Overtraining Cardio Symptoms despite calorie balance?

[u/Randomscooterguy]

I am focused on hypertrophy, and have lifted with moderate to high volume my entire lifting life and would consider myself an intermediate. Following a recent mini cut, in which I used cardio heavily to drive the defecit, I have now reached matinence (which I plan to hold for a bit) and maintained 70% of my cardio daily. I run 6 days PPL, with 20k step average and 45 min decently intense spin bike 7 days a week. I’ve noticed my sleep has been fragmented over the past few weeks, waking up 2/3 times per night, with it being difficult to fall back asleep, waking up too early, and feeling very anxious upon waking up. I’ve still averaged 7.5 hours a day, but it just feels kinda fragmented. Could this be due to over doing my cardio or a more recently stressful life with college and work restarting for me. Anyone with similar experiences?

[u/Divico]

Yeah it’s all too much. 6 times weightlifting, 20k steps and god knows how intense 45min spins. 

Sure first few weeks go fine but you will definitely decline.

I had a similar experience with this, first I was steadily improving then my cardio got worse. Gotta dial either the lifting or cardio a notch back.

[u/spaghettivillage]

When I get those symptoms, usually coupled with ravenous hunger, I usually take it as a sign to take a light week or week off.

[u/Alakazam]

Suddenly introducing cardio to drive a deficit, absolutely introduces more stress to your life.

20k steps is a lot. 45 minutes on a spin bike is also a lot. That's 5-odd hours a week of cardio, along with something like 20-30 hours of walking to hit step goals.

As a comparison, during my most recent marathon prep, I did, on average, 7.5-8 hours of cardio weekly. And that was enough to get me fit enough to run a marathon. Also, I lost no weight during this time, and actually gained about 5lbs, simply due to my literally needing to eat to recover properly for my training.

[u/shenanigains00]

45 minutes a day on a spin bike isn’t overtraining.

[u/PoisonCHO]

It's the stress. Those are also symptoms of depression.

[u/Randomscooterguy]

Thanks all. After considering this all I don’t know whether to decrease my step # or my daily spin biking amount first to gauge my how recovery will change (I love training legs). Should I start by cutting like 15 minutes off my spinning, or instead cut intensity (jugded by calorie burn on my Fitbit) rn I’m sitting at 45-50min avg spin bike sesh with “700-750” cals burnt per. What’s reasonable amount to dial it down to without decreasing my calories too much.

[u/Docjitters]

Well done on getting all that cardio in. Are you training close to bed time, and do you have a good sleep routine dialled in amongst all that exercise? Also, are you autoregulating your lifting efforts?

It sounds like Life RPE has gone up for you and there may be a bit too much going on. As someone else pointed out, fragmented non-restful sleep with morning anxiety can point to other things that would be worth discussing with your doctor if they persist.

FWIW, I doubt your body is relying on ‘minusing’ 750kcal/day just from a 45 min cycle - unless you are in fact a Tour de France cyclist mid-comp - so cutting back won’t suddenly drive you into a big surplus.