cardio- thoughts?

Define waste.

What is your goal?

If you're training for a 1/2 Marathon, marathon, Ironman... How would you expect to get there if you only ran 30 minutes a day?

I have not hear of the resting after 30 min part but if you want the most bang for your buck (or should I say time & effort?) try HIIT (high intensity interval training) I found a few sites online offering quick workouts which were ok (do a google search there are tons out there and good info on the science behind HIIT training) but then I tried TurboFire, OMG love it and see results so fast. Chalene (the instructor on the dvds is really motivating and the moves are really fun once you get the hang of it) plus I like I can just pop in the dvd and be done in anywhere from 15-55 min depending on the day. If I have to workout for more than an hour forget it!

I have lost almost 5lbs this month, I started in Jan but had an injury (not exercise related) so could not work out much for a few days. Plus I have so much more energy from these workouts it is insane, I feel 10 years younger in only 1 month. Why did I not start sooner?

i used to be an extreme cardio bunny. i'm talking treadmill for an hour.. + elliptical + bike for 30-45 mins each. i wasn't eating right but i was pretty thin. i felt like crap all the time.

now i'm still a cardio bunny - just a different type. i do interval training.. which most machines at the gym ( sorry i didnt check to see if you use a gym) have. it's basically working out for a high intensity to get your HR up, then a break to bring it back down. i have seen more results in the past week of doing different interval training sessions than spending hours upon hours running/elliptical in the summer

Define waste.

What is your goal?

If you're training for a 1/2 Marathon, marathon, Ironman... How would you expect to get there if you only ran 30 minutes a day?

I basically and just trying to loose fat. I am 5'7" and weigh 144 lb. I started weight training at 139lb and now i am at 144lb. So I have gained muscle. I just want to get rid of the fat surrounding the muscle so you can actually see it I am at 18% bodyfat. I have been doing cardio, 30 mins usually 4-6 days a week after my lifting. I have changed my diet drastically. I have for the most part stopped drinking alcohol completely. I just dont see any progress of losing the fat. I decided to try uping my cardio. I mentioned this to a girl at the gym. Thats when she basically told me that it was worthless and time wasting. I HAVE heard that before but in what cotext I can not remember. I had my suspicians that this was incorrect so I wanted to find out. I have no problem uping my cardio if that will help me get the results that I want. I just started doing Jillian Micheals 30 day shred in the am, because it seems more of a cardio routine to me with little strenght training. I have went through Jamie Eason live fit trainer twice and am currently maintaining on it. I got very good results. I just need a little fat loss results.

There is a good chance this is physiological. If you are at 18% body fat and you still are seeing fat, this is a problem with your body image. I suggest you see a professional.

These people may have been telling you this out of kindness, trying to get you to stop doing so much cardio. There is a point where being too healthy becomes unhealthy, and I can say this because I have been there myself. It is a tough road to navigate, but I know that when I get obsessed with this teeny bit of back fat or saddle bags and over do it thinking I can get it off, I end up looking horrible.

Good luck!

Agree. 18% is fine but there isn't necessarily anything wrong with wanting to be more fit.

OP, I suggest you check out some of Steve Troutman's posts. He knows what he's talking about and has been super helpful for me already. Especially his post about lean people wanting to get leaner.

Good luck!

Define waste.

What is your goal?

If you're training for a 1/2 Marathon, marathon, Ironman... How would you expect to get there if you only ran 30 minutes a day?

I basically and just trying to loose fat. I am 5'7" and weigh 144 lb. I started weight training at 139lb and now i am at 144lb. So I have gained muscle. I just want to get rid of the fat surrounding the muscle so you can actually see it I am at 18% bodyfat. I have been doing cardio, 30 mins usually 4-6 days a week after my lifting. I have changed my diet drastically. I have for the most part stopped drinking alcohol completely. I just dont see any progress of losing the fat. I decided to try uping my cardio. I mentioned this to a girl at the gym. Thats when she basically told me that it was worthless and time wasting. I HAVE heard that before but in what cotext I can not remember. I had my suspicians that this was incorrect so I wanted to find out. I have no problem uping my cardio if that will help me get the results that I want. I just started doing Jillian Micheals 30 day shred in the am, because it seems more of a cardio routine to me with little strenght training. I have went through Jamie Eason live fit trainer twice and am currently maintaining on it. I got very good results. I just need a little fat loss results.

