[KLK]

There is a lot of conflicting information out there about how much/how hard one should be exercising, so I wanted to pool some people on here to see what you have to say, since i am pretty unsure about this and would love a clarification.

I saw my doctor a few months ago (who I like a lot and who is herself in great shape) and she suggested that I should be doing 1.5 - 2 hours of exercise 4 - 5 times a week, but at med-low intensity. Like walking vigorously on the treadmill for 2 hours.

But thn, of course, I've read/heard from many other reputable sources that any kind of cardio over 40 mins actually works against you by increasing bodily stress that releases hormones that make it hard to shed pounds. These sources suggest 30 - 40 mins of mid-high intensity activity 5 - 7 times a week.

Still others maintain that circuit training is the best idea, ie.3-4 sets of 10 minute mid--high intensity cardio with 2 min rests in between.

So... what do you think and how do you exercise? I have been known to do all three, depending on who I feel like believing this week and I just feel like if I'm getting serious about losing the rest of this weight, I need to clarify this asap. Thanks!

[lumifan4ever]

I don't believe you have to do 2 hours of excersizing a day. My heavens...who has that much time?? Certainly not me...and i've lost 60 pounds...or i did...put a couple back on. hehehe.

I excersize about 45-50 minutes 3-4 times a week. Always have. I read at my local Y that you should get 120 or 140 minutes a week in of cardio. I can't remember which one at the moment. But certainly not 10 hours a week!!!!! Holy Cow. That's a part time job for me!!!

I believe if you get 30 minutes a day in 6 days a week, you are doing good. Like i said...i get about 40-50 minutes a day in...about 4 times a week.

[rockstar87]

All the reading I've done suggests anything over 2 hours releases stress hormone in the body...40 minutes is barely any time for a lot of people! I couldn't even do my entire weight circuit in 40 minutes!

I think not taking one rest day works against your body. I know some people like to workout everyday, but intense training daily is overkill. It can be counterproductive. I take one to two days off a week and train at a high intensity. If you just have to do something on that seventh day (like me sometimes ) I go for a nice leisurely walk. It's not exercise, it just gets me out of the house.

Interval training is beneficial because it causes your body to use more oxygen (both during and after exercise) and thus increases your metabolic rate. Studies have shown that individuals who worked out for less time but did high intensity interval training actually lost more weight than those who did steady state exercises over a longer period of time.

I do steady state cardio and interval training in the form if circuits as well as sprints on the treadmill. Everything I do is high intensity. I'm only there for 2 hours (max) so I go as hard as I can to get the most bang for my buck. I think 5 hours a week of high intensity exercise is a good target to aim for and anything else is bonus. I would definitely advocate taking at least one rest day a week and I think high intensity exercise (whether it's intervals or not) is the way to go to maximize your efficiency. Why not vary your exercise? Steady state a few times a week and intervals the other days. Variety is also key.

[KLK]

Oh wait wait -- I wasn't clear. I was speaking ONLY of cardio... so like 2 hours of CARDIO (on top of whatever time you'd spend on weight training). My dr was suggesting 1.5 - 2 hrs of CARDIO 3 -4 times a week, in addition to weight training. I felt so discouraged after that because I really do not have 2 hrs in a day to devote just to cardio (with another 30 mins of weight training added in).

I think weight training and then 30 - 40 mins of cardio makes sense. I also think high-intensity circuit training makes a lot of sense, but I still wanna pool responses. Thanks for your responses so far!

[BlueToBlue]

I think it comes down to how hard vs how long you want to work out. If you don't want to work out a very high intensity then you're going to have to work out longer. So if all you want to do is walk at a slow to moderate pace on the treadmill, 1 to 2 hours 4 to 5 times a week probably isn't unreasonable. But if you are working out at a higher intensity, you're not going to be able to or need to work out as long. If you are doing high intensity interval training for example, there's simply no way you're going to be able to do it for 1 to 2 hours, 4 to 5 days a week. 15 to 30 min, a few days a week, is plenty for HIIT.

I have never done cardio for more than an hour a day (except for swimming, but that's different because it's not weight-bearing). When I did steady state cardio, I did it for an hour at moderately high intensity. When I added some HIIT to my cardio program, I cut my cardio back to 30 min. Originally I split the 30 min between steady-state and HIIT, but recently I've been doing a little more HIIT and a little less steady state. One thing I really really really like about HIIT is that I don't have to do it as long. I burn the same or more calories in half the time. Right now, I do cardio four days a week (HIIT on three of those days, swimming on one day), strength training three days a week, and circuit training one day a week. I don't do cardio and strength training on the same days (I work with a trainer for strength training and the workouts are killer--doing any other exercise on those days is simply not a option).

I think the suggestion that you have to do 1.5 to 2 hours of cardio a day is only reasonable if you are doing cardio at a pretty light intensity. If you are working at a moderate to high intensity, I think 30 min to an hour is plenty. I'm certainly not an expert by any means (so definitely take what I say for the amateur opinion that it is), but I did get to my goal weight with this approach.

I also think that doctors and other experts say these things with the expectation that we aren't going to really do what they say, that we'll do something less. So your doctor may have said to do 1.5 to 2 hours of cardio a day, thinking that if she told you that, you'd maybe do 30 min to an hour a day. When I first started working out with my trainer, he told me to do 15 min of abs every day. Later he was SHOCKED to discover I was actually doing it and suggested that maybe I didn't need to do quite so much.

[rockstar87]

2 hours of cardio a day on top of weight training? Hahaha. I'd kill myself! That's not practical. A normal person doesn't generally have that much time to devote to working out everyday. I wont exercise for more than 2 hours (that's weight training and cardio included). And like bluetoblue said, it's all about how hard you want to workout. I like to workout at a high intensity because it means I have to spend less time in the gym to burn the same number of calories I would at a low intensity. Weight training plus 30-40 minutes of cardio sounds great. You could always take your cardio to an hour on the days you don't do weights.

[Tomato]

Originally Posted by KLK

I saw my doctor a few months ago (who I like a lot and who is herself in great shape) and she suggested that I should be doing 1.5 - 2 hours of exercise 4 - 5 times a week, but at med-low intensity. Like walking vigorously on the treadmill for 2 hours.

I think this suggestion would get me into a heated dispute with the doc. First of all, who has the time to do 2 hours of exercise in a day (unless you are a SAHM or something). I am lucky if I squeeze in a hour a day (on most days), and that means that I get up at 5:30 am to be able to do an hour on my treadmill. I leave for work at 8 am and I am back at 5:30 pm. I take the dogs for a walk (45 mins) and by the time they are fed and settled, it is 6:30 pm. Only then I can go about my everyday stuff, like cleaning, cooking, gardening or going to the gym. I can't exercise too late in the evening because I cannot sleep then. On most days, I have to be in bed between 10 and 10:30 pm and I usually read for 15-20 minutes. I really don't know how I could possibly exercise for 2 hours.