So, my promise to myself for the next 3 months is to never miss a day of working out.

Because of my weird working times, I generally work out between midnight and 4am. I am totally happy with this - the gym is mostly empty around then so I avoid my own social anxiety.

I was supposed to go last night with the BF but I ended up taking a nap that lasted a few hours too long and I only woke up when he had to leave for class. Since we have 1 car, I couldn't go to the gym then. So I waited around, took a nice shower, etc... then we had dinner and I've been a couch potato ever since.

I have until midnight to put in my hour of cardio that I promised myself to do for today, but I still have to put in my work out for *tomorrow* right after midnight.

I know I could get up and go now. It's 6pm, I'd be home by 8pm - have to shower and all that jazz then go *back* to the gym again a little after midnight, come home and shower again, blah blah.

Part of me says "Go ahead and do it, why not. It is one work out closer to meeting your goal weight!" the other part of me groans and says "really?? 2 trips to the gym and 2 showers within a few hours of each other??"

If BF doesn't go with me tonight, then I can double up my work out around midnight and make it count for both days, but if he comes with me, I can't make him sit around the gym for 2 hours, ya know?

So you girls make the call - do I go right now or do I just wait a few hours, maybe increase my intensity or something to make up for the loss of a workout today?

go now! why not? Remember the only thing stopping you from being who you want to be is you. If you skip your workout, your just going to be pissed about it tomorrow!

You get most of the health benefits of cardio by doing 20 minutes 3x a week.

Yes - you burn more calories than sitting on your butt however the actual numbers of calories burned in an hour of cardio is pretty minor.

Why I am telling you this? Because you need to find something you enjoy.

Some people love cardio - I'm not one of them. It bores me to tears.

I highly advise you to find something you actually enjoy. I personally enjoy lifting weights and hiking. Although you can't hike at midnight very easily you could always try lifting weights and see if you like it. In my opinion it is the best exercise for fat loss and body recomposition. (Most experts agree with me btw)

Regardless - if you don't like cardio find something you do like and do that.

I personally LOVE showers.. there is nothing more awesome then lavishing under the hot water with a excellent smelling soap. So an excuse to take TWO showers is good for me!

For today, I'd just go the once instead of making the trip there and back so close together.

For the future, since you're limited by your hours and the car sharing, could you find something to do at home? I like the Tae Bo videos and Jillian Michaels's. Then you'd have no excuses if for whatever reason it wasn't feasible to get to the gym.

Ya, that would feel like quite a bother and very tiring; so I would just wait and go once tonight -- meanwhile ...

I agree with JOHN P about finding activities that you enjoy; I also like doing weights -- I do hand weights at home 3 x days a week (Mon/Wed/Fri); and other stuff on the days in between ie walking, toning exercises, etc. Can you find something else that you can do at home when you have a miss like you did today -- ie Leslie Sasoon's walk off the lbs or dancing; something else you like?

Untamed ~ we think alike?

I never said I don't enjoy doing cardio. Going to the gym in general is not a chore for me, but going to the gym, showering, etc.. twice in a matter of hours IS a chore. I am not looking for ideas of other exercise patterns to d as I am quite happy with what I do, I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression. I was just trying to decide if the drive back and forth and double showers within a few hours span of each other was going to be worth it, not a question of whether or not it would be worth it as far as physical benefit because it would be, just more of an effective use of my time.

As far as your suggestion of me not getting the best benefit from my workouts because I workout more frequently, I have found that cardio actually changes my BMR significantly and my overall plan has greatly changed my body composition, mental wellness, and all that good stuff.

My base calories per minute, being a couch potato is 1.9-2.5 calories/min burn. Putzing around the hows goes up to about 4 cal/min. During a cardio based work out, my calorie expenditure is 13-17 cal/min. After working out, my baseline calorie burn per minute stays close to 6-8 cal/min for sometimes as long as 3-3.5 hours after I have finished working out. That is a massively significant difference.

I workout plan includes a p90x/insanity hybrid, 1 hour of cardio daily and 30 - 45 min of weight training every other day.

I get *much* more overall benefit with this plan than I would running for 20 minutes 3 days a week. When I first started figuring out what works best for me, I learned very quickly that less is not more and I get out of my work outs what I put into them. I've got the calorie burn numbers and measurement changes to prove that. May not work out for everyone, but it is evident that for me, my plan works well.

Uhh...calm the **** down. JohnP was just making a suggestion. You do not have to get snippy about it and bite off his head. Geez, some people.

I think you might be taking things too extreme... As great as a double workout between 8 pm and 12 am could help your weight loss goals, why not just up the intensity of one workout so you can really feel like you accomplished something without the added strain of carting back and forth / extra showers etc. Just a thought...Personally for me, I used to get too intense about working out and I would eventually crash and quit so if you're dreading two workouts, just make the one really count and work harder to stay on track tomorrow.

Why on earth would you let anyone else "make the call" for you?

It doesn't "matter" to any of us (and I don't mean that in a harsh way - it's not our body, so we don't have a stake in this), and in the scheme of things, it probably doesn't matter to you either (because if it did, you'ld make the decision that mattered most to you - which do you value more, getting to the gym, or having a few extra hours of rest. Neither is a bad decision, but it should be made according to your values, not ours).

If you can't make a decision like this on your own, how are you going to make all of the many thousands of decisions that any healthful journey requires?

And if you can make a decision (but don't want to), why would you ask us - so that if we tell you not to go, then you don't have to feel guilty if you were just doing what we suggested? Now that sounds more like an excuse than deciding on you own, that waiting makes more sense because you value rest/personal time over one single work out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that input can't help you make a difficult decision - but is this really one of them, and isn't "handing it over" to anyone else sort of ridiculous, especially at the "last hour."

You might as well have flipped a coin, because it's "too late" to even get a good consensus opinion (and an understanding of why people gave the input they did).

You can make this decision on your own, you don't need us.

I know this might seem hostile, (as it seemed to me you may have thought John P's was) but that's not at all where I'm coming from. I mean this very supportively. As I'm pretty sure John P did as well. To me, it sounded like well-meant advice, given the fact that he doesn't know (and couldn't know) you. And that's my point. We don't know you well enough to make this kind of decision for you. We can only give you advice by our own experience, and there's a very good chance that it won't apply to you.

I really didn't get the impression she was being snippy with me. Then again it is obvious from my post that my reading comprehension is not that great lol

To the OP:

I misunderstood what you were saying but you also misunderstood me. What I was saying is that 20 minutes of cardio 3x a week gives you most of the HEALTH benefits for your cardio vascular system.

No doubt, given two people identical people with the same diets the one doing more exercise will lose weight faster. Exercise does burn calories and you'll never hear me suggest otherwise.

Having said that - I would give you a word of caution. Too much exercise in a deficit can be quite damaging and the closer you get to your goal weight the more this is true as your body has less fat to draw energy from easily. Note: I'm not saying you're exercising too much. I'm just saying that as you get into better and better shape you might be tempted to keep pushing it and that could cause problems.

Just something to think about in the future. Gooduck.