Confessions of a Cardio Bunny

Easter may be over, but I'm still in the spirit of Peter Cottontail!

I'm 16--17 this summer, female, 5'4, and 130 lbs (ish).

I have an obsession with cardiovascular exercise...particularly bicycle riding. I am active for up to 28 hours per week at my worst (though typically it's more like 18-20 as of late...I've been trying to contain myself). I say 'my worst' because this much exercise is ridiculous and there's no way in heck that I can eat enough to fuel all of my pedal, pedal, pedaling AND my growing body. I do strength training as well for one hour (squats, lunges, dead lifts, curls, etc) every other day. Most people think that I'm going to wither away into nothing with all of the exercise I do even while eating 3,000 calories per day. I've actually noticed myself getting BIGGER. I'm afraid that my body is reacting negatively to my biking, now, as I'm not only getting larger but I'm also bloating up quite often, feeling ill and tired more often, suffering from insomnia and dizziness, and going from overly full one day to famished the next. That tells me that I'm doing something wrong, and my best guess would be that the extreme cardio is my issue.

So, does anybody have any advice/experience with this? I want to treat my body well, but I also need to de-stress somehow, and cardio is my main coping skill. I have Bipolar Type 1 as well, which lands me on my bike when I'm 'high.' I chose not to take medication as I've reacted horribly to many different ones. In terms of fitness, I simply strive to be strong and capable of enduring a decent amount of exercise without passing out. I'd like to help my body to be the best that it can be, the healthiest that it can be, and the happiest that it can be. I'm not looking to lose weight, though I would love to fit into my pants again. Vanity is far from my first goal...in fact, it's my last. I'd just like advice on how to improve my health and fitness.

Thanks!:)

Thanks for any advice!

I'm not an expert in this but from your post it sounds like cardio is your only source of stress relief.  What other forms of relaxation would work for you to help you feel calmer?  Perhaps meditation tapes, yoga, music, funny movies might be alternative activities you could try instead of cardio.

Also if you worry about exercising too many hours each week, set a cutoff number of hours for each day.  Like no more than two hours a day or whatever limit you want to set.  Hope you find a balance that works for you.

You should be eating way more then 3k calories for the ammount of exercise that you do. Trouble sleeping, is an indication of over training. How long and at what intensity are your rides? Do you eat anything while on a bike, and in general what is your nutrition is like?

UD

Original Post by amelia74:

I'm not an expert in this but from your post it sounds like cardio is your only source of stress relief.  What other forms of relaxation would work for you to help you feel calmer?  Perhaps meditation tapes, yoga, music, funny movies might be alternative activities you could try instead of cardio.

Also if you worry about exercising too many hours each week, set a cutoff number of hours for each day.  Like no more than two hours a day or whatever limit you want to set.  Hope you find a balance that works for you.

It is my main source of stress relief...90% of the time I would guess. I've tried Yoga, Tai-Chi, writing, drawing...none of those efforts succeeded. cleaning around the house is sometimes enough, so I do do that quite a lot. On rare occasions talking to a friend, family member, or pet or listening to music will also help to calm me. Unfortunately, when I get really stressed or manic I cannot seem to obtain relief in any other way.

I've tried limiting myself to 14 hours per week, but I've failed many times at staying within that range. Weight lifting has the same effect on me as cardio does, though it takes much less time to calm me down. Unfortunately, it would probably strain my muscles A LOT to lift every day. 

I still want to know why my body is acting like it is...it's driving me bonkers! :/

Original Post by umneydurak:

You should be eating way more then 3k calories for the ammount of exercise that you do. Trouble sleeping, is an indication of over training. How long and at what intensity are your rides? Do you eat anything while on a bike, and in general what is your nutrition is like?

UD

Oh jeez, and that's not even accounting for the fact that I stand for all but perhaps an hour of each day (I HATE sitting down and I feel the compulsive urge to be doing something every second...so I'm standing up for maybe 12-14 hours a day). Is 3,000 really under?:(

I ride rather slowly...about 12-14 MPH on average. I ride for up to 4 hours (that's rare, however, it's usually more like 1.5-2 hours twice a day) in a row with a bathroom break in between. I'd say that I ride at a moderate intensity, though my dad says that it looks closer to intense. I sweat a good deal and my heart is thumping a ton by the time I'm done.

I honestly have no clue how much I need to eat anyway...can overtraining be fixed by eating more? I'd love to keep riding if I can, because I truly do enjoy it and it solves boredom when there's little to do.

I'll sometimes bring some in-shell sunflower seeds with me a munch on them while I'm riding, but that's about it. I drink a 16 oz bottle of water during my rides followed be another right afterwards.

