Cardio/Heart rate difficulty

[Jeff]

So, I've got a question about heart rate and energy.

Rather than worry about the perfect way to do HIIT, I decided it was better if I just got off my ass and did something. So at the gym, I doubled my cardio so I'm doing 20 minutes + a 5 minute cooldown afterwards. While doing the cardio I'm trying to keep my heart rate in what is my target zone, between 152 and 160. I also changed my lifting program to a four day a week two day split routine, which I can post if you need. Since August I've lost 15 pounds, and I'm continuing to lose about a pound a week. It was going fine until just last week.

When trying to do my cardio, I ended up completely exhausted without even being able to get my heart rate up to the zone. After a couple incidents of that, I took a cycle off from the gym to see if it helped, which it didn't. I've also started hitting a wall mid workout, where I'm abruptly too exhausted to keep going. I'm sort of guessing this is related to the cardio problems since they started at the same time.

I've decided as a temporary thing to take it easier on the cardio and see how that helps, but I'm hoping someone knows what this is all about and if there's any fixes.

For my eating I've been having one serving of Uncle Sam cereal (http://www.usmillsllc.com/usmills/productview_description.php?id=124&back=Ay4OIABwCDQGbARuA2ldLFV8BnRUYAo9WnsMPQFvUy8CcFtoViVUOgJjVSEEY1c7UzEHOwdj) with 1 cup skim milk an hour before working out, and a serving of protein as soon as I get home.

[Dave_B]

What else are you eating through out the day?

[Jon Parker]

yeah. are u depriving urself of carbs to lose weight? while that's not a bad idea in and of itself, if ur body has now gotten to a low enough body fat percentage, then it no longer has the energy to fuel itself, and u need to give it carbs for more energy.

But if you are eating plenty of carbs, then disregard this statement.

[Jeff]

Not depriving myself of carbs. Uncle Sam cereal has lots of them. I'm going deliberately as low sodium as possible.

My average eating routine is something like this.

Breakfast - 1 serving Uncle Sam cereal with 1 cup skim milk.

Post-gym snack - small serving of protein powder or tuna

Lunch - varies, but most often a chicken sandwich from the grocery store and a piece of fruit, most often an apple.

Dinner - a meat serving and a veggie serving. Usually the meat is chicken or turkey, sometimes pork, beef no more often than once a week. The veggie is usually either green beans, broccoli, or collard greens, sometimes a salad with no dressing.

I drink water regularly throughout the day but I don't really measure it. I'd guess my daily water consumption is roughly 1 quart.