When you are "working out wrong"!

[Chef_Evie]

After kind of dropping off the radar, I have picked up my motivation. I have to say that I have a very busy job, I am a chef for a sorority at a college and when I work 70 hours a week it is hard for me to eat regularly. Regardless, I am off for the summer and have promised myself to be better to myself. For the past 25 days or so I have been logging my food daily and also working out 5 days a week. I have access to the college's gym for free, so yay me.

The thing is, I have tried to educate myself on working out and I guess I am doing it wrong for weight loss? I work out 30 minutes on the elliptical 5 days a week and then I alternate upper body and legs every day. I have consistently upped the weights and I do feel that I am working out, but I am not painful. My body does feel tighter and I have lost 4.5 lbs. 

The internet tells me I am working out too much and should only do cardio 2-3 times a week? There is a thing of working out too much? I get the 2 days of rest, but am I working out too much? Please help me, I feel lost. My son is 14 and he is an athlete, but we have different goals and I don't think I can look at him and his workouts. 

[Dominique · Accepted solution]

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@Chef_Evie wrote:

The internet tells me I am working out too much and should only do cardio 2-3 times a week?  

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That recommendation probably comes from meathead weight lifters who dismiss cardio training as useless and even harmful (because it’s "catabolic", i.e. will eat away your muscle gains). In reality, you can do as much cardio as time permits and you can recover from. If it’s low to moderate intensity, you can do it everyday if you want. If it’s high-intensity (e.g. HIIT), then 2-3 times would apply, because you need time to recover from these sessions.

Your schedule looks fine to me, as indicated by the results you’ve seen. The challenge will be to keep the momentum once you’re back to work.

[Chef_Evie]

Thank you so much. All this is so confusing. My schedule is going to be a
little different as my youngest child is going to school. I hope I can keep
this up. I'm so glad I've not been messing myself up, trying to figure
things out.

[betpchem]

In my opinion any exercise you do is "right." If it works for you, and you are not injuring yourself, you're fine. I do a lot of jogging in place when the weather is bad, and when I said that on here one time, I got a screed of people telling me that that was "wrong." Well, it works for me, so I do it. Whatever keeps you motivated to move is right.

[Chef_Evie]

Thank you so much. I was just so confused.

[Corney]

@Chef_Evie  My advice to you is to listen to your body.  If you are doing too much you immune system will tell you.  Wii will come down with a cold or sore throat with a fever.  As far as weight lifting, working the same muscle group every day will not let them recover enough to get stronger. so you can lift everyday but alternate muscle groups so that you give them at least 1 day to recover.  Also never train through pain, it's your body telling you to back off.  You must differentiate from the pain you get from using muscles you haven't used for sometime and the pain from over working muscles. The first pain is normal. the second pain is a message that should be listened to.  Good luck in getting back in shape.+

[Chef_Evie]

I find the entire workout process confusing. The eating I can do. As a chef, I know nutrition. Today I read in one of the weight loss groups people are working out 3 hours a day. I work out 1 hour a day / 5 days a week. 30 minutes of cardio on an elliptical and then weight training alternating muscle groups. Should I work out more than an hour a day?

[WendyB]

 Not everyone has 3 hours to work out daily. It's certainly not a requirement for sure

[Dominique]

You should exercise primarily with health and fitness in mind, not weight loss. That exercise burns a few extra calories is merely a bonus. It will allow you to eat more for the same deficit, or have a larger deficit for the same amount of eating. It’s definitely possible to lose weight without exercising at all, but why not reap more benefits by both losing weight and improving health/fitness?

It also depends on what you label "working out". For instance, I usually walk for at least 1.5 to 2 hours outdoors everyday, but I don’t call it "working out" (although I probably burn more calories doing this than someone spending 30 minutes on a treadmill at the gym. The way I look at it is as general, informal physical activity. So "working out 3 hours a day" doesn’t necessarily mean spending 3 hours at the gym or another sport facility.