How intense does cardio have to be?

[Verena]

Thank you for the obsession hint, ksmom. I am indeed a candidate for obsessing, but in this case I just want to check once in the beginning that I'm doing the right thing so that I don't have to think about it from then on anymore. So it's actually my way to make sure I don't start obsessing :-) I don't plan to check the heartrate constantly and go crazy about it :-)

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[atomic sagebrush]

Yeah, I see ks already tried to explain this but I am not liking the "control freakiness" of this question.

I do not want you guys tracking your heart rate EVER. Not even ONE TIME. Don't even do it. I know you want me to tell you a number. But i don't KNOW the number and just you sitting around thinking about the number as much as you have is bad for your sway. Just exercise 60 min. 5 days a week and yes if you can get in 30 min. the other two days great, if not that's ok too.

[atomic sagebrush]

Thank you for the obsession hint, ksmom. I am indeed a candidate for obsessing, but in this case I just want to check once in the beginning that I'm doing the right thing so that I don't have to think about it from then on anymore. So it's actually my way to make sure I don't start obsessing :-) I don't plan to check the heartrate constantly and go crazy about it :-)

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That's not how it works. You are checking off items on your "swaying to do list" and that all sways blue. dont even entertain thoughts of what your heart rate is or what it should be because this is all exactly the control-freakiness that I warn you guys against. IT IS obsessing. Whether you think you're doing it for a good reason or not, it's not a good thing to do. Just do the 60 min. of exercise and don't think about your heart rate, ever.

[atomic sagebrush]

I haven't conceived yet and so obviously don't know if my sway will work but I can share how I've done it over the past 8 months (yea... I've been swaying for that long now!). Basically I always aim to keep my heart rate during exercise between 60-70% - which for my age is around 115-130. From everything, I've read this is an ideal a "fat burning" range, but also not so high that you can't sustain it for an hour. And yea after all these months, I have found that over time I've had to intensify the workouts to stay in that range as I've gotten fitter (which is just an awesome thing in general though!). I do a combo of brisk walking & exercise bike. As far as length, in the first several months I pretty much never went below 60 min. I felt guilty if on a rare occasion I did 55!!! I only did 5 days a week though. But yea - after 8 months, I've loosened up on this. I do 50-60 min, 5 times a week (occasionally 4). On a rare occasion I'll do 30-45 but most of the time if I can't get 50 in I'll just skip it. It's a pain to have to get an hour in at a time but atomic thinks that amount is pretty important. I have PCO tendencies/ possible insulin issues so the exercise for me is something that I really feel (or at least hope!) has improved my blood sugar levels. I really think for blood sugar control the exercise part is really important. But do the best you can & don't beat yourself up if it's not perfect!!

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Agh you guys, seriously please don't do this tracking of your heart rate.

No, no, no. This is not what I want you to be doing.

Just exercise for the alloted amount of time. No heartrate stuff. No measuring cals burned or fat % or any of it.

Please.

[ABC.2606]

Oops - well I guess my sway is screwed then!!

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[HGmama]

Oops - well I guess my sway is screwed then!!

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It's alright abc.2606, I've always watched my workout calories and heart during workout. And I'm only doing 30 mins. Whoops. Doubt I'll change when we actually start TTC. Sending pink dust your way.

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[Verena]

Oops - well I guess my sway is screwed then!!

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That's exactly how I feel right now! If this already is too controlfreaky, then I can forget having a working sway. I step on my scale everyday for example, to me that feels way more controlfreaky.... My mobile phone counts my steps everyday and I feel good if it shows a high number in the evening.... It seems I'm even way more of a control freak than I already knew

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[atomic sagebrush]

The reason why I said to not worry so much about heart rate is that by obsessing over little details like that, it can actually sway blue. Trying to get small things "perfect" in a pink sway can produce disastrous results. I'm just letting you know that. I've been part of this website for long enough to see it ruin good sways and after having swayed for about a year myself, I can tell you how important it is to not worry yourself over things like keeping your heart rate in the "fat burning range." Like I said, even just walking for an hour is great for a pink sway. It doesn't need to be some insane cardio session.

