It all depends, as it varies for everyone. I don't think it's the exercise that is hindering your weight loss. Weight loss will slow naturally anyway.

I do think that one problem most beginners face is doing too much too fast. Many times, I've joined a gym and went whole-hog for a few months, only to burn myself out. You want to establish a habit that you plan to fit into your life for the long-term. 2-hours a day seems excessive if you haven't been doing anything before.

Since swimming is cardio, you may not need to do extra. Maybe swim on some days and do the other cardio on other days. You can lift weights every day as long as you're working different muscle groups. And give your body one day of complete rest each week.

thanks for the advice, i think i will give it a go. Although i will be a bit sad as i am really enjoying my time at the gym http://www.lowcarbsite.com/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif but prehaps 2 hours is a wee bit excessive!
Cheers Helen.

Too much exercise?!!!
 

Hello everyone!
Just a quick question for you all, is there such a thing as too much exercise? I have been doing Atkins for 2 and half months and have lost 10kg, but it has been hard going over the last couple of weeks. I have found the amout that i am losing getting smaller and smaller week by week and even stopping on some weeks. The only difference i can think of is that i have joined the gym. At the moment i am going to the gym every day, doing an hour swimming, half an hour cardiovascular, and half and hour weight training. My question is - IS THIS TOO MUCH?

Your help would be much appreciated Helen. http://www.lowcarbsite.com/images/sm...on_biggrin.gif

I think you might be overdoing it. You stand a good chance of burning out and cfashing. Swimming is cardiovascular. If you are doing an hour of it that is terrific on it's own. The weights, if done in moderation and care, can help your muscle tone and appearance, but do them only three times a week. Let your muscles heal and build between sessions.

You need to seek a level of exercise that you can and ill maintain over time. Nothing could be worse than to burn out from overdoing it and then stop. Perhaps you could swim three times a week, do weights, three times a week and then rest a day. That's what I recommend.

Good Luck! http://www.lowcarbsite.com/images/sm...icon_smile.gif

Overdoing exercise can result in a condition called overtraining, where you will lose strength and endurance. Your muscles grow and improve when they recover, and if you exercise so frequently that you don't give your muscles a chance to recover, you wind up doing them more harm than good. You need to skip at least one day (up to 5 depending on a variety of factors) between exercising the same muscle for a muscle to fully recover.

I don't know what your exercise plan is (doing whole body workouts each day, or splitting different muscles different days), but at a minimum you should take one day off per week. (No weights or cardio - but maybe something unstructured like a hike would be fine). If you overdo cardio, you may run down your immune system and start to get sick more often. This happened to me and I had to cut back on 90 minutes a night bike rides.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Your body needs to rest; I think you should definetly have a day maybe even two that you are active but not training. I was riding everyday and it was to hard on me in the end, having not been that active in the past it was to much to soon, I felt awful after a few weeks. Now I do a long distance ride twice a week, weights(dumbells at home) 3 days a week. The other days I'm active; I may still ride another day but not long distance(maybe 8-10km) and I walk 5km everyday. I will work up to longer distances for my long rides, and increase my weights to, but I am improving wonderfully and not feeling so darn drained! I also think if you over do it at the beginning you will learn to hate exercise, you'll have a bad image of it mentally; always feeling that you have to be so excessive.
It is natural for your weight to slow 1-2lbs a week. Slow and steady wins the race!