How much working out for maintenance

soldodunja2910 · April 2022

when I first started my weight loss journey my body seemed to actually craving excercise almost like it wanted to burn fat so I was able to do hit daily. now that im maintaining I find extreme hiit tiring, or maybe im just sick of it! so I guess my question is... how much excercise should we be doing in maintenance?

AnnPT77 · April 2022

Enough to maintain good health and happy life balance?

Purely from a body weight standpoint, anything from none to all day every day can work, at the right calorie intake, y'know?

I do anything from zero (rest days) to 3+ hours in a day, depending on interest, energy, season, and what's on offer to do. Common is 30-90 minutes of fun stuff.

US government health guidance is 150 minutes per week of moderate cardio (or 75 of intense) plus two sessions strength training. I think something in that range is common mainstream health advice worldwide.

cmriverside · April 2022

Is it possible you're not eating enough?

Exercise I previously enjoyed and had energy to do became tiring or too hard for me at one point and when I raised my calories it became enjoyable again.

How's your sleep, hydration, and stress levels? Sleep is super important for me. 7-9 hours a day.

cwolfman13 · April 2022

soldodunja2910 wrote: »

when I first started my weight loss journey my body seemed to actually craving excercise almost like it wanted to burn fat so I was able to do hit daily. now that im maintaining I find extreme hiit tiring, or maybe im just sick of it! so I guess my question is... how much excercise should we be doing in maintenance?

There is no answer to your question. To maintain you just consume calories commensurate to your expenditure. The more active you are, the more calories you have to consume to maintain...the less active you are the less calories you have to consume to maintain.

I've maintained for years. I spent about 5 years really active with endurance cycling and was typically on my bike 10+ hours per week...I had to eat more to maintain. I'm far more recreationally active these days than actually training so now I eat less to maintain. As spring is upon us I will start having to eat more to maintain because I'm more active generally, recreationally, and typically more exercise in the warmer months.

If you're doing true HIIT, it really should only be something done once or maybe twice per week. It is a very demanding form of exercise that requires a lot of recovery. It's trendy right now, but I don't see a whole lot of benefit in it unless you have a very good aerobic base and you're trying to improve your VO2 max or something...that is what it's designed for and it's purpose.

I would suggest finding exercise that you actually enjoy doing. Staying active is huge for general health and well-being, weight management aside. I personally find exercise for the sake of exercise to be tedious. Most of my exercise is recreational activity like hiking, mountain biking, road cycling, swimming, kayaking, etc. The exercise I do in a gym setting simply helps keep me in shape and supports my overall fitness to allow me to keep doing those other activities comfortably. Another route could be to actually train towards more specific goals like running a marathon or doing a tri or whatever.

rosebarnalice · April 2022

I average 1hour 3X per week (swimming laps).

sijomial · April 2022

"How much working out for maintenance?"

Somewhere between nothing and lots!
With the caveat that having a regular exercise routine is one of the common traits that long term successful maintainers tend to have.

I really hope you aren't doing real HIIT everyday as that would be an appalling routine that even a professional athlete wouldn't consider.
I'll assume you actually mean some sort of sub-maximal effort interval workout (95% of what is labelled and advertised as HIIT these days isn't!!) but describing it and explaining why you are doing might help with guidance or suggestions.

Enjoyment is a big factor in long term exercise adherence. I have an ability to do a small proportion of unpleasant training (unpleasantly hard or just plain boring) if it's beneficial to my goals but the vast majority of my exercise I really enjoy. Doesn't sound like you are loving your routine!

Boredom, fatigue and under-fuelling are all possible causes for how you are feeling.
Change, recovery and experimenting with a higher calorie(*) intake are the common fixes for those problems.

* = It's not uncommon for new maintainers to feel locked into a certain calorie intake and don't realise they could actually eat more, feel more energised, be more active, exercise better and still maintain weight.

awnurmarc · April 2022

I don’t work out for maintenance. I eat a number of calories that will maintain my weight.

I strength train to grow stronger (and make sure I get enough protein)

I walk or run to improve my aerobic conditioning.

That is all.

How much working out for maintenance

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