How important are rest days?

Bding123
Bding123 Posts: 19 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Currently I am exercising 5-6 times per week for roughly an hour and 20mins. I find though that sometimes when I only exercise for 3/4 days in the week I often lose more weight... Can anyone explain this? Help appreciated!

Replies

  • ginajones87
    ginajones87 Posts: 16
    Id like to know this too! I started MFP a week ago, and have exercised everyday since, but thinking I might have a rest day tomorrow. How often does everyone have rest days? Do you eat the same?
  • gogojodee
    gogojodee Posts: 1,243 Member
    Bump. Sad to say, today is supposed to be a rest day, but debating a quick am run. Ha. For future reminders!
  • lbmore33
    lbmore33 Posts: 1,013 Member
    Id like to know this too! I started MFP a week ago, and have exercised everyday since, but thinking I might have a rest day tomorrow. How often does everyone have rest days? Do you eat the same?

    yes I eat the same time b/c of my work schedule and I run 4 days a week unless I get the need for a run. Rest is good b/c it can revitalize ur workout once you have those days off,,,plus lets ur body recover the bones/joints
  • DonttrythatwithME
    DonttrythatwithME Posts: 214 Member
    rest days are as important as training days, if you train you must rest otherwise you will be in danger of overtraining your body and you may not experience the maximum capacity to achieve what you want. IMO
  • Martucha123
    Martucha123 Posts: 1,089 Member
    when you exercise you tear your muscle tissue
    your body will repait it if you eat enough (lots of protein)
    but the process includes retaining water by your muscles
    this is why you weight more - it's the water stored in your muscles

    sometimes it's so much that your body can even look bigger, like you were bulking, when you rest, the water goes away and you get back to smaller muscles and less weight

    EDIT to add: I have 3 rest days right now as my trainings are really intense.
    I work on rest days, but that's it
    used to have 2 rest days a week when training wasn't so intense
  • splucy
    splucy Posts: 353
    I was talking with my PT the other day regarding resting periods and she advises that you work out hard for 6 weeks and then take a break for a whole week!

    The reason why she told me this is because I asked her this -

    'I went to Thailand for two weeks and was an absolute slob. I ate what I liked and did not exercise once. I did put on weight but I certainly did not expect to come back from the trip looking more toned! How do you explain this?'

    It turns out that my body got a full recovery after months of taking a beating! I know this might not be weight loss related. I did put on weight because I was consuming about 3000 calories a day! so that was inevitable... however it taught me the importance of resting periods.

    My trainer told me that if you want to look amazing for that wedding day or bridesmaid dress or holiday, you should work out for 6 weeks and rest up a week before the event/trip because you will look toned, athetlic and damn sexy!

    In about 3 weeks or so, I am going to rest up for a week and see how I go :)
  • junepinktigger
    junepinktigger Posts: 88 Member
    i do 6 days and have Monday as my rest day, but my work outs are for 45 minutes and no less, after i have done them i just potter about the house or do things with the kids after school

    when i go to the scales with 6 days work out its my fat mass and bmi changed and inches, if i do 4 days and 3 off i find bmi and mass are the same and i get 1lbs loss,
  • linzijoy
    linzijoy Posts: 109 Member
    I've also wondered this, I had a bit of a rant yesterday as I found it so confusing!
  • chrisdavy239
    chrisdavy239 Posts: 21 Member
    I posted this on another thread about the same topic - thought I'd copy it below:


    REST IS A WEAPON - use it!

    Especially if you guys are doing intense workouts, your rest periods and recovery days are the times that your body adjusts to the stresses you have put it under and gets stronger. In addition to rest days each week, I would reccommend a recovery week one in every four. It's desperately hard to have the discipline not to train really hard, or take a session or two off, but I promise you'll notice the differece if you do. Your training should have a 'cyclic' nature about it - train, train harder, train hardest, recover... repeat.

    Macro cycles like this over weeks, and micro cycles within weeks will leave you more energised and performing better in each workout.

    There is no way the body can improve if it doesn't recover at some point.

    Hope that helps :-)
  • ZoeyRobinson
    ZoeyRobinson Posts: 301
    chrisdavy239 is right. I find it really difficult to take days off. I always feel guilty when I have rest days and I usually end up working out anyway. The next morning I wake up sore, cranky and it takes the rest of the day to get full motion in my muscles. However, I once took 3 weeks off because I moved out of the country. I don't know if it was stress or lack of working out but i lost 8 pounds. Then when I started working out again I gained it all back plus another 5. So from now on I am going to force my body to take enjoy my rest days.
  • skinnylove00
    skinnylove00 Posts: 662 Member
    BUMP
  • bubsyh
    bubsyh Posts: 57 Member
    I had a rest day on tuesday and it left me feeling really low and depressed so I did a 10 minute pilates session on my tummy. I know rest is important and I have decided not to work out on sundays and tuesdays.

    The issue I am having is that I am not losing weight. I know I am snacking which is bad (on bad things) but I thinki I must be having a "body adjust" as my partner has stated my muffin top is getting better. He is charming like that!

    Maybe rest is the answer!!!
  • chrisdavy239
    chrisdavy239 Posts: 21 Member
    Bubsyh, snacking is ok, snacking on bad things - your own description - will mess your blood sugar around. Don't worry, just take things step by step and aim to be as consistent as you can without making things into a misery!

    Rest - if you're finding it hard to take, can I suggest you literally schedule it in. i.e. instead of writing on your plan 30min run, write, 30min recovery. Use the time to do something you haven't done in a while - read a book, call an old friend, research a new exciting recipe....

    Not only will your body thank you for it, you'll come back the next day (or next week if you're taking a lighter week) more energised.

    I have to take rest periods - I'm training for an ironman and am sometimes putting in 20 hours a week. I crave my rest weeks, although I STILL get the guilt..... I'm getting better at managing it since I've seen the benefits of recovery :-)
  • jessicat_xo
    jessicat_xo Posts: 1
    I am also doing MFP. I have been seriously working out for about 6 months, and in the end my progress was very small because of my diet so I started using MFP to get it under control. With my strict diet and working out for between 1.5 - 3 hours a day including warm ups cardio weighted sculpting and cool downs I have seen much more progress in a month than I have in the previous 6 months of training but the reason I'm posting is because I am going back and forth with myself on having a rest day, I have been doing very intense training for the last 2 weeks and my body is extremely sore when I wake up and my muscles feel tired and I have been getting extremely moody until I start training again but everyone is saying I'm pushing too hard and to take a day off so that I don't hinder my results. But I feel guilty and all day long I debate with myself on whether or not to work out and if I don't I feel terrible and get down on myself. Is it necessary to take a day off a week? Will pushing as hard as I can for as long as I can hinder y progress?
  • Morethanwillpower12
    Morethanwillpower12 Posts: 74 Member
    As the working mother of two very sports and socially active young men, I am constantly on the go and some days are nearly impossible to fit a workout in. I take those days as my rest days. I do feel guilty about it sometimes but I think in the end my body probably needs those rest days. I am careful not to let it happen too often though because I don't want to let not working out become a habit. :)
  • cjc166
    cjc166 Posts: 222
    If you vary your exercise, doing at least a different type every other day (i.e. day 1/strength training, day 2 cardio), or different types of cardio every other day, you're alright. Working the same muscles every day causes fatigue and can lead to injury.

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