How do you cut back?

[L Sass]

I work out too much to drop pounds effectively. You know - cannibalizing my own muscle tissue. I've recently cut back on my cardio - down to about 45-60 minutes 3-4 times a week (as opposed to 6 or 7) and strength or weight work the other days (as opposed to 6 or 7). I often add a yoga or stretch to one of the cardio days. My diet is clean and well balanced and usually includes one whey protein drink a day. But I am stuck in weight plateau he!! and need to get out. I will be trying a new diet program, but some people have suggested that I cut the exercise back to 3-4 days only!!! Now I thought that the CDC and other government nutrition and health agengies suggest at least 30 minutes for health and 60 for weight loss more times than that. It all gets so confusing. WOuld you cut back and by how much? Help.

Lorrie


Pain is temporary - quitting lasts forever
Candace Grasso, CC-V-6

 

[Mckmain]

You know...it is a pain to find out what works...and I know you have struggled...if you don't mind me asking, how old are you?....you can PM me the answer...

 

[Sekcy_Gymnast]

Lorrie,
My opinion on this would be still work out as many days as you want including the cardio and weight training you do, just maybe cut back on the time you spend on doing both. For example, say you strength train today, and you usually do about 60 minutes (just saying) of it. Well maybe cut back to 30-35 minutes in stead.

An example for cardio would be if you do 60 minutes of cardio, try 40-45 minutes instead. This would allow you do workout as many times a week you want on strength training and cardio, just cut back the duration. Just make sure you don't work every muscle everyday unless you give them time inbetween to recover or if your doing a circuit workout.

I HTH. Maybe someone else here has another can give you another idea too. Keep me posted!

~Adri;-)
|_|_|
|_|_|
|_|_|

 

[tillard]

Wow, that sounds like ALOT!! There are so many factors here that could be stacking the deck against you. If you don't have a whole lot of fat to lose and are just trying to get rid of those last few stubborn fat stores then I would say you probably don't need to be working as hard as you state you are working...you could very well be defeating your efforts.

Also if one of your goals is to increase muscle mass, then more than likely all of that cardio is hindering that process. Alot of this depends on how much weight you have to lose though. I would say figure out what your goals are and pick something to focus on...if it's muscle mass and definition, than focus on weight training alternating weight days with cardio days and allowing your muscles ample rest time so that they can repair and build.

If loosing weight is your goal than focus on the cardio and do a couple of days of weight training. It sounds like you were in effect doing two workouts a day (cardio and weights) and unless you were eating ALOT of calories your body was probably in starvation mode and was holding on for dear life to any fat stores that you have for fear that it wasn't going to get enough calories to sustain all of the work you were asking your body to do for you.

I can tell you I normally eat around 2000 calories a day and I'm 5'3 and 110 lbs. I alternate my cardio and my weight training days (3 days of each). And I take at least one day off a week where I do nothing except maybe stretch if I feel I really need it.

Cutting back is hard. I used to do two workouts a day a few days a week and I didn't really see my plateau lift until I upped my calories a bit and let up a bit on the working out. A "two a day" is a rarity for me these days, and I have to say I feel much better since backing off. I was really run down and obviously suffering from over training when I was working out so much. Listen to your body, give something new a try and see if it works for you. Give it a few weeks and see what happens...you could be pleasantly surprised by the results!!

Deni

 

[L Sass]

Thanks Carole! I'm 43 though I did PM you with some other stats.

Lorrie

Pain is temporary - quitting lasts forever
Candace Grasso, CC-V-6