We're really, really trying to help you guys pointing this out. Take it from people who have had failed sways (both of us)

It doesn't require hours of endless worry to mess up your sway. It doens't require constant feelings of obsession. It's the whole thing where you get a boost from hitting the right number on the heart monitor, hitting the right amount of caloires, taking your temp every day, measuring tiny fluctuations in pH, whatever, that sensation of ticking things off your to do list every day for your sway.

It's just better to avoid it. Even if you don't feel super stressed about it, it's not worth the risk.

[ABC.2606]

Ok atomic. I get what you're saying, it just feels a tad critical. You're saying that we shouldn't try to be "perfect" in our sway, but then pointing out that by looking at the number on a screen right in front of me (which pops up automatically whenever I hold the treadmill's handles), I'm not doing the exercise thing "right". Doing this much exercise this frequently for this long now, I can say it definitely gets BORING. I try to mix things up - I do the treadmill, exercise bike, sometimes a YouTube aerobic video, I listen to music or watch Netflix shows - but still that much exercise gets really dull after awhile! Challenging myself a little by intensifying my workouts, keeping my heart rate high, seeing tangible improvements in my fitness level - it all helps a little in keeping me motivated to keep doing it - and I do it probably for that reason more than for my sway. BC I likely have IR/PCO tendencies, it seems to me that the benefits of keeping up with my exercise routine outweighs the risks of having what I guess is a slightly "control freaky" aspect of the exercise.

It is what it is. I've been control freaky about several things in my sway - mostly my diet and timing attempts. I've also lost 40+ lbs, done the diet and exercise for 8 months, lots of coffee & alcohol, and Clomid - I've given it my all and yet I know very well it hasn't been perfect. I've struggled and cried and had good moments and bad. I've also had several non-controllable life stress factors throughout the past several months (including a m/c, family, money, & job issues), so at the end of the day there are all kinds of factors that are going to influence the gender of my baby and if control freaky heart rate checking is what's going to decide it, then so be it! Honestly I've done the best I can, but I can't totally change my personality and what I know works for me in order to sway and stay sane And after 8 months I can say that keeping myself sane is becoming a bigger and bigger factor now haha!!

Verena - ks and atomic really know their stuff so I'd listen to their advice over mine. Not only do I not know if my sway worked, I'm not even pregnant yet I was just trying to be helpful in offering my thoughts about what I've done, in response to your question. I'm on the exercise bike now typing this post so that's distracted me from checking my heart rate!!!! :-)

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[Hopefullmummy]

Guys I was so insanely obsessive at the start of my sway. I saw it all like an equation. If I do a b c and d then I’ll get a girl. It really doesn’t work that way. I had the most perfect sway 6 months before ttc ( I was probably swaying for 3 months at that stage ) and I still wonder if I would have got a girl then. I just know my frame of mind was so intense. Life happened and we couldn’t ttc until 6 months later. I still
Continued my sway but far less intense. I actually had to drop the exercise ( I know that is not recommended ) but I did. Because when you’re nearly swaying for a year you just can’t afford to care enough anymore. And when it came to a time to ttc I desperately wanted a baby that little details didn’t matter. I’m
On this site and I nearly swayed on and off for a girl for a year so i promise I desperately wanted and want a girl. There was just a shift in my mind of frame. I just didn’t have that intense obsession about the whole thing. Because I just couldn’t anymore. It was too tiring. When I ttc I still did the one time only, hubby did frequent release, I lost heaps of weight lead up to it, I took femara and did a lot of intermediate fasting. But it was more a way of life for me rather than swaying because I did it for so long ( I also had weeks on end that I just ate anything and everything) So now we re expecting a girl.

I also misscarried on the first cycle of ttc. And fell pregnant on the second. Was it a shift in my frame of mind, was it the miscarriage, was it the diet, was it the femara. Or was it all of those combined together in just the right formula. Who knows. But I’ve seen lots of mums around me with very girl friendly diets and lifestyles have heaps of boys because their personality is so boy. So I think that plays a huge role in things. How do you not obsess by not obsessing about obsessing ? I don’t know. But it just happened for me. And I can Clearly see when in that time frame a shift in my intensity changed in that last year. Just a general calmness about the whole thing.

Just my two cents.


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