I'm trying to lose the last 10 lbs to reach my goal I set a year ago. I'm thinking of working out twice a day to increase the amount of calories I'm burning so that I can reach my goal a little quicker. About 30-40 minutes of cardio in the morning and then some sort of strength training in the evening for 20-30 minutes. Once it gets nice out again I want to get back outside to running again and once I do that I'll only workout once a day. But for now..is twice a day a few days a week excessive?

I think it depends (like with everything!).

You'll have to see if you're getting too tired working out twice a day.

I've done it but not for long stretches of time because my body needs the day to recuperate from the previous work out.

Also, your exercise is probably contributing minimally to your weight loss, it's really more about inches being lost or defining muscle.

IF you want to lose weight, maybe you need to take a look at your diet?

I did two a day workouts for about five years -- 60 minutes of cardio first thing in the AM and weights in the PM -- because it worked well with my schedule (now it's changed and I do both cardio and weights in the morning). A lot of people like to split cardio and weights because you can focus on them better than trying to do one after the other and being too tired.

I don't think you're doing too much. It sounds like about 50 - 70 minutes of exercise a day, which is pretty typical for a lot of us. But like Rana said, most weight loss is going to come from diet, not exercise, so be sure you're on track with that too. Best of luck to you in losing the last ten pounds!

I don't think two workouts a day is too much either; I do that and find it helpful to have the recovery time between sessions.

Prior to my wedding, I worked out twice/day for 3 months and once in a while, I still will. It depends.

I think that you should do it if you have the time and energy! But, I would suggest also taking time to listen to your body. If you are super tired one evening and want to take it "off", then do it. It's better to be refreshed the next day and conquer two workouts, than to suffer through one and then maybe continue suffering the next day.

My diet isn't really to bad at the moment. I struggled quite badly over the holidays and have hit it hard again since the beginning of the year. Just to keep myself in check though I've decided to start planning food out at bedtime for the next day. I know these last few pounds are going to come off very slowly because I do want to work on toning up. Maybe I should take a tape measure to myself to check progress over the next few months instead of using the scale like I have in the past?

As a Certified Personal Trainer, I can tell you exercise is every bit as important as your diet.

However, you do have to listen to your body. Many people eager to lose those last few pounds push it too hard too fast, and they end up getting overtraining syndrome. This can lead you to get more fatigued, have more headaches, irregular sleeping patterns, problems with appetite, lack of performance, and flu-like symptoms. You have to approach it slowly and take some time off to allow your body to recover. If you don't give your body enough time to recover, you may actually detrain your body and you may gain weight and lose muscle.

Start off with a couple days a week doing doubles and make sure you are getting rest. Over time progress and add another day.

The key to weight loss is a calorie deficit, burning more calories than you consume. So as you lose weight you are going to have to re-evaluate your calories. Good luck.

I'm not sure if you count calories (I never did during my weight loss). Then I was staring the last 10 pounds right in the face and they weren't going anywhere. I really clamped down hard the past 3 weeks on my calories and am diligently tracking them. I didn't intensify my workouts but I did change them up by taking away some cardio, adding yoga, and adding a lot more free weight strength training. I'm now down to my last and final pound.

I was dealing with losing those last 10 for about 3 months, and after changing things and tracking calories I've dropped 9 pounds in 3 weeks.

BTW where in NE PA are you located? I'm originally from up there as well

Just don't make the mistake of increasing the exercise AND cutting cals, this is a very common thing that people do and it usually backfires and lowers your metabolism. My only discouragement is that it doesn't sound like you plan to do it permanently so that will mean when you hit maintenance you will have a bigger transition than just adjusting your cals to stabalize your weight. Hitting maintenance is often a pretty big adjustment for people emotionally and the less changes you have to make to get there the easier it will be to find your maintenance sweet spot. Good luck!

I often workout twice/day I run in the afternoon and hit the gym at night... Sometimes I workout 3 times /day, like today, I will run once with a client (50 mins.), have an hour break, then again with a friend (40 mins) then tonight hit the gym (35 mins)... It doesn't happen often but it's doable once or twice/month...I sure am exhausted when I hit the sack sleep like a baby ... One thing I do notice is that it kick starts my weightloss quite a bit...

Your body will tell you if it's too much, you'll be overly exhausted for a long period of time or injuries will occur...

So, I guess I'm saying no it's not too much to workout twice a day if your body says it's okay...

I really don't plan on doing the twice a day permanently. My goal for exercise is to get back into runnin once warmer weather hits and start training for a Thanksgiving race that is 9 miles and then I want to move on to either a half or full marathon. I do definately plan on continuing exercise once I hit maintance..

Hopeful~I'm in the Wilkes-barre area...Where were you originally from?