I’ve gotten into the losing weight/gaining muscle thing a couple months ago. I’ve lost about 30 pounds, and I’m pretty proud. It’s still off, but I notice that I still have unwanted fat around my abdominals and thighs.
Currently, I do about 300-400 crunches a day
Bench 100-200 reps a night
And I do alot of kicking/punching reps for Tae Kwon Do
for my upcoming black belt test.
Eat about 2000 calories a day.
And once summer break starts, I’ll start running again a couple miles a day.
Right now, I don’t feel like I’m doing too much to myself. My question is, wouldn’t I know if I’m working out too much? I feel great right now, but I want to be sure I’m not gonna mess up and regain the weight super super fast.
Speaking as a doc, I would have to say “No, you might not necessarily know if you’re working out too much.” Now I can’t tell from your description whether that’s too much of a workout, nor am I interested in trying to figure out whether it is too much for you or not (since I’m unable to examine you directly, it would be a waste of time), but yes, you can damage yourself unknowingly with too much exercise. I’ve generally seen it in people who are determined to rid themselves of that “problem fat” their body clings to despite all their efforts. But often people’s bodies are programmed to keep some fat no matter what, for dire necessity, and can extreme exercise can actually reduce some muscle bulk before ridding you of all fat deposits. And you can get wear and tear injuries to knees and shoulders from excessive use.
To really know, consult a doc with a sports medicine interest. Some Family Practitioners have a subspecialty in Sports Medicine, as do some Orthopedists.
Otherwise, relax, and don’t obsess. All the muscle building exercises are generally good up to a point, but I really encourage adding 30 minutes of aerobic workout at least 5 days a week, something not dependent on good weather to do. And you may just have to live with the knowledge that you can’t be rid of all fat. In the olden days, fat was good! It showed you weren’t starving to death.
As one who runs and weight trains, I would just suggest that you will improve more - and be less likely to hurt yourself - if you are sure to take a day or two off a week. Rest is an important part of training.
Not speaking as a doctor or anything, but from personal experience.
When I used to work-out I occasionally tried lowering the weight and going for a large numbers of reps. But it seemed to stress the joints alot more, and I ended up with burning joints and tendonitis type problems. Just for me personally I figured that About 35-40 reps of one exercise in a night was about as much as I should do. Then again Herschel walker used to do 3000 push-ups a day so obviously a large amount of personal variation.
It’s more of a lifestyle thing, I think if you get the fat back.
If you stop now, what will most likely happen is you’ll lose all the extra muscle mass (it’s the first place your body looks when cannibalizing extra body mass for protein). Whether or not you get the fat back is another question, largely depending on how you normally eat, I believe.
I’m not a doctor, but this is what I noticed when I went from a very similar exercise program to yours to my current slovenly ways.
Congrats on your success with the weight loss. As someone who used to do powerlifting and karate up to 6 days/week, I can tell you that you will not necessarily know if you are overtraining.
As others have mentioned, rest should be an essential part of your regimen. You might want to try doing your TKD training in slow motion like tai chi a couple days a week and concentrate more on technique.
If you’re doing 300-400 crunches a day, I assure you, you are not doing them properly. Do them slowly and feel the entire motion and do an extra squeeze at the top of the motion like you want to kiss your 'nads. On the downward part, do not let your shoulders touch the ground but keep constant tension on the abs. You will be tired after 30-40 of these and you will waste less time because you won’t need to do 300 reps.
You don’t want your body to rock and use momentum to complete the motion, this is the big mistake most people make.
Oh, and don’t do them every day, 5 days/week is plenty.
handy: Because it’s easier to lose fat than to gain muscle, in my experience. A normal rate of fat loss would be two pounds a week or so, but gaining two pounds of muscle would be a lot more difficult.
So, for an example person, intial weight is 200 lbs. Person loses 50 units of fat, and gains 7 units of muscle. Even though the muscle weighs more than the fat, there is a net loss.
It’s still off, but I notice that I still have unwanted fat around my abdominals and thighs.