Okay, so I've gained some weight over the last few months so I've waddled back to gym trying to get back into shape. But, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to get thru a fat burning cardio workout. I used to be able to run an hour on the treadmill without stopping. Now, I can barely run 10 minutes! Trying to figure out what kind of supplementation I should be taking to give me the energy to get me thur a cardio workout? Over-the-counter drinks like 5 Hour Energy and Monster do absolutely nothing for me. No effect at all. Anyone here have any experience with other drinks/supplmentation that has proven successful for you while doing cardio???

No supplements needed.

Just keep trying, you will build up your cardiovascular system with each try. You absolutely will get back to running for an hour. Just give yourself some time.

I Do cardio at the gym everyday before i go to work.

Honestlt just blasting my ipod keeps me motivated to keep going

I started working out hardcore again around june when i joined L.A Fitness, if u have a good playlist of tunes u really love & get enough sleep the night before i'm ready to kill it.

Cardio tires out some people, but it gets me ready for work, or for lifting.

Do it more & more & eventually it will give you more energy.

Supplements are really not needed.

i grabbed a mat & stuck on a dvd yesterday.. i didn't get past the warmup & ache like buggery today..

perhaps u could try kriotherapy! that's what daniel craig does! as long as u have a freezer to climb into, this might help

Correct me if I'm wrong anyone...but if you want to lose weight you DON'T want cardio. You want "Fat Burn" which is at a slower pace.

Cardio is designed to build up your endurance (or something like that).

Your treadmill should have both settings.

Choose the Fat Burn setting, not cardio.

It'll be easier anyway.

Very simple - I don't do cardio!

But seriously, an hour? Unless you're training for a marathon, you don't need to be doing ANYTHING for an hour. After 20 minutes, your body has gotten out of it all it's going to get.

I'd consult a personal trainer well-versed in cardio and ask them to design a program for you that works, and that doesn't last an hour.

PurpleJedi said:

Correct me if I'm wrong anyone...but if you want to lose weight you DON'T want cardio. You want "Fat Burn" which is at a slower pace.

Cardio is designed to build up your endurance (or something like that).

Your treadmill should have both settings.

Choose the Fat Burn setting, not cardio.

It'll be easier anyway.

Well, cardio is any form of cardiovascular exercise so leisurely walking or running at a moderate pace counts as cardio. On the treadmill, the "fat burn" setting is generally at a low intensity pace. Maybe a slow walk. If you are attempting to lose weight, exercises that burn the most calories will lead to the greater amount weight loss. You are going to burn more calories running for an hour than walking for an hour(and a good number of those calories will come from fat). This is all assuming that your diet is in check which is really the most important part. It is extremely hard to outwork a bad diet in which you are taking in an excessive amount of calories.

For myself, I try to limit my cardio to 30 minutes between weight lifting sessions. Anything more than that is counterproductive for me, but everyone has different goals.

Kit, like others have commented, you will have to work yourself back up to the level you were exercising at. You will eventually get there. Keep increasing the time by a few minutes each session while maintaining your speed.

[Edited 11/30/12 13:54pm]

When I started back on a treadmill after doing nothing for years, I did 10 minutes on a treadmill at very low intensity but it didn't take long before I built up to 20 minutes and increased the intensity.

A friend of mine gave me this stuff called Spark, which is a powered drink you mix with water. I tell ya what, for the first hour, I wasn't feeling it. I was ready to go home and go to bed. But, after I ate a very lite meal, I guess that must have helped ignite the Spark because I was able to go into the gym this evening and do 35 minutes on the treadmill (walking) and 45 minutes on the eliptical, which is more than I've done since the beginning of the year. And I didn't feel like I had climbed out of a trainwreck afterwards like I usually do. I was ready to do some strength training but decided to wait until tomorrow because I didn't want to do too much too soon.

I know strength training is important, but, if burning fat is your primary goal, cardio is where you want to place your focus. I've worked with trainers before and they told me the same thing. 30 minutes of strength training 3 times a week is a good thing to incorporate into your routine but for fat burning, cardio is where its at. I'm trying to lose weight fast because I need to be able to fit into my winter clothes pretty soon. I refuse to buy larger sizes!!!

PurpleJedi said:

Correct me if I'm wrong anyone...but if you want to lose weight you DON'T want cardio. You want "Fat Burn" which is at a slower pace.

Cardio is designed to build up your endurance (or something like that).

Your treadmill should have both settings.

Choose the Fat Burn setting, not cardio.

It'll be easier anyway.

When I stopped running, I started gaining weight. When I was doing my hour runs, I could eat pretty much anything I wanted (as long as I stayed within a reasonable calorie range) and still lost weight.

RodeoSchro said:

Very simple - I don't do cardio!

But seriously, an hour? Unless you're training for a marathon, you don't need to be doing ANYTHING for an hour. After 20 minutes, your body has gotten out of it all it's going to get.

I'd consult a personal trainer well-versed in cardio and ask them to design a program for you that works, and that doesn't last an hour.

After 20 minutes your body starts burning fat, 20 minutes is the minimum.

i havent done anything in ages - but i want to do kick boxing soon

maybe when the heat goes n its a bit cooler

when i did work out i would drink poweraid because i needed that little bit of something to get me through

right now i just go for long walks its not really a fitness thing but helps clear me head

i have never had a weight problem so its not to lose weight - i just like being active

robertlove said:

RodeoSchro said:

Very simple - I don't do cardio!

