As you can tell by the subject, I have had some serious issues with exercise. I don't know how or when it began, but sometime over the past 6 months I became increasingly consumed with doing excessive amounts of cardio. I was doing just fine maintaining at 117 with my 1 hour cardio sessions 5x a week, but in an attempt to lose the last "5" I decided to follow a training program in Muscle & Fitness Hers and up my cardio to 2x a day, every other day. When that didn't work, I began increasing to 75 minutes if I only went once, or 60 minutes 2x a day. I became mortified as I began gaining weight. I even went as far as doing 3 - 1 hour sessions per day!!! My entire body was achy, I would miss class just to hit the gym, and I became increasingly depressed!!! Not to mention, that my weight is now at 122. That's a five pound gain and I doubt its muscle. In fact, I think I burned away some of my muscle and dramatically decreased my once high metabolism. I finally accepted that I had a problem, and I stopped working out more than once a day and have even taken a whole week completely off. Im ready to work out again but I don't know how much is too much. Should I go back to my 1 hour sessions 5x a week with 3 days of weights or should I cut back on my cardio? I also notice that cardio makes me very hungry, should I increase my calories?
Is 1400 calories and 20 net carbs enough to fuel 1 hour a day of cardio, and 3 days of weights?
I weigh 122 and am 5'3"
My body fat is probably up to 18-20% but I'm not sure because my abs are still
noticeably visible. I guess I gained a lot of weight on my legs and butt, not really anywhere else.
If anybody has any suggestions, please help!

yeah, you're totally right about the body shutting down. I think the every other day thing sounds good, and I do think my body needs to recover. I definitley want to go back to lifting weights, I actually used to love working out before this happened to me. I hope I can get that passion back. BTW, do you think 1200 calories is okay on non-workout days?

Cardio is very hard on your body, especially in excess like you have been doing. Not only is it catabolic (breaks down muscle), if you do too much cardio it stresses your body into thinking you are starving, so it holds on to body fat even more! HIIT is a much better option. 20-30min is all you need. I have been doing BFL training (HIIT 3x/wk, weights 3x/wk) and have seen excellent progress. You may have to up your carbs, especially pre and post workout. Check out the CKD forum for suggestions on how to do that if you prefer to keep your overall carbs low.
Good luck!

Jen

As a passionate runner, I am the last one you might expect to talk again excess cardio, but exactly because of my running experience I have a couple of thoughts to share.
To do cardio every day or for 60-90 min not only not effective way to lose/maintain weight (your body gets used to it very fast, works more efficiently, burning less calories), but it is very hard on your legs. Not only if you run, but if you use any other kind of cardio machines. Being young it is possible you do not see/feel the damage, yet, but will see very soon.
I would recommend no more than 30 min cardio (HIIT), on every other day. More will not really help neither your weight loss/maintenance nor makes your heart fitter.
I would recommend the 30 min cardio with emtpy stomach (see the thread about this), but of course there are many other options.

My own experience: when I started to run last year (to fight back insomnia, weight loss was only side effect), I lost 8-7 lbs during the first months when I walk/jog 5x30 min/week. When my weekly milage went over 20, I lost only 3 lbs/month - with the same carb/caloric intake.

No, I do not talk again running, endurance sports. You can do it safely, by following many rules (slow increase in time, speed, resistance, resting days, cross training, 80+% of time easy etc.) that are somehow ignored when people are doing " endurance cardio" - I mean running, rwoing, biking 60-120 min on machines.

Galadriell , in one of your posts here you mention to read the thread about working out on an empty stomach. I know all about the importance of doing this when trying to lose body fat or for endurance training, and have read a lot about it, but I would also like to view the thread you mentioned. Where is it? Anyone?

loCarbJ,

here is the thread "AM Cardio on an Empty Stomach":
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthre...&threadid=21258