As for general nutrition, I'm allergic to wheat, I suffer from severe and easily triggered IBS, I have no gallbladder and am therefore highly sensitive to fatty foods, and I'm hypoglycemic. I eat NO refined or processed foods due to allergy concerns (not to mention I'm a firm believer in natural foods). In terms of grains, I eat mostly oatmeal along with some buckwheat, brown rice, quinoa, millet, barley, rye...you get the picture: whole grains other than wheat. I don't eat more than 3 servings of grains a day, and even that is rare...maybe I should be eating more? For produce, I eat 2 or 3 pieces of fruit each day (I hate bananas, but otherwise I'm open to all fruits) along a few pounds of veggies (usually cooked), a couple of yams and a small potato on most days. For protein and fats I eat beans, eggs, fish, cheese/cottage cheese, yogurt, nuts and seeds in very small amounts, tofu and chicken livers on occasion. I eat 6 times per day, including veggies, protein, and yam, potato, or grains at each meal/snack. I drink a LOT of water--far more than 8 cups per day and I'll drink milk before bed if my IBS isn't flaring up a lot that day.

Wow, I just typed up a book. Hehe.:) Thanks for your time...both of you!

I just bought a bike, trek 3900.  didn't realize the effect that it can potentially have on some people, hopefully I can get addicted to it, I lack the dedication for any other physical activity.

oh yes, i have to agree with the OP. cycling is ADDICTIVE. once you start a cycling routine it is hard to stop... especially once your body starts to respond to your work. i went from having no butt to more than i needed... but it's still a good thing!

So to summarize you ride daily  for 3-4 hours with a small bahtroom break in between. You eat mainly vegetables, with at most 3 servings of grains and very little protein. Did I understood it right? Doesn't sound like a 3k Calorie diet. If you are going for such long rides try to bring more food with you. There are exercise specific drinks and whatenot, but regular food works just fine. For example bananas or baked portatoes make for an excelent source of energy.

There are online calculators that are specific for teenagers and that will give you an approximate ammount of calories that you should be eating if you are not active. Seargh for gi-jane posts, she posted the links quite a few times. On top of what calculator gives you you should add the ammount burned by exercise. You can get a heart rate monitor to get a more accurate count, or use online calculators. You are still growing and exercising A LOT so it is important to fuel your body properly.

As for over training try reducing the ammount you ride for a week or two and see how you feel. I know you mentioned you do it as a form of stress releive and that you have a bi-polar disorder, so maybe talk to phsychiatrist about this?

Original Post by umneydurak:

So to summarize you ride daily  for 3-4 hours with a small bahtroom break in between. You eat mainly vegetables, with at most 3 servings of grains and very little protein. Did I understood it right? Doesn't sound like a 3k Calorie diet. If you are going for such long rides try to bring more food with you. There are exercise specific drinks and whatenot, but regular food works just fine. For example bananas or baked portatoes make for an excelent source of energy.

There are online calculators that are specific for teenagers and that will give you an approximate ammount of calories that you should be eating if you are not active. Seargh for gi-jane posts, she posted the links quite a few times. On top of what calculator gives you you should add the ammount burned by exercise. You can get a heart rate monitor to get a more accurate count, or use online calculators. You are still growing and exercising A LOT so it is important to fuel your body properly.

As for over training try reducing the ammount you ride for a week or two and see how you feel. I know you mentioned you do it as a form of stress releive and that you have a bi-polar disorder, so maybe talk to phsychiatrist about this?

Haha, you make everything sound even worse...but, then again, I may not be taking it seriously enough. In order to take in 3k calories I eat a LOT of protein...particularlyboiled eggs. I'm not perfectly sure how many I eat, but I think that I take in about 8-12 of them per day. I have perfect cholesterollevels, too!;) I'm not exactly sure how I manage to eat 3,000 cals with my diet, either, but I do. I tally it all up and it always comes to 3k. Anyway, I shall try to nibble a bit more during my rides.

I detirmined my caloric needs via the teen calculator...I think. I'm not sure if I did it correctly. The calculator (http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/bodycomp/bmiz2.html) said:

• 1760 for sedentary
• 2100 for <1 hour moderate exercise
• 2420 for 1 hour moderate exercise

I'm already active on a daily basis by standing all day, cleaning around the house for an hour or two each day, caring for my animals, walking up/down the stairs, etc. I looked at some calculators and a ADULT uses at least 50 extra calories per hour standing rather than sitting...so according to that I need 600 or more extra just to account for the 12ish straight hours I'm up and about and not on a bike.

Subtracting the sedentary number from the 1 hour of exercise number gives me 660 cal...so that would be my caloric needs per hour of exercise IN ADDITION to the sedentary number.

