In your shoes I would try every 3d day. That would give you some recovery time in between (very good on super low carbe, it gives you time to rebuild glycogen.) At the same time, there is a 4-day endorphin low if you quit "chronic cardio" cold turkey. That is, the 4th day, or 3d, is the worst. If you time your intense cardio to keep your mood up, but space it out for recovery, you have a chance to get the monkey off your back... that is, the mandate that you HAVE to get high or you fear your mental health.

In other words - one kind of "chronic cardio" may not be sustainable. depends on how hard you have to go, and if it's every day, to keep your mood up. The bod eventually rebels, well, not a good outcome.

However! periodic intense cardio might be just the thing.

Before you throw something at me, sorry, we all have to figger it out!

Nope, I appreciate your insight. I am right there with you. I think there has to be some balance. I could do every 3rd day with making sure I still do my weights. I just need the workouts right now to cope with the stress of work/school and new eating lifestyle.

I added more fat today so we will see... didn't feel too much different. I think it really is about trial and error. I am also thinking that the kinds of fats are essential for me. For instance, perhaps ingesting butter that is not kerrygold or organic is not a good idea for me.. or making sure I have fat from animals instead of oils/butters. I know Jo mentioned this to me before. I am not giving up on this, in fact, I am not giving up on myself in general. I think decreasing my protein a bit but upping the fat will be a good thing in the long run.

agreed. I also think we are made to move and I guess I just can't get past the fact that exercise is a bad thing.

Huh? Why is exercise a bad thing?

Chronic cardio isn't good, but healthy amounts of exercise, not overdone, isn't bad. I don't think any here has ever said it is.

ohhh... no, I understand no one here has said that, but others have told me that I workout tooo much ( not on the forum), so I just need to learn balance in this area as well. 3 times a week cardio is ok but, keep in mind I am doing 5 days of weight training as well.

Okay, well, that is a far cry from "I just past the fact that exercise is a bad thing."

It sounds like you take messages of moderation and reinterpret them as extremes, feeding them back into yourself and getting worked up or depressed. You don't need to do that!

Your 5 days of weight training, you're giving muscle groups some time off to heal and rebuild, right?

I think I know what you mean. The idea that "if exercise is good, then lots must be really good" - it's a wake-up call that there can indeed be imbalance.

We get totally mixed messages on that from "the world."

For example, reading the ACSM recommendations one way, your program could sorta look like it's okay. Well, except for waiting 48 hours between resistance sessions. But your body is saying, wait a minute, my energy is not steady good, my mood is not steady good, I'm not finding the sweet spot where I'm fueled and always ready to go, too many ups and downs.

Notice that ACSM doesn't talk about upper limits for exercise. Gasp! that is unthinkable, when clearly we all aren't doing enough! And it doesn't talk about factoring in your school stress, which is huge, and almost like exercise to the body, in its whole-body effects on hormones. True dat.

I have also found cardio to be helpful in regulating mood while lcing. Part of my problem is that I am not chasing away negative feelings with sugar, so the initial onslaught of suddenly having to feel everything can get overwhelming. Cardio helps keep my mood on an even keel.

Hi
THanks for your support, See jay.