How effective would my excercise schedule be for maintaining health?

[Zerxen]

5"5 and 132 lb male here. I do not do any weight training but I do cardio on a treadmill 5 times a week with 2 days of rest during Wednesdays and Thursdays. What I would do is on Friday, I do some incline walking on 10% incline, rotating the ndxt day with HIIT. Following a pattern, I end on Tuesday (5th day) with HIIT. I originally started excercising several months ago in hopes of losing weight, but in the last few months, I just use it to maintain my weight and health. Due to some events in my life, I would only be able to use it every other day, giving me 4 days of the week to do cardio. If I stop doing incline and make HIIT my primary cardio activity, would this be enough to maintain my physical health? I am not doing this in hopes of building muscle or cutting fat. Normally, my incline walks are 30 minutes long and my HIIT runs are 25 minutes long, alternating with periods of 30 second sprinting and minute long walking. The American Heart Association advises 25 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity 3x a week so perhaps this may work out, but I would like a second opinion. I am not a sedentary person as I do a fair amount of walking during the day.

Alternatively, I could just keep on doing the incline, but increasing it to 40 minutes to make up for the missing 5th day.

Edited December 23, 2016 by Zerxen

[The Geek]

The one problem here is that if you don't do any kind of muscle training (you can just do push ups and sit ups rather than weight training) your body's going to eat at your muscles for energy rather than any fat you might be trying to keep off since you aren't using them.

[Excellen Browning]

There are no problems with doing no "muscle" training. You're training a different group of muscles, and your body won't reduce muscle mass of various other types of muscle. Where you got that from I have no idea.

Anyway, your excersize program right now is good (as long as it stays vigorous for you, your heartrate can tell you lots about that), and you can reduce it to 4 times a week without a problem. If you gain weight after that it's most likely your diet.

[Rezzy]

The one problem here is that if you don't do any kind of muscle training (you can just do push ups and sit ups rather than weight training) your body's going to eat at your muscles for energy rather than any fat you might be trying to keep off since you aren't using them.

You don't really need to do any weight training. Your won't get bulky, but just normal day-to-day exercise will prevent them from atrophying. Your body using muscles as a calorie reserve only happens after it's exhausted its other sources, so unless you're starving yourself, it's not something you need to worry about.

As discussed in the previous thread, the big thing is just making sure that your activity level calorie requirement exceeds or is equal to your daily calorie intake.

You've already done the hard part of losing the weight, so maintaining it won't require as hard of a regimen.

[Zerxen]

You don't really need to do any weight training. Your won't get bulky, but just normal day-to-day exercise will prevent them from atrophying. Your body using muscles as a calorie reserve only happens after it's exhausted its other sources, so unless you're starving yourself, it's not something you need to worry about.

As discussed in the previous thread, the big thing is just making sure that your activity level calorie requirement exceeds or is equal to your daily calorie intake.

You've already done the hard part of losing the weight, so maintaining it won't require as hard of a regimen.

So diet is far more important than excercise in the long run. Alright. I binged these last few days as it is the holidays, but I won't make it a daily occurence.

[Rezzy]

So diet is far more important than excercise in the long run. Alright. I binged these last few days as it is the holidays, but I won't make it a daily occurence.

Yep, in the end, it's all about calorie count, even if you're just ballparking it. I've been a bit guilty about overeating, myself, lately.

[Zerxen]

Yep, in the end, it's all about calorie count, even if you're just ballparking it. I've been a bit guilty about overeating, myself, lately.

I do not feel any guilt in over indulging myself but I do feel bad, physically speaking. My body is not accustomed to having consumed large amounts of food; haven't done so in months. Wouldn't worry about any non water-weight gain; I have the the entirety of next year to make up.