Now, saying that I'm exercising for 3 hours per day, I'd need:

• 1760 cals just for living and breathing...basic stuff
• +600 cals (at least) for standing, cleaning, and moving about each day
• +1980 (660 x 3) cals for exercise

that equals....4340 calories per day?!?! Does that sound right? I guess that I could try that, but if I'm maintaining/getting bigger right now wouldn't that make me inflate like a balloon? Or is my body clinging on to everything because I'm underfeeding it? Err...so confusing!

Thanks for your advice, anyway...I really appreciate it. I will likely try reducing my riding to 14 hours per week (average 2 hours/day) and keeping my 3.5 hours of weight lifting the same. I do have a therapist who is also helping me to find other coping methods...until then I guess that I'll just have to force myself to reserve biking soley to when nothing else will work for de-stressing?

Original Post by hayleabrianne:

oh yes, i have to agree with the OP. cycling is ADDICTIVE. once you start a cycling routine it is hard to stop... especially once your body starts to respond to your work. i went from having no butt to more than i needed... but it's still a good thing!

It's good to know that I'm not complete insane for desperately enjoying biking. I would REALLY love to keep biking as often as I do. *le sigh*

I've noticed that my butt grew, too...haha! I wasn't really seeking a different body shape through biking--just a coping method--but changescame anyway! My upper legs have bulked up, too, and people are often commenting on how indented my calves are. I guess that that's a good thing?

Ok--so no one is addressing the bipolar issue.  My dad is also bipolar.  One of the symptoms is not feeling the need to take your medication and feeling like you can conquer the world. (Guess that's actually two)  I think maybe you should work with your doctor to try to find the balance of medication that suits you.  In your manic states, you sound like you are riding way beyond what you are feeding your body.  Sleeplessness is also a symptom of the manic side, although I'm sure it could also be a sign of overtraining.  I'm no doctor, but I've had to live with this for many years and I know from the other side of it that you are probably way "high" right now--and you are fueling that high with three or four hours of endorphins...

Don't stop exercising--but please go see your doctor.  I think you may be doing yourself more harm than you realize. 

Original Post by marceleric:

Ok--so no one is addressing the bipolar issue.  My dad is also bipolar.  One of the symptoms is not feeling the need to take your medication and feeling like you can conquer the world. (Guess that's actually two)  I think maybe you should work with your doctor to try to find the balance of medication that suits you.  In your manic states, you sound like you are riding way beyond what you are feeding your body.  Sleeplessness is also a symptom of the manic side, although I'm sure it could also be a sign of overtraining.  I'm no doctor, but I've had to live with this for many years and I know from the other side of it that you are probably way "high" right now--and you are fueling that high with three or four hours of endorphins...

Don't stop exercising--but please go see your doctor.  I think you may be doing yourself more harm than you realize. 

 No, I have both a physciatrist and a therapist. We've already discussed the fact that I don't want to take medications after I tried 3 of them and became suicidal with each one. I don't like the idea of chemicals floating around in my body in the first place, and that type of side effect is far from helpful.

My therapist told me to bike when I'm feeling manic, since that calms me. I try cleaning, talking to someone and listening to music first, though, since those coping methods sometimes work. I am afraid that my current routine is far too strenuous for my body, and I'm willing to try just sucking it up instead of biking, but I wanted to be sure that I'm not mistaken and I wanted some advice on what to do otherwise to keep my fitness levels up and possibly calm my mania through exercises that aren't so high in calorie burn.

My doctor doesn't have an issue with me exercising and I've actually been told that a lot of exercise would benefit my digestive system, as my IBS constipates me quite often. My GP told me that as long as I'm eating properly, biking is fine with him. I thought that i was eating pretty well, but I guess that I wasn't. I tried going to a dietitian and she put me on a 2400 calorie plan even after I told her my activity level...which, well...2400 just isn't sufficient.

I'm sorry if I'm confusing at all...I'm worried that I'm harming myself and I've already had past medical issues that were very unpleasant and extremely hard on my body (bad gallbladder that was missed for 2 or more years and caused me to gain, and then lose, a LOT of weight...140ish lbs to 200 lbs to 75 lbs in 24 months. My IBS, fat sensitivities, and my wheat allergy resulted from my gallbladder rotting inside of me for so long; my digestive tract is horrendous). I managed to gain up to a healthy weight within about 6 months after it was removed, and I've been maintaining that for almost 2 years now, with exercise added back in once I got up to a safe BMI.

The old standby for bipolar disorders used to be lithium bicarbonate.  Does that make you suicidal?  I can understand not wanting to have chemicals floating around inside you, but if you can find something that works, it may well be worth doing.  Something else worth investigating is thyroid function:  if yours is running fast, your body will feel like you're on the gas all the time, and you won't be able to relax.

