How much is too much?
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ssdunn2236
Posts: 4 Member
Ive been going to the gym for about a month now. I do 30 minutes cardio and about 30 minutes strength training 5 or 6 days a week. For the first week or two I felt great. But Ive gradually started feeling more tired and moody. Ive been doing the slim fast diet as well. I suspect Im doing too much and probably not eating enough. My question is this - if I cut my strength training to 3 days a week, would 2 days cardio still be too much for a newbie?
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Replies
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Are you eating back your calories burned?4
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Why not just eat more?7
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60 min/day isn't too much as long as your allowing your body to recover properly -> eating enough to fuel your workouts and getting enough quality sleep to let your body repair itself.
Based on a cursory google, the slimfast plan has you eating/drinking around 1600 cal/day? Not knowing more details it's impossible to say definitively, but it's likely that's just too severe of a caloric deficit to be sustainable/desirable for your size and activity level.1 -
Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »Are you eating back your calories burned?
Some days I do, but most days I dont.0 -
livingleanlivingclean wrote: »Why not just eat more?
Yes I'm going to have to. Ive been too focused on the scales instead of listening to my body. I want to lose weight, and I think maybe I got a little carried away. Lol1 -
60 min/day isn't too much as long as your allowing your body to recover properly -> eating enough to fuel your workouts and getting enough quality sleep to let your body repair itself.
Based on a cursory google, the slimfast plan has you eating/drinking around 1600 cal/day? Not knowing more details it's impossible to say definitively, but it's likely that's just too severe of a caloric deficit to be sustainable/desirable for your size and activity level.
Im 42, 213 and fairly out of shape. Ive only been getting around 1400 calories a day. I think I'm going to work on the food aspect and see if that helps before I cut my gym time because I actually look forward to going everyday!2 -
ssdunn2236 wrote: »Tiny_Dancer_in_Pink wrote: »Are you eating back your calories burned?
Some days I do, but most days I dont.
Eat them, that is what they are for. Get a food scale to weigh everything solid.0 -
depending on your strength training I would add a rest day somewhere sounds like might just need it. I personally do strength day/light cardio then more intense cardio the next day with 2 rest days a week thur and sunday works for me.1
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ssdunn2236 wrote: »60 min/day isn't too much as long as your allowing your body to recover properly -> eating enough to fuel your workouts and getting enough quality sleep to let your body repair itself.
Based on a cursory google, the slimfast plan has you eating/drinking around 1600 cal/day? Not knowing more details it's impossible to say definitively, but it's likely that's just too severe of a caloric deficit to be sustainable/desirable for your size and activity level.
Im 42, 213 and fairly out of shape. Ive only been getting around 1400 calories a day. I think I'm going to work on the food aspect and see if that helps before I cut my gym time because I actually look forward to going everyday!
That's where I'd start too, I don't think the gym is the problem (if anything, I find that a good workout can do wonders for a bad mood) but if you're getting cranky it's probably that you need more calories.2 -
It's likely your bigger issues is under feeding your activity.
That said, resistance training shouldn't be done daily...you need rest and recovery...you shouldn't be working the same muscles on consecutive days. Most beginner plans are full body 2-3x per week. You need rest and recovery.2 -
ssdunn2236 wrote: »60 min/day isn't too much as long as your allowing your body to recover properly -> eating enough to fuel your workouts and getting enough quality sleep to let your body repair itself.
Based on a cursory google, the slimfast plan has you eating/drinking around 1600 cal/day? Not knowing more details it's impossible to say definitively, but it's likely that's just too severe of a caloric deficit to be sustainable/desirable for your size and activity level.
Im 42, 213 and fairly out of shape. Ive only been getting around 1400 calories a day. I think I'm going to work on the food aspect and see if that helps before I cut my gym time because I actually look forward to going everyday!
Oof, I'd be tired and cranky at 1400 calories too. I tried to eat that little or less for a while when I first started using the site back in 2011, worked for a while but I was always exhausted. I'd start by bumping up to 1800-2000 and see how that makes you feel and what sort of loss rate you sustain.
