How much time do you exercise?

[JohnRi]

I was wondering how much time do people exercise?  I noticed that last week, I was 4 minutes short of 12 hours.  I was like, "Really, I worked out half a day last week?"  So I looked at the weeks before and I noticed that I was exercising around 6-10 hours, but now with the weight training I've added, I've increased to 12 hours.

I do a ton of walking and biking everyday.  And weight training every other day.  Just noticed that my sleaves are getting tight on my shirt!  Oh my don't tell me I have to go to large shirts just because my arms are too big to fit in the two dozen medium shirts I just bought! 

Anyway, between the exercise, and my 2000 calorie diet (Recently increased from 1800), I'm losing 1-1/2 lbs a week.  31 lbs from goal #1.  And 39 from Goal #2, at 175.  My long term weight to maintain.

This is really playing havoc with my dinner time, and bed time.  I get off work at 5:00 PM, and I'm exercising by 6:00 PM.  I'm done sometimes as late as 9:30.  So by the time I shower, dinner is 10:00 PM or 10:30.  And bed time is by 11:00.  Assuming I make it to bed. I pass out on the couch right after dinner on more than one occasion this week.

I find that the more I lose the harder it seems to be getting.  I knew that was going to happen.. 

Anyway, I'm just curious how much people exercise...

[FitBeforeFifty]

I guess it depends on your definition of exercise. The "activities" I engage in on a weekly basis it would be: steps, weight lifting, running, ping pong, volleyball, golf and walking.

Overall, I've only counted/tracked weight lifting, running and volleyball as exercise in the past. If you add those up, it's usually 6 - 8 hours per week.

When I was actively trying to lose weight, I generally ate over 2100 calories. The last time I was diligent at tracking and losing weight trying to get to my all time low of 140 lbs I ate around 2400 calories to lose weight with about the same hours per week -- 7 hours to 8 hours

[Mukluk4]

Going solely by active minutes, over 16 hours/week.  This does not include any time at the pool or weight training.

Tracking by focusing on exercising, it's probably 18-21 hours/week.

[USAF-Larry]

I usually exercise 2 hours per day, unless I decide to go for a long bike ride which adds a couple more hours for that day.  When I checked my activity, last week I exercised 16 hours, but the week before (because of jury duty) I only exercised 10 hours and the week before that (also because of jury duty) I only exercised 9 hours. My average is, though, is 14 hours per week.

[GershonSurge]

There are many ways to define exercise. Fortunately, the Fitbit Surge gives an answer in a way that trancends types of exercise we are doing. Anytime I'm in the Fat Burn Zone or above, I am exercising. I try to avoid the peak zone. Generally, the Fat Burn Zone and the Cardio Zone fall in my Maffetone heart rate range of 107 to 117. Sometimes I stray out of both sides.

During the last 28 days, I spent an average of 369 minutes a day in the zones. It has been lower since I hurt my back about two weeks ago and stopped running. I substituted HIIT at Planet Fitness.

Another way to look at exercise is total calories expended per day.

The results have been excellent.

I went from a scale weight of 185.5 to 174.9, a loss of 10.6 pounds. 

According to the Aria scale, my body fat went from 23.9 to 17.6. 

[Stinkyfish97]

Right now I do about 1hr at the gym 3-4x a week, so 4 hours. I do 30 minutes cardio (3-3.5 miles run) and 30 minutes weight training. In addition to the gym I do 60-60 pushups everyday, and I walk to and from the train everyday (4 combined miles).

I am slowly building up to going longer. I have only recently been going to the gym, 1.5 months in. I already am seeing improvements. For instance I am up from being able to do 20 minutes to 30 minutes. I have gone from 10 minute miles to just under 9 minutes. If I go all out I can do the mile in around 7 minutes.  

[GershonSurge]

@JohnRi

In my opinion, the first step is to set a firm limit on your exercise time. Then learn to use it efficiently.

You will likely burn the most calories by maintaining an intensity throughout the period that doesn't require ANY breaks. I like the Maffetone method that says to exercise at a heart rate no more than 180 minus your age. I use an average for the exercise period.

You can supercharge your weight training by making it HIIT training. In between sets, do some jumping jacks or something to get your heart rate up. Then without taking a break go right back to the weights. This will likely require you to use lighter weights and fewer reps. By the last rep in an exercise, I am close to not being able to do it.

Try using half your time weight training and half walking or bicycling. 

If you do it just right, you will increase the intensity at the same rate your body's efficiency increases, so you will burn the same number of calories each day.

[A_Lurker]

@GershonSurge - I like the way you break it down.  I'm doing little formal exercise at the moment (~30-40 mins lifting back to 3 days a week, but nowhere like I used to).  However, when I walk in the office and plant, I walk quickly.  I'm doing lots of chores that raise my heart rate.  In the end I pay more attention to calories burned than steps.

Scale change - down 9.9 lbs in 4 weeks.

