How long is too long to exercise? HELP!

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  • Mizzbehaven
    Mizzbehaven Posts: 12
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    There's no need to do more than 60 minutes of cardio per day, but if you feel like doing more, just make sure you eat enough to support the rebuilding of muscle (muscle is constantly being broken down and rebuilt- it's normal). It's highly unlikely that the average person is going to over-exercise. Our biggest mistake is thinking we can exercise like crazy, and not feed our bodies enough.

    http://www.weightlossforall.com/aerobic exercise.htm

    This kind of brings up my question

    According to the calorie counter I need to stay at 1200 calories a day in order to reach a goal of 2 lbs. weight loss per week.

    When I do cardio (30 mins on the elliptical) I burn about 425 calories and I add that to the exercise tracker. The Calorie Counter then adds the calories I burned into my total calories for the day. Does that mean I have to consume 1625 calories on the days I work out in order to lose weight?

    Sorry, I got off topic.
  • tvfit
    tvfit Posts: 56 Member
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    If you don't consume enough NET calories (calories in-calories burned), your body may go into "starvation" mode. I think 1200 NET calories is a safe level to consume. HTH.
  • lessertess
    lessertess Posts: 855 Member
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    There are no hard, fast rules. Your exercise plan should be one that works for you and works towards your ultimate goal. How long you can safely exercise depends on how intensely you are working and on your fitness level. In general, if you are doing high intensity cardio you will burn fat less efficiently after one hour and begin to burn a higher percentage of muscle. But you burn a percentage of muscle, no matter how long you exercise. You body will burn available glycogen stores first, then a percentage of fat and muscle. The percentages depend on your intensity level and on the length of time you exercise. Unless you're a body builder, it's the details are really not that important.

    You will notice that marathon runners are very lean. They have very low percentages of fat, but they also don't carry a lot of muscle. What they have is strong and toned, but they aren't going to build bulk. That's what long, intense cardio can do for you. Body builders do enough cardio to burn fat, but no more than that. They want large muscle mass so they limit their cardio.

    for the rest of us, it's really a matter of personal choice and how many calories you want to burn. You will burn the same number (or close to) calories by running for a solid hour or by walking briskly for two hours. I personally hate to run and don't really enjoy high intensity cardio, I prefer to work at a lower intensity for a longer time.

    It's more important to listen to what your mind and body are telling you. If you become too fatigued, do less or if you begin to feel that your body is overworked and in danger of injury, do less.
  • GetFitBy2010
    GetFitBy2010 Posts: 91
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    If you do low intensity impact then you can work out over 1,2 hours otherwise
    your muscles will break down, cotisol (sp?) wil get release, your joints has more chance to get damage.
    High impact interval is the best.
    I ride bike or walk low impact in my gym all the time when I want to finish watching the show all the time.
    I stopped take 2 cardio classes (2 hours) tho.
  • TheWayIUsed2Be
    TheWayIUsed2Be Posts: 70
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    I want to thank everyone for their opinions and any research they did in regards to my question. I am down to about an hour cardio and doing some weigh training to go with it. I lost some weight since my weigh in on monday but wont post it until official weigh in on Monday. Also i am going on vacation for two days and wont know the calorie count of anything at this restaurant i want to go to.....Any recommendations?

    Also if i worked out and saved my exercise calories over a few days prior to my trip and didnt eat them could i then use them on the days i was out of town?
  • April0815
    April0815 Posts: 780 Member
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    One way to find out the calories you are going to take in on vacation is if you know the restaurants you are going to check to see if they have a website. Most places have the nutritional values on their website. Remember it is vacation though. Let loose a little bit and enjoy but just remember not to go overboard cause you still have to come home and work the lbs off. Have fun and enjoy yourself.

    April
  • iLose2Gain
    iLose2Gain Posts: 138 Member
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    I don't think it is a problem to work out more than 2 hours a day. Like it was mentioned before, athletes, marathon runners, dancers all workout more than 2 hours a day. Also the contestants on the Biggest Loser workout for 5-6 hours a day for 3 months! And you see how intense those workouts are! So I don't think 2 hours on a treadmill is hurting anything. You just have to make sure your body can handle it. If you aren't hurting the keep going.

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