Can you do too much cardiovascular activity?

It is possible to do too much cardio. What counts as “too much” is different for everyone, and depends on a lot of factors, including the intensity of your exercise, your fitness level, how much activity you do each day, how much you eat, your health status, your fitness goals, etc.Usually, 60-90 minutes of cardio is safe for most people, as long as…You aren’t elevating your heart rate above 80% (of your max) the whole time.

You are eating enough carbohydrates every day to replace the fuel you are using up.
Your body perceives exercise as a stressor, and chemically reacts the same way it does to “bad” stress. Therefore, too much exercise can have negative effects on your metabolism the same way that eating too few calories can. In addition, too much cardio exercise can result in muscle loss, which is not the outcome you want.

We recommend taking at least one day off from the cardio during the week-just as a mental health day, if nothing else. It’s easy to become compulsive about exercise, and having a day off is a good way to stay away from that. If it really makes you nervous or uncomfortable NOT to exercise, you could be heading for trouble.

If you see signs of general fatigue, irritability, sleep problems, physical soreness, or if your workouts start feeling harder than before, you’ll probably need to rest from cardio more than one day.

I just started exercising to lose weight, but I have gained weight instead! Why?

Sometimes people can gain weight or not lose any weight when they first start an exercise routine. It is not uncommon for the first 4-6 weeks.  Why?  The extra weight is usually water because your body starts storing more fuel in the muscle cells so that it can be utilized during your workouts. The process of converting glucose(carbohydrates) into fuel that your muscles actually store and use(glycogen) requires three molecules of water for every molecule of glucose.  As your muscles are building up glycogen stores, your body has to retain extra water for this purpose.  That is what causes most of the initial weight gain or lack of weight loss. 

The extra water retention will stop once your body has adjusted to its new activity level.  At that point, you will start noticing the scale moving down.

The best advice is to stick with your exercise routine because every time you stop and restart exercising, (meaning you work out a few weeks consistently, then quit exercising-then start exercising again a few months later)you make it harder and harder for your body to respond to exercise in the form of weight loss. So every time you start back exercising, your body will not respond as well as it did previously.

What is Basal Metabolic Rate?

How Do You Create a Caloric Deficit?

Understanding “calories in vs. calories” out will always be a true measure of how to create a caloric deficit.  First you need to understand that one pound of fat is made up of roughly 3,500 extra calories. So in order to lose one pound of fat, you need to create a caloric deficit of 3,500 calories.You can create a deficit of calories in three different ways:

1. Eat fewer calories than you burn each day. Keep in mind that your body burns calories all day long as part of your basal metabolic rate (BMR), because it takes energy (calories) for your body to perform basic physiological functions that are necessary for life-breathing, digesting, circulating, thinking and more. On top of that, physical activity (bathing, walking, typing and exercising) uses even more calories each day.

Example: If you eat 500 fewer calories each day for a week, you’ll lose about one pound of fat (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories).

2. Burn more calories than you consume by increasing your physical activity. If you eat enough calories to support your BMR, but exercise more, you’ll create a caloric deficit simply by burning extra calories. This works only when you’re not overeating to begin with.

Example: Regardless of your BMR, if you exercised to burn an extra 500 calories each day, you’ll lose about one pound of fat in a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories).

3. A combination of eating fewer calories and exercising to burn more calories. This is the most effective way to lose weight and keep it off. It’s much easier to create a substantial calorie deficit when you combine dieting with exercise because you don’t have to deprive yourself from food, and you don’t have to exercise in crazy amounts.

Example: If you cut just 200 calories a day from your diet and burned just 300 calories a day by exercising, you’d lose about one pound per week. Compare that to the other examples above-you’re losing weight at about the same rate without making major changes to your diet or exercise routine. Some people hate to cut calories, while others hate to exercise, so a combination approach allows you to do more of whatever comes easier for you.

As long as you are consistent, your calorie deficit will “add up” over time, and you’ll slim down.It’s also important to note that although this math seems relatively simple, our bodies are very complicated and you might not always see the results you expect based on equations alone. Many other factors can affect your weight loss rate along the way.