Is Chronic Cardio Making You Fat?

 Is Too Much Cardio Making You Gain Weight? 

Here's How to Find Out.

Is too much cardio making you gain weight or hurting your fitness goals? Here's how to tell if you are doing too much cardio and how to help yourself train smarter.

There's nothing better than the unstoppable feeling after really good spin class, it's a great sweat and an incredible endorphin boost.

But sometimes it seems like cardio has overtaken every other fitness activity. 

Despite being so active , these women come on struggling with weight gain , joint pain, low energy, and years of frustration . They all say about the same thing " I exercise 6 days a week , eat super clean and sleep, but don't get the results.

They feel tired and anxious , have trouble sleeping , and find it difficult to shed the last 10 pounds. Many also have hormone imbalances such as PMS, irregular periods, PCOS and even infertility.

What's behind this trend of cardio junkies sweating to exhaustion ? hare's what happens when you do too much cardio, signs you may be doing too much , and how to help yourself restore body balance.

Even though exercise is good for us , our bodies perceive it like any kind of stressor. Chemically, the body reacts the same way to exercise as it does to bad stress. Therefore too much exercise can have negative effect on your physical and mental health.

In addition too much cardio specifically can result in muscle wasting and fat storage on the body, which is not the outcome you want . In extreme cases, even the heart suffers from too much endurance training.

What counts as too much cardio is different for everyone , and depends on a lot of factors, including the intensity of exercises , your fitness level, your age, and health status , how much activity you do each day, what and how much you eat, how much sleep you get, your fitness goals and more. What might be too much for a new exerciser could also be fine for them a year later. When it comes to exercise, picture a bell curve. The people who reap the most health benefits are somewhere in the middle. The people on either extreme end too much exercise or too little suffer consequences.

When you listen to your body, it will usually give you signals that it's time to change things. If you experience any of these symptoms , it could be signs that you are too much cardio.

• Weight gain : Research shows that cardio is not usually that helpful for weight loss. The body becomes used to the calorie deficit from long aerobic sessions and stores energy as fat to compensate. In addition , studies show most people eat more after exercise and overestimate how many calories they burned while working out. 
• Increased body fat or hard to lose body fat
• Joint pain and muscle aches
• Repressed immune system 
• Repetitive stress injuries
• Mood changes
• Appetite changes
• Anxiety
• Sleeplessness or insomnia
• Low energy
• Brain fog or inability to focus
• You can't lose your belly or still not seeing that toned definition you're craving

Do you have one or many of the symptoms above? Do you still want to sweat so hard and so long to get those results from your workouts?

What to do instead of hours of cardio : 

If you're experiencing any of these symptoms of cardio overload, it's likely time to consider switching up your exercise routine. You don't have to stop exercising altogether. or even exercise less frequently, but a different style of exercise will be quite helpful. It may take a while to re-train your body out of chronic cardio over training , especially if you have been a cardio junkie for years.However it is possible to restore how your body responds to exercise and reset your weight, body fat, hormones, and system. It will require patience , hard work , focus, determination and effort. You need to be prepared to do something different to challenge yourself, to feel awkward , uncomfortable and scared. Change is hard, new and different. You will be tempted to fall back to old over training habits.But if you are truly committed to helping your body heal and to seeing positive effects from your workouts, you will be able to climb out of the chronic state and find balance. 

Here's what to do instead of hours of cardio :

• Keep your cardio workouts to less than one hour.
• Make your workouts about quality, skill and performance
• Take at least 1-2 rest days per week
• Replaces two classes or long cardio workouts with weight training sessions.
• Plan a balanced fitness schedule that includes cardio, strength, flexibility, variety, periodization, and rest.
• Restore your mind and muscles
• Nourish your body with foods that fuel you