the exercising is obsessive, or an attempt to purge, if you feel panicky if you don't work out....then it may be crossing into the psychologically unhealthy range.
  • MonkeyMel21
    MonkeyMel21 Posts: 2,394 Member
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    chevysmommy41 wrote: »
    I do weight training 2-3 times a week and cardio on the opposite days. Yesterday I was just over ambitious I guess and did both

    Sounds about like my schedule and sometimes I do two a days like that with no problem at all.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I rarely have an exercise session that exceeds and hour...and then it's usually when I'm training for an endurance event and I need to get in the miles to train.

    I'm surprised to hear that. Would have thought you'd be out doing long weekend rides for the sheer joy of being on a bike.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
    edited June 2016
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    NorthCascades wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I rarely have an exercise session that exceeds and hour...and then it's usually when I'm training for an endurance event and I need to get in the miles to train.

    I'm surprised to hear that. Would have thought you'd be out doing long weekend rides for the sheer joy of being on a bike.

    Oh, I would enjoy that very much...and I get out and do that when I can but usually the honey do list is a mile long and if I leave my wife alone with the kiddos too long...well, let's just say that it doesn't work out so well for me. She's more understanding when I'm actually training for something and "need" to be out there...

    I've also cut my mileage significantly this summer as I'm focusing on training for the time trial series later this summer...
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    I understand all of that. I've been fighting my own honey do list, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.
  • Antd420
    Antd420 Posts: 161 Member
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    I do weight lifting and cardio 6 days a week. It's really hard to over train.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    NorthCascades wrote: »
    I understand all of that. I've been fighting my own honey do list, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.

    Actually, my wife was really good about me going out like that for the first couple of years or so...but I think it got old and she started complaining a lot more about me always being out on my bike and not at home or doing things with the family...in hindsight, I was probably lacking some balance there.
  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,987 Member
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    chevysmommy41 wrote: »
    Is there such a thing as too much exercise?

    Yes.

    If you do not allow your body to fully (or almost fully) recover for engaging in intense and challenging physical activity again, you performance will decline, you may suffer from various physical symptoms -- tiredness, soreness, sleeplessness -- and/or injury.

    How much is too much varies w/each person but, if you are not sensitive to it what it is for you, your training will suffer.
  • vixtris
    vixtris Posts: 688 Member
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    I exercise just about every day (sometimes twice in a day) for at least an hour. Mostly cardio on the elliptical, and sometimes extra bike rides during the week, and lifting at least once. I don't feel over-trained on my current regimen, so I believe you are not exercising too much at the moment. I used to do 2 hour cardio sessions on the elliptical 7 days a week (half-marathon or more) when I was losing weight. I was so happy to dial it down when I was finished, because 2 hour workouts were really exhausting me after doing it for about 2-3 months.
  • daweasel
    daweasel Posts: 68 Member
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    My two cents...

    In short: It really depends on the person and what you normally do.

    Training stress is a combination of frequency and intensity, but what's too much for you might not be too much for you. "Listen to your body" might sound like new-age crap, but in my experience it works. If you're feeling fine, then that's fine. If you're feeling abnormally tired or sore, having trouble sleeping, feeling anxious if you don't work out, not able to complete what would normally be an achievable workout, etc, then you need to scale back or at least take a couple of easier days or a day off.

    Advice would be to keep some kind of record of what you're doing, how long, how much, what intensity, all of those things, and make sure that if you're increasing it, you're doing it gradually and that you're not doing a hard or long workout day after day without enough time to recover.

    It is not so hard to overtrain if you're fairly well conditioned, especially as an endurance athlete (cyclists, runners and triathletes especially). If your regime consists of strength training and low-moderate intensity cardio, it is harder, since if you're not well recovered you just can't complete your strength workout (if you're doing it right) and your cardio won't really suffer if you're not training for performance.
  • sarahkw04
    sarahkw04 Posts: 87 Member
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    Interesting to follow this - I have this same question. According to my HRM yesterday, I burned 1300 calories in total - but I took a 45 minute tabata class (intense HIIT work), lifted heavy with my trainer for an hour with some dynamic work thrown in "for fun", and also taught barre classes. I'm cognizant about making sure I eat back calories and try to supplement these days with a protein shake (or two, as was the case yesterday...).

    It's worth noting that I don't do this every single day!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,868 Member
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    It is possible to over train, but most instances I've ever come across were actually more a matter of underfeeding the activity vs actually over training. If you train like an athlete, you have to eat like one too...even if you're trying to lose weight.

    One of the biggest issues I've seen here over the last almost four years here is people crashing their diets and doing incessant amounts of exercise on top of that...and that is a recipe for disaster.

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