Doing it right this time

Hello.  I am looking for some advice - I really appreciate any help.  I am not new to exercise, but in the past I have probably overdone it.  I had a few injuries in the past year, nothing serious, but I haven't exercised as much as I would have liked.  I'm actually pretty out of shape compared to what I used to be and I put on some lbs as well.  I want to get back into working out, but don't want to over do it.  I am just wondering how much exercise you people do on average per week?  I want to get back into running and biking.  My problem is that I have this idea that I need to work out 2hrs a day to lose any weight - that's what I used to do before, if not more.  The weight did come of, but probably too quickly and I was exhausted mentally and physically.  I want to do it right this time.  Thanks for your help.

I work out for about 50 minutes a day. 30 minutes jogging, 20 minutes weight lifting. It works for me.

Check my gallery to see the kind of results I've managed with this 50 minute workout timeframe and proper nutrition. Actually, I just recently went up to 50 minutes of working out, I was only doing 30 minutes for months.

Mortalmonkey - 7 days a week?

Well, I was only doing 6 days a week for many months, but for the last month or so I have been doing it pretty much 7 days  a week. I think I may need to go back down to 6 days a week though, give the body some rest.

I work out 30/40 minutes on thee treadmill 3 times or so a week so its not everyday ... definitely not the morning after I go to a club or hang out w/ friends...

so ive let go...a little just recently well for the past two months and getting back on the wagon now.. my motivation now is that my hubby is deployed doing his own training so i feel connected a bit working out on the same days he does... [=

I went for about 2 years without working out, during which I sprained my ankle, busted my knee, and had back issues. When I first got back into it about 1.5 months ago, I started out with low-impact cardio (mainly the elliptical) and made myself work out ONLY 3 times a week for no more than 30 minutes. I wanted to do more, but I knew this would really be the best way to ease into it after 2 years. I did that for about 2 weeks, then increased by 5 minutes every week until I got up to an hour. Then I started going 5 times a week and continued to increase the duration, and now I'm up to about 80 minutes of moderate/intense cardio a day. I plan to incorporate strength training when I'm ready, but I have to take things one step at a time (that's just how my brain works).

It sounds like you've made the same mistake I've made many times in the past, which is why I really had to force myself to take it slow this time. If I had started out doing anywhere close to as much as I do now, I think I would've died after a week.   So my recommendation is to start out slowly, no more than every other day, and spend a couple months building up to the amount of exercise that you feel is ideal. I know it might seem like you're wasting your time at first, but you'll be more successful in the long run if you take some time to build up your endurance and cardiovascular health. Good luck to you!

Thanks for your post jj767.  Taking it slow is not exactly in my vocabulary :)  I feel like after a time off period, I have to go back to exactly what I was doing before.  I was doing 7 days a week as a hard as I could, with double workouts on some days.  I would die now if I did that.  But I'm also trying to lose weight and its hard for me to find an amount of exercise that will allow me to lose weight at a nice pace.  I'm always thinking "the more I exercise and the less I eat, the faster the weight will come off."  It has worked in the past, but I was never able to keep it off.  I just get so obsessed with the calorie counting and the exercising that once I hit my "goal" weight, I'm so fed up with the gym and the counting that I just binge and the weight comes back.  Grr.  I don't wanna do that again.