Over exercising

Has anyone delt with over exercising. I work out a tremendous amount so that I can keep my weight down and still eat somewhat. I guess I would be considered a compulsive exerciser ( 80 mins cardio a day.....with anorexic tendencies).....ie) I only eat what I can burn off. I am trying really hard to cut down my cardio and up my calories slowly....because I have noticed a considerable drop in muscle.....my body is wearing away.

Anyone have any tips hints on how to cut back?

I deal with compulsive exercising...I'm not as bad as i was before, but I still admit to doing it. It's not good...Just up your caloric intake. 80 minutes of cardio is good as long as you have the food to fuel it properly. You don't want to shut your body down, because slowly, that's what is going to be happening...it sucks, I know. :(

you only eat what you can burn off? oh darling, I hope you realize that you burn calories just by LIVING. I dealt with a summer-long bout of over-exercising which resulted in losing my period and losing faarrr too much weight. And if by 'eat only what I can burn off' you mean that you eat 600 calories and burn those off exercising, that could plausibly result in a number of health problems, not to mention a metabolism that's running faaarr below its potential.

yeah i know I am starting to feel the effects of it on my body. I generally burn -900 a day via cardio and when all is said in done, at the end of the day i am about +500. so i consume about 1400 calories.

I am trying to cut back and up the calories ...little by little

Dump out some of the cardio and replace it with weight lifting.  You will have to eat right in order to regain muscle.

I have been there as well.  I lost all my muscle like you are experiencing.  80 minutes of cardio a day is way to much even if you are trying to lose weight. Your body is not made for that everyday.  incorporate weight lifting into that 80 minutes.  I used to only eat what I could burn off also, but I have found that you have to have your recommended amount of calories and also eat as many calories that you are burning if you want to have any muscle tone at all.  If you want to gain muscle you need to eat extra lean protein, and if you want to lose weight just eat your recommended calories and the amount you burn will make it a deficit.

i excercise heavily as well but more like 45-90 minutes a day to add to my calorie expedenture but weight lifting, like cjweaber said, adds muscle mass to your frame and helps you burn more calories and also makes you look better. Lifting makes me feel stronger and more confident as well. If you aren't eating enough and working that much, your body WILL adapt and it will totally screw up your metabolism causing you to have to excercise that much and eat that little to maintain what you have achieved. Slowly work towards a more healthier amount :) I have done the same and it has yielded positive results

thanks for the help everyone....so far i have cut down the cardio from around 80 mins a day to only 30 minutes and my weight trainging daily to only 3 or 4 days a week. calorie wise i am averaging 1000 + a day ( 1600 daily - the cardio) i guess that's right????? I average a burn of about 600- calories.

Anyhow, I am cutting back but freaking out about eating more calories and being so high in the positive range. I just don't want to gain back all that weight. I will keep everone posted on my progress....I just wish I could eat and STOP COUNTING CALORIES  ugh!!

I exercise between 30-60 minutes a day, 6 days a week, but I only do cardio 90 minutes a week.

When I was losing weight, I did 45 minutes of cardio a day, 6 days a week. All I can say is it's a bad idea to over-exercise like that, because you will lose a lot of muscle mass that way. 

dm- that's what is currently happening to me. I was doing on average 60 minutes of elliptical glider and 30 min bike with 45 mins of weights. ( not all at once- i have a 1,000 sq ft gym in my house so I do this throughoutbbreaks in the day/eve). And when i got my BMI done and BF% and muscle % at a gym i belong to also....my muscle mass was decreasing! Hence, I needed to do something  ie) cut back and maybe eat more....I am having a hard time Psychologically eating more than 1,000 cal a day...but hopefully that will change.  Thanks for the info dm. BTW- what are you doing now maintaining????

Right now I do 30 minutes of cardio 3 days a week. 1 of those days I do upper body lifting for about 45-60 minutes before that. The other two cardio days, all I do is run for 30 minutes.

The other 3 days I exercise, I just lift upper or lower depending on the day for 30-45 minutes.

I eat close to 3,000 calories, but that's because of my height, gender, and the fact that I don't own a car, which forces me to walk a lot. Otherwise as a full-time student, my life is mostly sedentary.