There is a good chance this is physiological. If you are at 18% body fat and you still are seeing fat, this is a problem with your body image. I suggest you see a professional.

These people may have been telling you this out of kindness, trying to get you to stop doing so much cardio. There is a point where being too healthy becomes unhealthy, and I can say this because I have been there myself. It is a tough road to navigate, but I know that when I get obsessed with this teeny bit of back fat or saddle bags and over do it thinking I can get it off, I end up looking horrible.

Good luck!

I think this is a bit premature to say. There is nothing wrong with setting high standards for yourself. I don't see any red flags in what the poster says that would indicate she crossed any psychological barrier into disorder territory.

I shared my EXPERIENCE. And it does not take a rocket scientist to see the red flag of someone having 18% body fat and still seeing fat. So please, by all means,, instead of insulting me, please share what you base your experience on. Please understand that BMI for men and women are vastly different.

Define waste.

What is your goal?

If you're training for a 1/2 Marathon, marathon, Ironman... How would you expect to get there if you only ran 30 minutes a day?

I basically and just trying to loose fat. I am 5'7" and weigh 144 lb. I started weight training at 139lb and now i am at 144lb. So I have gained muscle. I just want to get rid of the fat surrounding the muscle so you can actually see it I am at 18% bodyfat. I have been doing cardio, 30 mins usually 4-6 days a week after my lifting. I have changed my diet drastically. I have for the most part stopped drinking alcohol completely. I just dont see any progress of losing the fat. I decided to try uping my cardio. I mentioned this to a girl at the gym. Thats when she basically told me that it was worthless and time wasting. I HAVE heard that before but in what cotext I can not remember. I had my suspicians that this was incorrect so I wanted to find out. I have no problem uping my cardio if that will help me get the results that I want. I just started doing Jillian Micheals 30 day shred in the am, because it seems more of a cardio routine to me with little strenght training. I have went through Jamie Eason live fit trainer twice and am currently maintaining on it. I got very good results. I just need a little fat loss results.

There is a good chance this is physiological. If you are at 18% body fat and you still are seeing fat, this is a problem with your body image. I suggest you see a professional.

These people may have been telling you this out of kindness, trying to get you to stop doing so much cardio. There is a point where being too healthy becomes unhealthy, and I can say this because I have been there myself. It is a tough road to navigate, but I know that when I get obsessed with this teeny bit of back fat or saddle bags and over do it thinking I can get it off, I end up looking horrible.

Good luck!

I think this is a bit premature to say. There is nothing wrong with setting high standards for yourself. I don't see any red flags in what the poster says that would indicate she crossed any psychological barrier into disorder territory.

I shared my EXPERIENCE. And it does not take a rocket scientist to see the red flag of someone having 18% body fat and still seeing fat. So please, by all means,, instead of insulting me, please share what you base your experience on. Please understand that BMI for men and women are vastly different.

I didn't realize I was insulting to you. To the contrary, I felt you were insulting the OP by jumping to the conclusion that she has psychological problems.

http://www.builtlean.com/2010/08/03/ideal-body-fat-percentage-chart/

here a female with an 'athletic' build would have 14-20% body fat. So you're saying athletes have psychological problems?

Define waste.

What is your goal?

If you're training for a 1/2 Marathon, marathon, Ironman... How would you expect to get there if you only ran 30 minutes a day?

I basically and just trying to loose fat. I am 5'7" and weigh 144 lb. I started weight training at 139lb and now i am at 144lb. So I have gained muscle. I just want to get rid of the fat surrounding the muscle so you can actually see it I am at 18% bodyfat. I have been doing cardio, 30 mins usually 4-6 days a week after my lifting. I have changed my diet drastically. I have for the most part stopped drinking alcohol completely. I just dont see any progress of losing the fat. I decided to try uping my cardio. I mentioned this to a girl at the gym. Thats when she basically told me that it was worthless and time wasting. I HAVE heard that before but in what cotext I can not remember. I had my suspicians that this was incorrect so I wanted to find out. I have no problem uping my cardio if that will help me get the results that I want. I just started doing Jillian Micheals 30 day shred in the am, because it seems more of a cardio routine to me with little strenght training. I have went through Jamie Eason live fit trainer twice and am currently maintaining on it. I got very good results. I just need a little fat loss results.