But seriously, an hour? Unless you're training for a marathon, you don't need to be doing ANYTHING for an hour. After 20 minutes, your body has gotten out of it all it's going to get.

I'd consult a personal trainer well-versed in cardio and ask them to design a program for you that works, and that doesn't last an hour.

After 20 minutes your body starts burning fat, 20 minutes is the minimum.

I disagree. I believe you have it backwards.

RodeoSchro said:

robertlove said:

After 20 minutes your body starts burning fat, 20 minutes is the minimum.

I disagree. I believe you have it backwards.

I was always told you have to do at least 20 minutes of cardio with an increased heart rate before your body goes into fat burning mode.

kitbradley said:

RodeoSchro said:

I disagree. I believe you have it backwards.

I was always told you have to do at least 20 minutes of cardio with an increased heart rate before your body goes into fat burning mode.

I'd check up on it some more. Or maybe, it's that things like crunches don't count as cardio? I can promise that you don't need to do crunches for 20 minutes before you start burning fat off your abs.

RodeoSchro said:

kitbradley said:

I was always told you have to do at least 20 minutes of cardio with an increased heart rate before your body goes into fat burning mode.

I'd check up on it some more. Or maybe, it's that things like crunches don't count as cardio? I can promise that you don't need to do crunches for 20 minutes before you start burning fat off your abs.

no, I don't think crunches count as cardio

Crunches is toning not cardio. Cardio is running, dancing, aerobics, swimming, anything that gets the heart rate pumping at an increased rate and makes you sweat.

NDRU said:

RodeoSchro said:

I'd check up on it some more. Or maybe, it's that things like crunches don't count as cardio? I can promise that you don't need to do crunches for 20 minutes before you start burning fat off your abs.

no, I don't think crunches count as cardio

Could be. The OP was talking about a "fat burning" cardio workout.

I'd submit that if you have to do something for 20 minutes before any fat begins burning, maybe you should think of other ways to burn fat. And if you've got to do it for an hour before you get results, then you've got more patience than me!

Energy drinks have plenty of calories. The point is to cut down your calorie intake. Not increase it.

If you want to lose weight you need to cut down your eating and drinking. There's no other way to achieve it. Exercise is a fairly inefficient way to get rid of fat compared to what you can achieve just by eating less than what you'd usually eat.

[Edited 12/4/12 7:31am]

novabrkr said:

If you want to lose weight you need to cut down your eating. There's no other way around it.

That might work for middle-aged men and younger people. But for women past the age of 40, our hormones (or lack of them) can make it bloody well impossible to lose weight even on as few as 1000 calories a day.

As one's ovaries begin shutting down, estrogen and progesterone production takes a hit, too. There are basically two ways a woman can make estrogen - in her ovaries or in fat cells. Well, as ovarian activity decreases, guess what increases to make up the difference? Fat stores. In fact, to get those hormones made, the body will produce fat preferentially over maintaining muscle mass - which further compounds the problem.

Why do you think I'm on hormone replacement? Sure, I'm trying to keep my brain working, my moods stable and to have as few hot flashes as possible. But if it also keeps me from getting fat, I'll keep paying out of pocket for them. (Compounded hormones are not covered by my insurance.)

It's up to you if you want to believe in that.

novabrkr said:

It's up to you if you want to believe in that.

"Believe in" it? It's a fact, Mr. 33-year-old male.

When I went on hormone replacement initially (about 40mg of progesterone daily), I lost 20 pounds in about three months. Nothing else changed. I ate the same and exercised the same. When my estrogen crashed a year ago, I gained about 10 of it back. Again, nothing else changed. I ate the same and exercised the same. Since getting my estrogen and progesterone balanced, I've lost 5 again - and assume the other 5 won't be far behind.

Educate yourself. Of course, you may not have any women in your life, so perhaps you don't care.

Genesia said:

novabrkr said:

If you want to lose weight you need to cut down your eating. There's no other way around it.

That might work for middle-aged men and younger people. But for women past the age of 40, our hormones (or lack of them) can make it bloody well impossible to lose weight even on as few as 1000 calories a day.

As one's ovaries begin shutting down, estrogen and progesterone production takes a hit, too. There are basically two ways a woman can make estrogen - in her ovaries or in fat cells. Well, as ovarian activity decreases, guess what increases to make up the difference? Fat stores. In fact, to get those hormones made, the body will produce fat preferentially over maintaining muscle mass - which further compounds the problem.

Why do you think I'm on hormone replacement? Sure, I'm trying to keep my brain working, my moods stable and to have as few hot flashes as possible. But if it also keeps me from getting fat, I'll keep paying out of pocket for them. (Compounded hormones are not covered by my insurance.)

I worked with a woman who swears she lost over 100 lbs in a year and a half simply by cutting back on her calories. No excercise, no surgery, just less calories. I'm not sure how old she is. Maybe late 30's early 40's. I think everyone's body is different. I know you can certainly lose weight without the excercise if your diet is fine-tuned but how much really depends on the person, their metabolism and hormones (yes, that goes for the guys too). Various medications can stop you from losing weight, also.

I know a guy who lost over 400 lbs just by deleting sugar and flour from his diet. The only form of exercise he was doing was yoga because he was too heavy for anything else at the time. So you can definately lose weight without putting yourself thru strenuous workouts. Workouts just help speed things up.