Workout question...

  • This might sound a little wierd but the thought ran through my head: is it possible to workout too much, and have that stall weight loss?

    My routine is this:
    Mon - Day off
    Tues - Elliptical for 1 hr = 1000 calories
    Wed - Elliptical for 1 hr = 1000 calories
    Thurs - Elliptical for 1 hr = 1000 calories
    Fri - Day off
    Sat - Elliptical for 1 hr = 1000 calories
    Sun - Elliptical for 1 hr = 1000 calories

    And on Mon, Wed, and Fri I (try) get work my abs half an hr and my arms half an hr. I'm at 132 and would like to get to 125, thought I would be closer by now...

    Thanks!
  • I workout pretty much every day as well and I run 40 minutes and walk for 20 on the treadmill for a total of 60 minutes and I put my self to the test each time. Plus sit ups, push ups, and arm weights. It never seems to assist me to loose weight but it sure helps me gain weight if I stop doing it

    According to my calculations I am burning somewhere between 700 and 800 calories each day. Does that mean I am eating all those extra calories??? I think not. LOL Good Luck~~~

    Just wanted you to know that I feel your pain.
  • Depending on what you're doing, you may be building muscle, which weighs more than an equal volume of fat. If that is the case, most likely you would see an initial drop in weight, which would slow down and eventually stop, and possibly even switch to some gain. However, you would also continue to notice a difference in how your clothes fit you, as you would continue to get smaller. This is part of why scales and even BMI are not an accurate picture of your dieting success alone - they are only parts of the picture.

    Another possibility is that you are not getting enough calories in your diet. You may want to check out a website which will calculate your caloric needs based on your height, weight, age, gender, and activity level. It will give you an idea of how many calories you need to maintain, so just consume a little less to lose weight. If you take in too few calories, your body goes into starvation mode and will conserve every calorie you consume. That can definitely stall your weight loss. Don't go too far below your maintenance level of calories - just drop it by a couple-few hundred calories every day. Slow and steady does it with the weight loss!
  • also just as with food, your body gets too used to what you are doing. Shake it up a bit-either find a new cardio machine or one day go slow for an hour, one day bust your butt but go less, or do intervals that's really where the weight loss improves. throw in really fast minutes in every couple of regular minutes.

    Basically just keep your body guessing and you'll do just fine
  • Once you have only 5-10 lbs left to lose weight training is often a huge part of that especially for us women. While it is true that cardio burns calories weight training burns calories not only while you are doing it but for a period of time after you work out. Adding more muscle also ups your metabolism and helps you just burn more calories across the board. While I would not ditch your cardio efforts have you considered maybe doing 30 minutes on something a bit more challenging like a spinning bike, or alternating walking and running. Then replace th3 other 30 minutes with some circuit training or free weights. Self.com has an excellent at home free weight plan called "build sleek muscles" it is challenging and works! One thing I love to do is an incline workout on the treadmill. Basically get on the treadmill and set it to a pace that is moderatley intense for you (I do like 3.4 mph). Walk at zero incline to warm up for fiive minutes. After the 5 mins is up increase the incline by .5 every minute until you have gone to such a high incline you can no longer stand it. Then start going down .5 on the incline every 30 seconds. Once back to 0 incline do a 5 minute cooldown. It sounds easy I know but once you get above 3% incline you will sart feeling it I promise. It is GREAT for working out your butt, and you can make it as easy or as hard as you are willing to work.

    Good luck getting past your plateau!
  • The answer is YES. There are several reasons why this happens but looking at your exercise schedule I would say it would be due to doing the same exercise routine day after day after day. You need to shake things up by adding other exercises to your routine. When you do the exact same exercise on a daily basis your body will adjust and it will not be as affective anymore if at all. That's why cross-training is important. Try doing the Elliptical every other day and doing some other form of exercise in between.
  • Thanks!
    Thanks for all the replies everyone Was too tired to PT yesterday but I'll get back on it today. Normally I have about 1500 or so calories a day, trying to get it closer to 1200. Been have the BIGGEST cravings for chocolate lately...wow. Went way over last night. Fitday.com seems pretty accurate on calorie counting.