Anyway, at your peaks, you are on your bike as much as a pro cyclist, and pro cyclists eat 7000-9000 kCal per day, the bulk of which is carbohydrates.  You're not riding as hard as a pro cyclist (an easy ride for them is 20mph), but that should give you some sense of scale.  You're burning on the order of 400-500 kCal per hour on the bike, and you're not putting it all back.  Certainly, don't force-feed yourself, but with that much activity, you needn't fear fat jumping on to you, so long as what you are eating is decent rather than junk.

Depending upon terrain and prevailing winds, 12-14mph can be an easy ride or a very hard one.

the advice is simple.. dont work out that much. One hour a day is ample... set a one hour time frame for working out each day then find other activities to do. From reading your posts it also sounds like you might have obsessive complusive disorder and maybe verging on an eating disorder.. you may want to have a more indepth talk with your therapist.

I have hesitated replying and only now with caution am I going to make a brief post. I think, stressing the word THINK, you may want to talk to your therapist, or see one if you don't have one.  I agree with Knw 2q but also know that I am not a doctor.  You do 'sound' as if you are substituting exercise for something....and compulsively.

Best of luck to you!

Remember....too much of even a good thing is still.....TOO MUCH

I believe that I already admitted that cycling is an obsession for me. It is not an ED kind of obsession, however, as my goal is not to burn calories, lose weight, or anything of the sort by biking. I'm not quite sure where you guys got that idea, though I appreciate your concern.

Biking is my only consistent stress relief and I have WAY too much stress to use this as my sole coping skill. I think that reducing it now instead of waiting until I detirmine another way to deal with stress will eventually just force me to develop new coping skills anyway. The point of my post was to possibley find somebody with personal experience with overdoing cardio and changing their ways, or just getting some advice on how to maintain a good fitness level and endurance level even while decreasing my biking time. I don't want my fitness level to absolutely die in the process of reducing my exercise time. I could theoretically bike that much if I were to eat enough, since atletes do do so, but it seems that my caloric needs are impossible to figure out. I want to someday soon go on a Century ride, but I am more worried about feeding my body and not over straining it right now, so I am pretty sure that my focus should be on reducing my hours rather than eating more food...though maybe I shall have to do both. Would 3k calories be enough for me if I were to bike for 2 hours per day along with my weight lifting and lifestyle staying the same (that'd be 1-2 hours less biking each day)? 3k might be a smidge too low still...but I'm not sure, and I'm far from confident in any of my opinions on anything.

Thank you all...

....? I am so confused as to what to do. I've been nievely exercising and eating like this for a year now...blissfully unaware of how harmful this could be. Now I'm afraid that I need to do something special to avoid completely destroying/screwing up my body. ARGH.

If you've been doing it for a year and no harm has come from it why now do you think that it might be harmful?  Ride as much as you want and eat when your hungry.

I sort of don't think you're working out too much. I mean yes, I could be wrong, I'm not a doctor. But professional cyclists ride that long. Maybe you should take it up competitively. Then you'd be channeling the energy into a specific goal. I have similar psychological/emotional issues and I find that having something to focus on and work toward really helps keep my life in balance, although I admit sometimes I can become a bit obsessed.

Also I think you should probably eat more, especially before/during your ride, as other people have said.

One thing I've noticed in myself, and in other people with bipolar (I don't have bipolar. I was diagnosed with it but it was a wrong diagnoses, but I have experienced what its like to be a bipolar patient...) is that sometimes they latch onto one thing and worry about it too much.

If you're seeing a therapist, tell them about your concerns. They may be able to tell you what to do. You can also see your general physician and ask for a check up to see if you're body is healthy enough for all this activity. I'd hate to tell you to give up your coping mechanism. I know how important that is.

Thank you for being so understanding, Dana...that was exactly what Iwas looking for--somebody understanding. If I went fast enough, I would have certainly gone competitive by now, as you do have an excellent point. As I said in a previous reply, I would LOVE to go on a century ride,

I agree that I should probobly eat more....but I don't know how much and the dietitions that i've been to haven't helped. I've gone to A TON of dcotors and specialests and they've said that the exercise is fine as long as I eat enough, but I don't know how much that is...:/

You've been doing this for a while - so your dose-response curve is different from that of an untrained person.

 You're still vulnerable to overtraining when you overdo it with respect to your training base, but someone who've been at it for years and who have a solid conditioning base to work from can handle training dosages that would outright kill a beginner.

 With the amount of training that you're doing it would make sense to get a training plan for a certain distance and work towards a sports-specific goal - if you have a definite training goal and performance measurements you're following it's easier to keep track of when you're overtraining as your performance will start to fall off when you are.

 Getting a heart rate monitor or a power meter and working out how many calories you're expending while you're riding could also be mildly useful; though more for the opportunity to do zone training for performance than anything else. The scale+performance measurements will be a reasonably accurate guide - any time you're losing weight and/or have a drop-off in performance you've been undereating for your training load.