[FitBeforeFifty]

@JohnRi, this is one of the reasons I personally don't like walking as a dedicated exercise. I think it's great for people as a start but as you become more fit it's probably time to focus on something with a higher intensity. Due to the mechanical constraints of walking, it's really hard to increase the intensity to match your fitness level. 

Let's look at this in terms of a return on invesment. Right now you are investing 12 hours a week in exercise and your average TDEE is 3407. As a percentage of your BMR, that is 172%.

I spend about 7 hours of week exercising and my average TDEE is 3367. As a percentage of my BMR, that is 220%. 

[josephz2va]

On and off for me. But mine are

• weights on the machines (Dumbbells and Cables don't work for me)
• walk or bicycle in the evening
• fitstar daily conditioning

[Mukluk4]

---

@FitBeforeFifty wrote:

@JohnRi, this is one of the reasons I personally don't like walking as a dedicated exercise. I think it's great for people as a start but as you become more fit it's probably time to focus on something with a higher intensity. Due to the mechanical constraints of walking, it's really hard to increase the intensity to match your fitness level. 

---

I would agree with this if it is the ONLY exercising that you do.  I tend to walk to lessen the impact on my knees and use it as a recovery mechanism.  Other activities that I am involved in tend to aggrivate them to a point that running only worsens the condition.

[JohnRi]

---

@FitBeforeFifty wrote:

@JohnRi, this is one of the reasons I personally don't like walking as a dedicated exercise. I think it's great for people as a start but as you become more fit it's probably time to focus on something with a higher intensity. Due to the mechanical constraints of walking, it's really hard to increase the intensity to match your fitness level.

---

Unfortunately I have two strikes against me.  One, I have a ruptured disc between L4 and L5.  After I get my weight into the normal range, I plan to have the surgury to repair some of the damage.  The injury is 25 years old, so I've gotten used to the pain, and ignore it most of the time. Surgury today is nothing short of a miracle compared to the barbaric surgury options I had 25 years ago.

Strike 2, my knees can't take running.  I've tried running just a tiny bit several times.  IE no more than 5 minutes at first.  Then increase 1 minute per week.  And those were run 15 seconds, walk 30 seconds...    I can never get past 7-9 weeks without a major knee problem that prevents me from walking a pace more than 2-3 mph...  My last injury almost required surgury.  Walking 24 minute miles SUCKS.  I've had my feet professional checked, sized, and have great running shoes...  Just my 49 year old body can't take it. Plus running makes my back ache badly.

So running is not an option.  Biking gets my heart rate up and no injuries.  So that's my second exercise of choice. 

I can walk faster than 4 mph on some days, and burn a heck of lot of calories doing it.  But I can't seem to do that every day.  It's incredibly hot and humid right now, so that part of my problem.  Nothing is more fun than walking in 95 degree heat, 100% humidity...  My fast dry clothes... soaked by the second mile...  But the fourth mile sweat is dripping off my clothes, and my hat.

[FitBeforeFifty]

@JohnRi, I wasn't specifically saying run, just pick something with higher intensity. Cycling is good (if you have a safe place to do it). While cycling isn't as efficient as running for me, it's still burns quite a bit more calories than walking (for me). Actually, I wish I had access to a bike trail system -- if I did, I would probably mix in some cycling.  

There are other options to increase your calorie burn like super-sets or circuit training when you lift. When I was losing weight, I always did super-sets to keep my heart rate up. I only switched to more traditional, heavy long rest period lifting when I met my goal weight.  Once I built my endurance, I could actually maintain an average heart rate of 140 bpm during my weight training session using super-sets. 

If you like to walk, that's the most important thing, so if you can spare the time then there is nothing wrong with it. 

My point is that most other exercises burn a lot more calories than walking and it's easier to scale the intensity of those exercises whereas walking has more of a bio-mechanical limit to intensity. In other words, I can easily scale the intensity and get to my upper heart rate zones running or cycling. I can't do that with walking --- at least not without race walking which for me is no different than jogging.

Regarding the heat, I know. I live in Dallas (I think you are in Houston if I remember correctly). While a lot of people go for the treadmill or stationary bike this time of year, I can't stand indoor cardio equipment so I always run outside -- it doesn't matter how hot it gets.

[RunnersHi]

Have you tried swimming @JohnRi? It can be such a great high intensity workout without the impact...and in that super warm climate, it seems like it would be an ideal cooler option. I've been thinking about visiting our community's new pool for adult swim from 6-7 for cross training nights...hopefully you have access to something like that too!

[philly78]

I'm currently following a weightlifting routine 3days/week and doing cardio 5days/week. Right now, I'm alternating between Hiit, Insanity and Insanity Max 30 workouts for the cardio. Then I do 1 day of yoga or pilates and 1 day of stretching and foam rolling.

[emili]

wow. That is a lot of time. I don't think I would find that much. I don't do more than about 8 hours per week. If the weather is nice, I will go for a hike that could be two hours long, but I don't count that and it would be the only thing I would do. Its been gorgeous here so I have been waking a lot more- which did good things for my step count and challenge standings 😉