There is a good chance this is physiological. If you are at 18% body fat and you still are seeing fat, this is a problem with your body image. I suggest you see a professional.

These people may have been telling you this out of kindness, trying to get you to stop doing so much cardio. There is a point where being too healthy becomes unhealthy, and I can say this because I have been there myself. It is a tough road to navigate, but I know that when I get obsessed with this teeny bit of back fat or saddle bags and over do it thinking I can get it off, I end up looking horrible.

Good luck!

I think this is a bit premature to say. There is nothing wrong with setting high standards for yourself. I don't see any red flags in what the poster says that would indicate she crossed any psychological barrier into disorder territory.

Thank you! I appreciate that. I was a little blown away, maybe a little offended by that post. Im glad I am not the only one who doesnt think I need to get my head checked.

If you have psychological problems, then so does every male who has six pack abs..because those males fit in the same category as you, 'athletic' with often less than 10% body fat. This is not to say that you don't need to see a shrink, but I just thought it was a premature judgement.

Sorry, I did not mean to offend you, but if you are open to keeping it in mind, that is great. I also did not mean it as probably as harsh as you took it, after all, we make up our own tone when reading messages on forums.

Some fat is never going to go away. This is why they invented smart lipo, you may want to check into it. I have body fat that will not go away unless I get to 89 lbs, and I am not willing to do that.

Once again, I am sorry I offended you, by all means, I come across on here way harsher than what I really intend to.

As your gym partner I have seen you make really great progress so far! I am glad you have gotten out of your plateau. But you just recently changed your diet to consuming healthier options, reduced some of your cheating, and reduced how much your drinking. I think in 3 weeks you will start to see the cutting, just give it time! As far as lowering your calories I think you should do the opposite. Since we are weight training and doing HIIT. I have actually read many things from girls in a similar situation as you that upped their calories after they werent seeing the results they wanted and they actually ended up loosing more weight by eating more. You have been consuming about the same amount of calories (which has always been under 1640- your estimated daily intake) for quite some time now. Your metabolism WILL start to adjust to that and that is what causes the plateaus. My recommendation is stick with the lower carbs (rotating with 1-2 high carb days a week for the next 3 weeks) and UP your calories! As far as the cardio Just stick with the HIIT, switching up the intervals, try the Super 8's, continue with the stair stepper and incline walking on the treadmill. Also add in Plyo's. Too much cardio when you are trying to build muscle and loose body fat can be a bad thing, so dont over do it! No more than 60 mins a day (especially since you are doing the circuit training right now) You have to factor that in as cardio as well!

Yah the carbs are going to be hard to keep low, just have to find more protein options that you like to fill up your calories, like eating more of your meat at dinner and lunch, that ups your protein and your calories, but Im afraid you are undereating and have been for too long that your metabolism has adjusted to being starved, I remember right before I left for Florida you were still super tired during the workouts, just meaning your not eating enough calories. I know its going to take awhile to adjust to upping your calories because you feel stuffed but thats because your so used to not eating enough, you just have to train your body, its all mental. I think upping your calories for a bit will help, atleast shock your metabolism

Yah theres such thing as too much as everything really. But unless your willing to give up some of the stuff your eating now to hit your numbers, like switching out some of your foods , and I know you probably wont because you like your meals then I suggest upping your protein a little more instead of your carbs to get the extra calories in for the day, your carbs will go up a little but keeping them lower than the protein will help with the fat lossb (especially since most of your carbs are bread and fruit)

Ill give it a go but if I start getting fat, you have to do 100 burpees in a row. Without a water break. :happy:

Wow, you are at a lot of protein already. Not too much though.

Usually it's 1g per lb of lean body mass, not just weight. So you already are hitting that, excellent.

With that level of activity, it may indeed be the cal's in general are too low.

Since you gave your BF%, age, weight, I looked at your BMR estimate that uses BF% instead of height.
http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

Says 1529.

So you are well above that. So that leaves the calculation of maintenance calories potentially being off, depending on how active your body is outside of the specific workouts. So that site allows you to estimate that too.

And then your exercise burn calories could be off also. You could be eating back too much, or not eating back enough. In which case your exercise burn could be pushing your deficit below your BMR, causing metabolism to slow down to match. Not a good thing.