Am I exercising too much?

[GymBuff]

I usually go to the gym 5/6 days a week. WFH part time and DC all at school so I have the time and I love it!

Around 3/4 days I cycle there (7 mile round trip) then I do around 45 mins cardio, quite hard intensity, then about an hours weightlifting. I alternate between upper/lower body and mix up the cardio depending on what part of body I’m on. I burn around 1000 calories when I cycle or 700 when I don’t.

I’m a vegetarian with a reasonably good diet (probably lower in iron that I’d like) but still around 2 stone over a healthy weight. I’ve lost 4 over the last 2 years just through the exercise really. I have a protein shake after the gym and try to make sure I have eggs, beans and nuts most days.

I’m finding that I’m getting very tired after exercising now, whereas before I was buzzing. I feel great while I’m working out but knackered afterwards. Also my body shape is not changing, weight is flip flopping between the same 4lb which is really annoying, and has been for the last 6 months. I am lifting heavier weights after getting back to my pre lockdown levels pretty quickly when gyms reopened.

Any ideas on what’s going on? Am I over working? Really don’t want to cut down but I want to see results too!

To see a change in shape, there must be a reduction in body fat % . You might have very big muscles, but if they are covered with a layer of fat, you won't see them . This is a great tool to measure it at home fitness.bizcalcs.com/Calculator.asp?Calc=Body-Fat-Navy

Then you need to address the fatigue. If you are doing cycling+cardio+weightlifting , you are doing too much and probably your metabolism is holding on those reserves you have.
You should listen to your body. Recovery is an essential part of any workout.
You might be overeating in addition to overtraining. A golden rule is that the calories from workout shouldn't be eaten back. Record on cronometer.com any bite and sip you take. You might be surprised by how easily and quickly your the calories go up. And you should cut on the nuts. Haver a Brazilian nut for selenium and no more than 1 ounce (28 grams) of nuts, or just cut them, you don't need them.

Then , the protein shake. What is in it? Just powder and water? Powder, milk, peanut butter and banana? You could easily drink back all the calories you have used with on elf the shakes they sell at my gym. Excess protein might also be the cause of your weightloss plateau.

I love going to the gym too, but I know that whenever I am on holiday , I am lighter. If you cycle, don't do the cardio or have a 4 minutes tabata.

I don't think you're overtraining. A short bike commute followed by cardio and weights, 5-6x a week, sounds reasonable to me- but then it totally depends on what that 45 mins cardio involves, and how hard you're working on the weights.

The fact that you're not losing weight any more suggests to me that either you're not pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone, or you're eating too much.

Only you know what the truth is, and how hard you're working. Going though the motions in a Zumba class, for example, could be 45 mins of cardio and so could an all-out 6-mile tempo run...but one will be much harder work and have much more impact in terms of weight loss than the other.

Given your name @fellrunner85 I am not sure you are a weightlifter. The science of exercising is very different for resistance vs endurance training. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170726103003.htm
If you want to see muscle growth, it needs recovery and restoration, especially if you lift heavy and to failure.

The OP is not only feeling extreme fatigue but also not seeing result after 6 months of this regime, not on the scale and not in the mirror.

This shows she needs to change her training, and sometimes, less is better than more.

Recovery is key to muscle growth in weightlifting www.builtlean.com/muscles-grow/

@GymBuff you should listen to your body, examine your nutrition and maybe experience new training routine. Cycle or run or do cardio in your recovery days.

Could you be peri-menopausal? The fatigue and body shape issues could well be related to that. When our hormones start to fluctuate/decline, it changes how training impacts on our bodies and we need to do things differently.

It could also be that you are not giving your body enough recovery time. All of your exercise seems pretty intense, so your body is being stressed by it. It's when we take time to rest and recover that our bodies adapt to the training - not when doing the training itself.

So you are lifting heavy weights most days? I'd agree with pp that that is too much. And that's a lot of cardio too.

I do mainly calisthenics now but used to lift weights and the pattern is similar. My body needs a couple of days to recover after a heavy session so depending whether I am doing splits or whole body, I use running/cardio/hiit/boxing etc in between heavy days. So might do a good upper body session one day, short run and legs session the next, then rest day with a good walk (or maybe pilates), then hit/core/longer run/combat, then start again. It varies but that sort of pattern.

Have you had your iron levels checked recently? At my over-50 check, I was found to be pretty anaemic - I had assumed tiredness was perimeno and loving exercise but it wasn't!

Bit patronising, @LeGrandBleu! As it happens, I do lift. But admittedly not as much as I should.

If the fatigue is constant then I think it is definitely worth dialling back the training for a couple of weeks and seeing what difference that makes. You say you are knackered afterwards, but for how long? The whole day? I generally get the buzz from exercise. If I have exercised particularly hard on weights I might get a mid afternoon slump which is fixed by a half hour nap, but this is rare.