How much exercise is "too much"?

[Hidden_P]

I'm desperately trying to lose weight for a range of reasons.

I just joined a gym, and I feel really proud of myself; through diet and exercise I've now lost a stone.

However, I'm doing an hour in the gym followed by an hour of swimming. I've done this 4 days in a row now, and about to go and train again.

If I did this every day for until I've lost weight, is this over training?

I'm not a fitness freak, I just really want to get the weight gone and I must say I'm a little impatient...

Just wondered if 2 hours a day is in the harmful zone or not? I'm not pushing my heart rate up too much, highest it's been is 166 whilst exercising. Lowest it's been while exercising is 114.

Thanks for comments and reading this.

[WeaponZero]

1. Any form of resistance training (including resisted cardio, which is what swimming is) should be done no more than once every 2 days. Anymore and you risk overtraining.

Cardio can safely be done everyday, however, higher intensity cardio, including interval training (which is what you should REALLY be doing if you want to burn off the body fat) should be done no more than 2-3 times a week.

Train 5-6 days a week, alternating days of resistance and days of high intensity interval-based cardio. That's what I do and combined with a healthy diet I've lost ~125 lbs of bodyfat.

[Hidden_P]

Wow that's incredible! Well done! I'm looking to lose about 6 stone/84pounds total (5 more to go/ 70pounds) I've dramatically reduced my carb intake, trying to eat mostly protein. They are going to design a programme with me start of next week, but I do 1,000m rowing, 5 min on every machine. So about an hour total :) Really informative answer by the way, thanks!

[AdamBH]

i think as long as you can still do it without getting tired out all the time then take a rest day, eat well and don't worry about muscle resting that's just for muscle building. Don't get your heart rate up too much and don't stress about it, try to enjoy it.

[fitandflirt]

not taking a rest day is probably pushing it, but as long as you're eating enough, that shouldn't be a problem :)

[Hidden_P]

Well, I work at the weekends, so that's my "rest" day. I work on a checkout sitting on my butt all day haha, so I thought that would work as a rest? Even though it's light exercise, it's nowhere near what I'm doing in the week... and I'm eating 2-3 times a day, but my appetite has shrunk. On a low carb diet. I drink plently, get through a bottle of water per workout on top of normal drinks.

[ThatGuy44]

You should be fine as long as your heart rate stays below 180. You're close though.

[Hidden_P]

I'm hoping as I get fitter my heart rate will reduce. My friend who is doing some workouts with me has a heart rate WELL over 180, I'm quite worried about her... she's a lot thinner than me, so I'm confused why it's so high...

[Jazz_92]

thats way too much you should do it once in 2 days. Heart rate doesent matter, your muscles need to rest.

[Hidden_P]

I'm not thraping my body really, I'm doing enough to get my heart rate into the fat burning, always changing exercise, and building up a sweat and bit of tiredness. I'm not doing weights atm either. Are you saying that doing gym the amount I am is bad though? If I'm trying to lose weight I obviously need to be doing a bit more than a couple days otherwise I'll never change...

[Jazz_92]

i was fat too and all I did was runing once in 2 days. I tried runing 4 kilometres everyday but after 1 month I colapsed. So I started runing 8 kilometres once in 2 days. It was way better.