Please give me an answer...

Post Date: 11/16/08 9:27 pm
 Is it possible to exercise too much???? I have completely snapped and wonder if I am doing more harm than good. I have been stuck in a rut for the last month. The scale only seems to move a little up, a little down. So, I decided that if exercise is the answer and will enable me to move past this stall, then I will just work it morning and night.  My question is this, is it possible to exercise tooooo much? I have started to become OCD about this... I ride my stationary bike 15-20 min, then go on the treadmill for 30-40 min, then strength train for another 30 min. I know this is all good, but I am doing this in the morning and at night.

I am trying to boost my metabolism and move past this stall... is this a bad thing? Will working out like this just make me stall more? I really need some input.
I am 11 months now and keep gaining and losing the same 8 lbs. I need to lose those 8 and about 30-40 more. Am I doing the right thing????

Any suggestions?????

First off,

To answer your question, its possible to do more harm than good with more exercise.  How much? Well that depends on your body, but I would caution against "doubling" up the workouts in order just to lose weight. 

The body is a fickle thing and does what it wants, when it wants, so its really hard to tell it to drop weight.  I thought I would easily drop 20 lbs by training for my half-marathons the past 5 months, running 15-20 miles a week, the weight would just drop off right? Nope.  I've lost about 10 lbs total, but people claim I look like I lost 30.  I may not have lost a lot in total weight, but my body shape sure changed and got more toned. 

Sometimes you have to shake things up.  If you do the same workout all the time, the body adapts to that and comes to expect it.  I would suggest adding some variety to the workout.  Do the eliptical machine if you have access, take a kickboxing or spin class.  At the very least, you could split up your workouts, do treadmill in the morning, then bike and weights at night.  Vary the intensity of the workouts might be something to try too.

Just my 2 cents

Brian
~350

Wow, thank you. I would never have thought that my body would adapt. I cant make it to the gym so I am using what I have at home. I will change it up like you said. I guess it is like the body telling me I am tired by a certain time everynight, then off to sleepy time I go. I think I will read some more fitness information. I love the library, what a great way to spend some mental workouts....

Your body will tell you if you are exercising too much / overtraining.   If you are suddenly having trouble sleeping at night, getting persistant sore throats and colds, getting headaches and feeling irritable as all get out then you may be overtraining. 

They key to preventing overtraining is to not increase your training intensity, distance and duration all of the sudden and vary your workouts.   Stick to a 10% rule by not increasing the distance or duration of your exercise by more than 10% a week.  Vary your workouts by not doing the same exact thing every day.  If you lift, working chest on Monday and run then maybe do back and ride the bike on Tuesday. 

MOST IMPORTANTLY make sure that you are getting enough rest between your workouts as well.  

Best of luck!

Chad
www.team464.com

I try to avoid the thought of exercise as a means to weight loss.  There is so much more involved in the process and it is completely individual.

Exercise should be for the purpose of healthy living.  Many of us on this board are athletes and train for events, but the training isn't FOR weight loss, it's for increased fitness and performance.  Sherry and Chad follow some pretty strict training and diet regimens so that they can be at their peak when the time comes.

I and a bunch of others do races as a means to stay motivated about our fitness (not that the same isn't true of Chad and Sherry).  Exercise is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, but please don't count on it for your weight loss.  You'll only be disappointed.

Linn

That is very insiteful. I guess I am trying to say that I am trying to fine tune my body to be a high performance machine. Does that make sense? I use to be physically fit and actually use to run with Glen Jobe jr. (Olympian) but over the years I let myself go, thus, resulting in being considered morbidly obese and having gastric bypass surgery. I really wanted this surgery so bad, now I just want to over-work it I guess to keep from becoming obese again.

Essentially I am trying to incorporate a healthy lifestyle. I am just using my tool and trying to use it wisely.

I am not disappointed, I am just confused about what I should do...Thank you for your input it is greatly appreciated..

Chad and Brian had excellent advice about changing things up.  My marathon training plan calls for 2 easy runs, one long run, and one speed run a week.  The other 2 days (right now) I do spin workouts.  Once tri training starts there will be a little less running and more swimming.

For me, it took starting to run before I was able to lose the last 25# I wanted gone.  I don't know how else it would've happened for me.

Linn

I supposed you can exercise too much but your workout only adds up to 1 hr 15 min - 1 hr 30 min a day. That's not even close to obsessive IMO.

OTOH, you aren't getting a lot of aerobic benefit from 15-20 min. on the bike, depending on whether or not you take a break before doing the treadmill. I think it works better to do 30-45 min. of one particular exercise each day and to mix it up. So one day bike, one day treadmill and one day strength training. This gives certain muscle groups a chance to rest and it maximizes the aerobic part of the workout. Plus, you are less likely to get bored or burn out if you don't do the same workout every day.

Food for thought...

I started marathon training in 2005. Once I started logging the big miles, my weight stopped going down, it went up. At 5 years post-op I have a lot of trouble maintaining.

I think I'm 10 pounds DOWN from my IMLP weight, back to my Ironman Florida race weight. For me it took a lot of changes. When I had my car accident and was on serious restriction, I noticed my belt was tight. I said oh shizzle and really had to watch it.

I've exercised up to 8 hours on a Saturday at peak training, but that's for the ironman distance. When I was doing like an hour a day-before marathon training, I had much more luck losing weight.