[tsots]

I have question for you all! I've been doing cardio in the morning and in the afternoon or early in the evening for the past couple of months. Well, I 've learned that doing 2hours cardio can be burning some muscles and I don't want that to happen. So, I am thinking about cutting it down to 1 hour, and wondering when is it the best time of the day to do it. I've read some articles and it said doing cardio in the morning before eating breakfast will burn stored fats and that is what I want to do, but I've also found articles that suggests otherwise. If, you guys know or have any suggestions, please let me know. I would really really appreciate it. Or do you guys think I should keep doing what I am doing without cutting down my cardio!!! I am eating between 1000-1200 calories a day.

[emerald dragonfly]

I guess it doesn't matter??? I do my cardio between 3pm-4pm. Sometimes 4pm-5pm. For me, If I do my cardio before I start making dinner, I feel "tired- good" and plus, I drink 1 8oz. glass of ice water when I get done. I find myself not eating as much.

I think everyone has there own preference to the time due to schooling, work, kids, etc.... Find your time..try it in the morning, if you don't like to do it in the morning, try afternoon or evening...early evening. If you exercise too late at night, you won't sleep very well. (That's just me though.)

emerald dragonfly

[NowOrNever!]

Hi tsots! I have to say, my absolute gut response is to say "when you KNOW you can do it and stick with it!" I know one girl at work who gets up at 5am every day so she can work out for an hour before showering and getting ready for work. I would just as soon die (well, maybe not QUITE) as get up that early! I'm definitely an afternoon person. I have to be careful when my workout happens right after work because I'll end up with my metabolism so revved that even 5 hours later it's hard to go to sleep--I try to save my really long workouts for Fridays and the weekend.

I'm not sure that I really buy into that whole business about limiting the amount of cardio or other exercise you do. My mantra is that your weight loss journey is a personal experiment of one. We can all give advice, but in the end, you will have to learn through some trial and error about what works for YOUR body. One of the reasons I absolutely HATED WW so many years ago is their rather rigid perceptions about exercise and adding points. Basically, you would think that WW was unaware of endurance type exercise. I'm actually preparing for a big event in 2006 that has me looking at weight loss as embedded within a larger training program and 30-60 minutes of aerobic exercise every session won't cut it. I have at least one session/week that is getting progressively longer (and will get up to 6 hours). I *do* add calories back in when I have long exercise sessions and that would be my main recommendation--learn your balance between calories consumed and your exercise level. If you decide to keep your long cardio sessions, then just adjust your intake to keep your body running smoothly.

Geez....I always write such long notes.....

[CBETA]

Hmm, right on - listen to John Tash - good advice and research in general.
Per him recommendation is as follows:
Do work out in the early afternoon 2-4:30 pm. Body tends to be a few degrees hotter at that time and therefore more burning will take place.
Yet! Before you go and change your schedule around, it is better to work out regularly instead of twice a week. So if morning works for you as a time of consistency dont' change it. Regular work outs bring more results then properly scheduled work outs.

Personal opinion disclaimer.
As far as cardio. If you are able to do 2 hours of it, I think your heart is well trained, so you might want to challenge it. I would cut down to 1 hr, but!
I would do 20 min when I get to the gym, then weights, then another 20 min, then else, and then another 20min. Believe me, I tried doing 10, weights, and 10 and was extremely tired. Alternating activity does burn more. This workout structure has been recommended when I was loosing weiht a few yours ago with a trainer.

Good Luck

[lucky]

Whenever you can! There may be some slight advantages in terms of calorie burning at different times of day but it isn't enough to make a huge difference over the long haul.

Cardio is an important part of weight loss. I personally don't believe that you can do too much (as long as you balance extra exercise proper nutrition and don't do so much that you hurt yourself physically). By incorporating weight training into your exercise routine you can counteract the issue of dipping into your muscle reserve while still reaping the benefits of burning extra calories through cardio.

[kookiemonster]

What kind of cardio are you doing? At what intesity? I don't think it makes too much of a difference when you do it as long as your body has the fuel beforehand. And after you work out you should try and eat something in 30-60 mins to help your muscles recover faster.
You may also want to up the amount of calories you're taking in if you're doing 2 hours of cardio a day, I'm pretty sure that even 1200 is not adequate enough.

[Tani]

As others have said, do it when you *like* to do it! The better it fits into your schedule, the easier it is to keep it up. I wouldn't worry at all about doing 2 hours of cardio at a stretch either.

[chrmiller]

Why are you working out 2 hours a day? I used to do that, and found that dieting actually worked better for me than killing myself. I worked out for 3 years at that pace and exersized my way down to a size 12. Big Whoop.

[tsots]

I feel like I accomplished something when I workout 2 hours a day. Well, it didn't start like that, I started to workout for 30 minutes a day, and over the time I increased it to 2 hours. I really don't know why I workout 2 hours a day, its just something I do.
My cardio consists of treadmill, elliptical, stair master, and stationary bike. But I usually find myself doing stair master more than the others. Stair master gives me the most workout. I do it on fat burning mode thing, at the highest level which is 15. And according to it, I burn 100 cal every 5 minutes. I usually do 30 minutes in the morning and 30 in the afternoon. When I do treadmill I usually just run at 6.5 m/h. Stationary bike, I do it at 14 mi/hr.
I usually enjoy doing it in the morning, it gives me sense of accomplishment through out the day. Well, anyways, thanks for your advices

[Deanna7272]

There are different approaches to the theory of splitting your workouts instead of 2 hours cardio, do some, then another activity, cardio, etc and break it up... I always started out with about 15 mins for a warm up, weight training, and end with about 45 minutes to an hour, if I felt good enough. I always did the stairmaster, I seemed to get more from it than a treadmill (I get shin splints quite often)....

I have always been taught that if you do your cardio in the morning, before breakfast, that it acts as a jump start to your metabolism and you end up burning MORE throughout the day.

If I could only get up an hour earlier... but as you see it's Midnight and I am still online....lol