is 2 hours at the gym a day too much?

[insanity]

i do cardio hardcore 1 hour in the morning and at night, i lift weights and then i do cardio again for 1 hour for 2 hours total. according to the eliptical machine in total for the whole day i burn 1600 calories and i am not including the weights that i lift.

i go 6 days a week and saturday i take a day off. but i noticed that i'm not losing any weight. heck i'm not really getting toned either.

i have been reading that you should only workout 3 days a week but i can't see how that would help you lose weight or gain any muscle. alot of the guys i see at the gym who are there everyday too aren't getting ripped either. is it because we are all over training?

i love the rush i get from going to the gym everyday and it makes me feel good. i eat pretty good too and i am sure that i don't even eat over 2300 calories a day. i also drink about 4 litres of water. but the results for a month and a half is pretty disappointing.

am i over training?

i drink about 2 or 3 coffees a day with milk and i think thats why i may not be losing weight or getting toned. i may stop drinking coffee before i workout.

any advice guys?

 

[Flyer]

What's your routine like?

Stick to cardio if you're trying to cut.

For cardio exercise:
Train at 60-85% Predicted Maximum Heart Rate(PMHR) for around 20-60minutes continuously around 3-5 times a week
PMHR - (220-Age)

"i have been reading that you should only workout 3 days a week but i can't see how that would help you lose weight or gain any muscle."

Your muscles need time to recover and repair itself. Training 3 times a week will give them that time. That said, you gotta keep eating the right food to help your body cope with the additional stress that you're putting it under.

oh.. and stop counting calories. Do cardio consistantly and the results will come. IF you're trying to cut.. aerobic (can talk during exercise) is what you want to do. not anaerobic (can't talk)

What you are doing is awesome. Reason why you're not seeing results may be due to the following: your cardio is losing the body fat, while your lifts gain muscle. Muscle is heavier than fat, therefore, no real visable changes. I'm guessing that it is also the reason that some prefer to cut before bulking.

Keepup the commitment

Overtraining? doubt it.. hard to overtrain on cardio exercise. It applies where your muscles dont have time to fully recover intime for your next session. Taking a rest week once every 6-8 weeks is recommended for your body to fully recharge.

Just go easy on high impact exercises (e.g. running is hard on the joints). Cycling is a another good option.

 

[dj ben2]

if ur going hardout in the morning i hope ur eating alot of carbs or im assuming ur burning muscle rather then losing fat. how many calories r u consuming a day

 

[Mjazz]

Waay to much stuff man. If you need cardio, cut down to 30 mins in the morning, workout at night. Weights 3 days a week, 4 MAX. If you lift more, your not giving your muscles time to recover. Remember, they dont grow in the gym, but outside. Make sure your eating lots. Whats your workouts like? Hope your doing compounds and not just an hour of bicep curls everytime

 

[Throttle]

switch out the coffee and drink green tea instead. if you try to go cold cutting out that much caffeine you'll go nuts.

cardio no more than 4-5 times a week and no more than 45 minutes in a day, pick a 2 or 3 day split for lifting that lets you hit the weights really hard, and make sure you're really eating the right stuff.

the elliptical machine is misleading. it's probably including your baseline metabolic rate in that calorie consumption, and you probably eat like a mofo before and after working out to sustain that 2 hour workout (and you're certainly not maximizing what you could be doing with weights).

check out vintovka's journal to see what focusing on building muscle can do for you when you want to lean up.

 

[blinkwatt]

You should only be the in the gym for a 1-1.5hour at a time for one day. Now I some people who do two-a-days with working out in the A.M. and cardio in the P.M.,but they only do it twice a week max. I would be careful going that much with lifting on top of it,your gonna burn yourself out fast if you push hard enough.

 

[Kev07]

how fast do you run? you're probably not running fast enough, and 2 hours of running is a lot holy crap.

6 days a week is a little too much, I go 4 days a week and I am already seeing good results at week 4.

I usually spend about 2 hours at the gym and that's including my 25 minute run

 

[insanity]

thanks for the advice everybody. the funny thing is i thought i was eating great. i have a 6" sub and then the usually supper that most peple eat.

i think i am working out hard because when i get home and throw my shirt on the scale it weighs a half a pound to a pound from water. i am drenched.

the only thing i'm noticing about working out so hard is my knees are starting to get sore.

anyways thanks everybody for answering my questions.

 

[shaunuk]

An important question would be, what does your diet look like?

-shaun

 

[Throttle]

what most people eat is not a healthy diet. you need much more protein, signficantly fewer carbs, especially no simple carbs (esp. after working out), spread out over a larger number of smaller meals throughout the day.

6" sub + supper that most people eat indicates that your diet is a problem for leaning out the way you want to. you're almost certainly hitting your body with big shots of carbs at precisely those times your body is going to drop the excess into bodyfat.

 

[bigw]

I do 6 days a week swimming, 2 km a day, so I rack up 12 km a week.

It's great exercise, it's fantastic in summer, and it's WORKING unlike anything else I've ever done.

I'm going to cut it back to 8 km however, due to school commitments. But yes, 6 days a week with what YOU'RE doing is overtraining.

 

[kickureface]

what most people eat is not a healthy diet. you need much more protein, signficantly fewer carbs, especially no simple carbs (esp. after working out), spread out over a larger number of smaller meals throughout the day.

6" sub + supper that most people eat indicates that your diet is a problem for leaning out the way you want to. you're almost certainly hitting your body with big shots of carbs at precisely those times your body is going to drop the excess into bodyfat.

can you elaborate on whtat times those are?

and i really thought simple carbs were good after working out since the body needs something fast absorbing. simple like fruits or stuff

 

[Throttle]

right after lifting, absolutely. but he's talking about cardio -> lift -> cardio -> eat a crapload of food. at least one of these things does not belong.

if he's eating that much for dinner, he's already passed the most significant activity in his day, and a lot of it will probably go straight back to bodyfat. with the huge extended insulin spike (you want a quick one right after a workout to drive protein to the right places & suppress cortisol, but this is something bigger & more dramatic) could actually end up first eating muscle w/ all that cardio & half-assed lifting (if you can do an hour of cardio afterwards, you haven't lifted hard enough) and then depositing fat. it's a recipe for a lose-lose scenario.