When is it too much? Cardio

[jillybeansalad]

I hope this isnt too much like those "please look at my workout" type of posts. I am still learning about the balance between the workout and the nutrition.

A bit of info:
I am 128lbs with 17%bf, 24 years old vegetarian. I am in the Air Force and with this I have to workout with my squadron 3 times a week which is usually running for about 3 miles to 4 miles. This happens Monday (afternoon), Wednesday (afternoon) and Friday (morning). I do weight training Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday evenings. I also have softball games on Sunday night (not really that big of a deal, but another bit of detail.

I have recently started biking to work in the morning and also back home, which is 3 miles each way with a few hills (nothing extreme). Then carrying my bike up 3 floors of stairs when I get to work. :P I usually burn about 500-600 calories from the biking for the day.

Diet: I eat pretty clean, mostly consisting of sweet potato, natural peanut butter, brown rice, almonds, egg whites, green beans, gardenburger and Myoplex meal replacers. My meals for the day add up to:
Calories: ~1600
Protein: 177g
Fat: 30g
Carbs: 137

(More specific workout and diet layout can be found on my Body Blog, along with my supplements.)

The Question: Should I add anything to my diet? I dont want to undereat and make my body starve or anything, but I am trying to lose body fat. I feel very tired and my legs end up feeling weak, but I have always been told through the years in sports that I am not pushing hard enough if I am not hurting some and not worn out. :P Any thoughts? Let me know if you need any additional info.

[BuffedWildCat]

Without going into a lot of detail cause I don't have much time at the moment, my opinion is that your calories are WAY too low for all the exercise you are doing and you need more FAT in your diet. So yeah you need to increase your calories, I'd recommend increasing to 2000 to start off with and you can do this slowly over a period of about 4 weeks so as to allow your body's metabolism to pick up as it figures out that it's getting more food. I would mainly add more calories via FAT, increase your fat calories.

And if you like all that cardio you're doing, I wouldn't worry too much about it for now, sounds like most of it is out of necessity. Too much cardio depends, too much for one person may not be enough for another. Everybody's bodies respond differently. Normally when I start someone off on a fat loss plan, I won't have them doing more than twice a week of cardio so that when his/her fat loss stalls, we can always add in additional cardio days to get the fat loss going again. Too much cardio will burn muscle and leave the fat, yeah, unfortunately. But go ahead and just increase your calories for now and see what that does. Give any changes to your diet and/or training at least a month to determine whether it's working or not.

And I just wanted to say "hello" to a fellow AF member. I was in the AF for about 10 years total, some active duty, some reserve and my husband is currently serving.

[MauiZos]

Hey Jilly... just thought i'd give you a reference point. My macros are almost the same as yours right now (1650 cals 206g P, 137g C, 30g F) and I am 6 weeks out from competition. I'm doing 45 mins cardio in the AM, 1 hr weight training at noon, and another 45 mins cardio at night. My diet and training are all totally managed by professionals that deal only with body builders and figure competitors. I know, at least, that what I'm doing is the correct plan to accomplish my goals.

I fully acknowlege though that this is by no means healthy or sustainable. What I'm doing and the point to which I'm trying to take my body is very extreme and only lasts for a short period of time. If you are just into being fit and perhaps losing a little BF, I would definitely up your calories to at least 1800. For normal weight loss, you don't want to deplete by any more than about 10% per day.

[TurbulentFluid]

Question: you're 17% bf already. Why are you trying to lose bf%? Unless you're competing and are doing the same temporary thing as Maui, you're on the verge of healthy bf level even now...

[jillybeansalad]

Ah so more fat, gotcha! I will gladly add some. Although I never feel hungry anymore, eating so often (5-6 meals), I could tell I was missing something.

Wildcat, what was your job if you dont mind me asking? The AF has changed a lot since I went in, and I've only been in for 3 years! But I was a civilian spouse for a year before that.

Question: you're 17% bf already. Why are you trying to lose bf%? Unless you're competing and are doing the same temporary thing as Maui, you're on the verge of healthy bf level even now...

I've always been in the healthy range... well with the exception of the year I went into "overweight" bmi-land. I am athletic, I play slowpitch softball year round (thanks to California weather) in the Men's league as well as co-ed. During the summers I play fastpitch in the LA area, and I need to be in good shape for that. I want more power and muscle, but I dont want the fat that can slow me down. Also I keep a large percentage of my fat in my stomache area and I dont really like the look of it. I do not plan to get into single digits of body fat, but I would like to LOOK the part of a military member and as an athlete, not to mention I am always just 1 inch from my waist requirement for the military fitness standards. Also I have to keep in mind that I am deployable and you need to be in shape to handle it over there.

I enjoy working out because it makes me feel better and not to mention it means I can on those occasions eat Girl Scout cookies and it will not kill me. I do not mind the diet, I actually love veggies.

Does any of that makes sense? I dont plan on stopping when I reach my goal, I will continue working out at a maintenance level and keep it under control. I have been doing cardio for over 3 years now and weight training for about 3 months, so being active isnt new to me. I hope I didnt make this too long to read. :P I'm a bit of a "scatter brain."