Posted: 3/21/2010 2:16:25 PM EDT
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In my ongoing attempt to loose weight I've been doing a lot of reading on fitness issues. I've come across those who say that workouts (Cardio or Strength) over 45 minutes in length should be avoided; supposedly, sometime after this interval, the body begins to release the stress hormone Cortisol continuously, which shuts down fat burnig and has other harmful effects.
Opinions, please. |
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if training over 45 minutes should be avoided, that's news to me... what about runners? what about instructors who do more than 1 class in a row? what about the P90X-ers?
I think (and I am not a professional  ), that it's the QUALITY, not the quantity, or exercise you're getting. I don't think 2 hours a day of medium intensity aerobic work will cause any problems, but I also don't think it would do as much good as one hour of HIIT.
ymmv. some articles: sparkpeople one - quoted below 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. SparkPeople's experts 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. sparkpeople two on the other side of the argument, Dr. Kenneth Cooper says that running for more than 45 minutes a day means you're "running for something other than fitness..." |
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Last year during summer to try to loose weight I bicycled to work every day for two months....that was three hours a day at a low/medium pace. I only lost a couple pounds! I was wondering if the Cortisol issue was the problem. I was taking in about 2800 calories a day, so I should have had a huge deficit.
I read those articles a months ago and so the past 4 weeks I've been doing 45 minutes bicycling at a low/medium pace before work in the morning Mon-Wed-Fri, and an intense 23 minutes of HIIT Tue-Thur. I only weigh in once a month so no results yet. Before I was doing 1 to 1.5 hours bicycling five days a week, and a 2-3 hours on Saturday (I also lift 6 days a week).....zero weight loss. |
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Quoted:
Last year during summer to try to loose weight I bicycled to work every day for two months....that was three hours a day at a low/medium pace. I only lost a couple pounds! I was wondering if the Cortisol issue was the problem. I was taking in about 2800 calories a day, so I should have had a huge deficit. I read those articles a months ago and so the past 4 weeks I've been doing 45 minutes bicycling at a low/medium pace before work in the morning Mon-Wed-Fri, and an intense 23 minutes of HIIT Tue-Thur. I only weigh in once a month so no results yet. Before I was doing 1 to 1.5 hours bicycling five days a week, and a 2-3 hours on Saturday (I also lift 6 days a week)..... zero weight loss. what about inch loss? |
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Oh yeah. I have to work harder to get my heart rate up at all.
I should say that before I plateau'd, I lost over 100 pounds. I started low and slow and kept adding both volume and instenity, but at some point the weight loss just stopped, and i have at least 60 pounds yet to loose.. |