Over-exercising?

[Luv2WorkHard]

Hi Cathe,

First of all, I wanted to say that I love your workouts and they are the best of the best for the fitness enthusiast. I wish you a safe and speedy recovery.

Before I ask my question, here are some basic stats that may make your answer easier:

Age: 33
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 130
BMI: 20
Body Fat Percentage: 16.5
Dress Size: 4 or 6
Average Daily Calories: 1600 - 1900

My question is whether or not I was possibly over-exercising for the past couple of years. For about 2-3 years, I have worked out 6 days per week, for about 60 minutes per day. I have done a combination of cardio and weights, such as Tae Bo, your circuit videos, The Firm Supercardio, etc. So yes, I have worked hard and managed to go from a "soft" size 8 to a firm size 4 to 6 during this time.

Three months ago, due to a new job, my life dramatically changed and I have REALLY cut down my workout time, due to lack of time in general. Now, rather than my usual 6 days per week of hard cardio alternating with weights, I now only workout about 3-4 days per week (same routines, just less days per week). Of course, this has freaked me out and I am paranoid of gaining weight and losing muscle mass. However...quite the contrary to my fears, I find that I now actually look *better* than I have for the past couple of years. My muscles are more defined and I haven't gained any weight whatsoever. My clothes are fitting me exactly the same. My eating habits and everything else are the same...the only thing different is I have worked out less for the past three months than I have in the past couple of years.

How is it possible that I haven't gained weight, since I am doing so much less cardio? And regarding my muscles...working them less has appeared to make them look better - more defined. Could it be that I was overworking myself all this time and really only needed 3-4 days per week all along? Maybe my body was too calorie deficient for the amount of working out I was doing and my muscles never had a chance to recover? I appreciate any comments you may have about this.

Thanks so much and take care of yourself, Cathe.

 

[Fitness-Mom]

I'm curious about this also, since I have also dropped the days I work out during the week.

Thanks,
Jennifer~

 

[divagirl]

bump

 

[Leslie40]

Me too. I don't think you will gain weight at that daily intake, even if you didn't exercise at all. Your daily cals are actually kind of low for your height and stats. Working out 3 times a week should be sufficient to maintain what you've worked so hard for. I've noticed that after a hard workout there is increased blood flow and probably intra and extra cellular fluid that changes how my legs, arms, etc (whatever I worked out) look. That lasts for hours (3, sometimes more). Then the next morning, there is more definition because my body has circulated the fluids/waste products through kidneys as part of recovery.

I'd have trouble not losing weight at 1600-1800, and I'm only 5'-5".

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Luvtoworkhard! It is hard to answer this question for sure. It could be that your new job has you burning more calories and therefore balancing out the situation, or that your body needed a good long recovery from your aggressive workouts and is now showing the benefits of the recovery period, or that since you built up nice lean muscle mass in your previous workouts (lean musce mass keeps you burning extra calories even while resting) you no longer need to go at the pace of 6 days a week. It is also possible that your body has a naturally faster metabolism and you never really needed 6 days a week (but you never realized this until having to cut back).

Keep an eye on things though. It may be that this new workout schedule continues to be just fine for you and that would be great. But you may notice that as your body continues to adapt to the cut back, you may need to do an extra workout here and there to shock it out of complacency. It usually happens to all of us at some point.

Keep up the great work and I hope you are enjoying your new job

 

[Luv2WorkHard]

Thanks for the response, Cathe! I will follow your good advice of "keeping an eye on things". If I seem to begin backsliding, I will have to step things up. However, if things stay consistent, I will just keep doing what I am doing. It just feels weird to not be a slave to my workouts, which is what I have been for the past couple of years. Don't get me wrong...I love exercising, but sometimes life makes it very inconvenient!

Take care,

Dianna