Hi,

I am just wondering how much cardio is too much? I've been doing an hour a day burning between 400 and 550 calories. I don't want to over do it but I need to shed maybe 15 lbs before I get married in 6 mo. I'm also training to do some running races.... Thanks,

Andrea

That time / calorie burn running pace doesn't sound too onerous to me ....I don't think it's overdoing it.

As always, just make sure you are eating properly ( i.e not taking in too many calories etc. ) and getting at least some rest between runs once in a while.

Thank you!

No problem.

btw - during some of your 1 hour runs, you may want to try some sets where you run harder for an ' interval ' of 20 seconds to 1 minute ( just till your get out of breath ) and then drop back to your usual pace for awhile to get your breath back. You could try doing this 3 - 5 times during a 1 hour run.

Doing some moderate intervals like this during a 1 hour run now and then tends to improve your fitness level over time ( i.e weeks / months ) for running quicker than if you just ran at a steady pace for 1 hour all the time. And, when your fitness level improves, you can run that same 1 hour at a faster pace ( without feeling too winded ) and perhaps be burning 700+ calories each hour instead of 400 - 500+ as you do now.

And, of course, the more calories you burn per hour ( all other things being equal ) the more fat you will lose.

Great info... thanks again

Your welcome.

You could try doing 21s. It is a type of interval training.

21s Bike Workout:
1 min as fast as you can bike
2 min recovery just pedalling easy
Repeat for a Total of 7 Times (21 total minutes hence the name)

I would do a 3 min warm-up before you start.

If you are trying to loose bodyfat (which you should be) you would make better progress by doing a full body weight routine 3 days a week and cardio the alternate 3 days of the week, and 2 of your cardio sessions should be HIIT sessions. Of course, proper diet is most important in loosing body fat.

id definently advise you to stop all that immediately its really unneccesary and imo will become very taxing on the joints if you keep it u pfor periods of time.
instead do HIIT twice a week.

and remeber diet is key!!

If her goal was to lose weight only, I might agree with this. But, she wants to run races down the road and you can't develop endurance without long runs that increase mitochondrial and capillarial increases. I think continuing the current running program combined with HIIT when she is ready for it would accomplish her goals of weight loss and becoming a better runner.

ok agreed, but i still dont think its necessary to run every day to improve cardiovascular endurance.

Well said.

Franky, she really doesn't really even need to embrace separate HIIT sessions at all if she doesn't want to IMO.

If she has a comfort level with doing 1 hour runs 5 or 6 times a week and likes 1 hour runs, then that's fine IMO. She simply needs to toss in some moderate intensity interval phases within those 1 hour workouts to bump her rate of fitness improvement so she can boost her caloire burn per hour over time. It may very well be that a 20 or 30 minute HIIT session ends up burning the same amount ( or less ) of gross calories ( including EPOC calories ) than her 1 hour runs do now.

Ditto for weight training. Unless each weight training session results in an overall calorie expenditure significantly greater than the potential 550 calories she says she now gets from her 1 hour run, I see no compelling reason to dump those 3X 1 hour runs in favor of 3X 1 hour weight sessions.

I have usually found that the best exercise for losing fat is the exercise you like doing the most and the one you'll stick with - which in this case - just might very well be going on 1 hour runs.

Doing 1 hour cardio 4 +/- times a week for the next 6 months shouldn't be an issue at all IMO.

I agree with you in part, but don't discount the role of EPOC, improved stride power and short-term acceleration improvements as well as joint protection from weight training. Steady state cardio can be a part of weight loss, but by itself it's a very poor tool, especially when compared to other methods (intervals, weights, etc).

In the end, it's 90% diet, anyway

Maybe I wasn't very clear... I wasn't at all saying that I run for an hour every day of the week as one responder implied. As others picked up, I am really just looking to shed maybe 10 lbs but really build up my endurance and get my body toned up again. I was an avid runner and I am getting back into it so I think advising someone to "immediately" stop as it's too taxing on the body is just bad advise-- sorry. If someone is really overweight, yeah.

Anyway, the cardio that I do and was questioning is infact doing intervals of high and low intensity on an incline treadmill, bike and elliptical machine. I want to challenge my body but not overor under do it. Thanks for all the tips!!

Andrea