TL;DR of how I got to those numbers:
I have found that accurately measuring or estimating exercise calories as others suggested can be very hit-or-miss. The TDEE calculator linked below set to "light exercise" matches my TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure, full calorie burn including exercise) pretty well. Background on me, 28/6'/173 desk job, full-body weightlifting 3-4 days/week, ~60-90 min/session, irregular cardio on off-days for 20-30 minutes, gives me an lightly active TDEE or 2525, sedentary TDEE of 2203, normalize for 3/4 active/sedentary day split and you get 2340 and I've back-calculated by TDEE using a spreadsheet I found on reddit to average 2392. That said, I know it doesn't fit everyone, very much a YMMV thing. At 42/213lbs/5'10" (put in average height for us white dudes) and "light exercise" spits out a 2247/2575 calories split, normalize at 5.5/7 and get 2504 calories to average for maintenance . I chose "light exercise" since we spend roughly the same amount of time exercising on a weekly basis. Conventional advice is that for someone with 25-40lbs of weight to lose (pure guess of where you want to end up given your current weight) to set their deficit requisite to losing 1lb per week or -500 calories/day. Hence, I would ease your way up to 1800 over the next few days, stick to it for 1-2 weeks, see how your feel there and adjust accordingly.
Link to TDEE Calculator referenced:
https://tdeecalculator.net/result.php?s=imperial&g=male&age=42&lbs=213&in=70&act=1.375&f=12 -
ssdunn2236 wrote: »Ive been going to the gym for about a month now. I do 30 minutes cardio and about 30 minutes strength training 5 or 6 days a week. For the first week or two I felt great. But Ive gradually started feeling more tired and moody. Ive been doing the slim fast diet as well. I suspect Im doing too much and probably not eating enough. My question is this - if I cut my strength training to 3 days a week, would 2 days cardio still be too much for a newbie?
Are you filling your MFP chart accurately with BOTH your food and your exercise. What does it say at the end of a typical day? Are there lots of calories left over at the end of the equation?1 -
I rarely lift over 4 days a week anyway, and on a cut diet I will sometimes run a 3x per week program, hitting the whole body once a week with that split. That's enough to maintain muscle, and gives plenty of time for rest and recovery given the calorie restrictions.
Also, you should probably eat more.0 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »It's likely your bigger issues is under feeding your activity.
That said, resistance training shouldn't be done daily...you need rest and recovery...you shouldn't be working the same muscles on consecutive days. Most beginner plans are full body 2-3x per week. You need rest and recovery.
I think this needs to be emphasized on top of a few extra calories.
If you are following a well structured routine (like found in the link below), eating adequate protein (~120g) and eating adequate calories, than recovery should be less of an issue. Personally, starting with a full body 3 day routine and then doing some cardio on off days should provide adequate recovery, increase strength and calorie burning.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10332083/which-lifting-program-is-the-best-for-you/p1
If you solve the calories issue and still struggle to recover a bit, you can look to add supplementation. There are a few that can help with recovery (Citrulline and Beta-Alanine).
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10637410/beneficial-supplements-which-ones-are-right-for-you/p11 -
IMO, get off of Slim Fast and eat real food. Keep up exercising, but perhaps modifying the what/when. An hour a day is not "too much" as long as you can sustain it without injury. I realize Slim Fast is an easy way to control what you're eating, but it's not something you can do "for life" and isn't teaching you how to sustain your losses in the long term.
Stock your cupboards and fridge with better choices, use a food scale, and create habits that will sustain you for the rest of your life.
As for your mood and being tired, I would think it's a combination of missing the fuels your body needs to keep up the workouts, plus perhaps not eating enough. I find that there's a fine line between eating enough of the right things and still keeping up with my workouts while slowly losing. Since fitness is more important than weight loss for me, the losses are coming really, really slowly, but my workouts are staying strong. I've tried a slightly higher deficit only to find my workouts suffering almost immediately. Once my fitness gets where I really want it, I'll just maintain where I'm at at that point and go into a steeper deficit, but I won't plan on making "progress" in regards to my fitness, either.1
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