Recent visit to the doctors for routine checkup which went okay as he was impressed by my weight loss, 20KG this year, 8KG to go However as luck would have it he is quite into fitness and does triatholon, so interesting discussion but basically.

Summary
* Most probably overdoing it and need to work out more sensible excercise plan
* 1 hour is better as 30-60 minutes is where fat burning is happening
* Alternate workouts so body can recover and build some muscle and fitneess

Should say at the moment I am more interested in getting rid of the 8KG divers belt first and then work on building fitness and muscle (not sure this is possible as my natural shape is not muscular and oh, my I am now 50 as well )

I have been doing the following, not at great speed I should say:

Day FRI SAT SUN MON TUE
AM Run Walk Run Walk Run
PM Bike Bike Bike Bike Bike

Recently update as rowing machine arrived to:
Day FRI SAT SUN MON TUE
AM Run Row Run Row Run
PM Bike Bike Row Bike Bike

Run = 5K (Around 35 mins)
Row = 5k (Around 30 mins - have done one session of 10K)
Bike = 25K (Around 60 mins)

Wednesday & Thursday were rest days, well they had to be as I travel those 2 days.

Questions?
Should I change to excercise once a day and make that 1 hour+ ?
Row/Run/cycle is all using legs how do you break that up?
As winter is coming should I just do 60 minutes on rowing machine each day?
Should I just stick with my current plan until I lose the extra KGs?
For the rowers how the heck do you drink when rowing? (Going to wear camal back next time)

Other types of sport possible, I can think of at the moment:
Swimming
Cross country skiing
Wi-fit
Yoga

Diet is pretty good I think so not to worried about that.

Not got much advice to offer but you sound fit as a butcher's dog to me.

Your heart health must be pretty good with all that exercise - I bet you are oodles fitter than a lot of people who are the right weight but sit around doing bugger all the whole day.

you do only cardio, you should alternate with weight training. Musclemass uses more energy even when resting and therefore helps to burn fat.

If you don't want to work out alone at the gym or wouldn't know what to do with the weights, what about a couple of Bodypump classes per week? Or alternatively, buy weights and there are plenty of programs available online.

Go swimming. By far your best choice for everything. Running, walking, and biking are great for "off" days, but I would recommend swimming the best, because not only you burn calories like crazy, but you also build muscle mass.

In fact I would incorporate muscle training(weight lifting) into your routine rather than all that cardio(as someone else posted, weight lifting is waaay better for fat loss) as your metabolism is revved up for hours after being done! Crazy!

Combine that with swimming, a "good diet" and you'll be good in no time!

And the moon is made of cheese

Unfortunately your crazy revved up metabolism after weights won't burn an 800-1000 calories a day that an hour of cardio will. If only it was that easy...

Run row bike is fine, add some swimming and weights if you want to as they will help, and increase the row sessions to 1 hour. The cardio and a balanced diet that you are already doing will get/keep you fit and take the weight off.

Congratulations on loosing 20kilos.your cardio schedule is super and 5k in 35 minutes is very nice.

Answer to your questions-----
1.Doing twice a day is fine if you can manage it.
2.Run/row/biking on all five days is repetitive.
maybe
Day FRI SAT SUN MON TUE
AM Run Row Run Row Run
PM yoga FH yoga FH yoga
*FH-- Free hand exercises
Run/ row 7kms(during winters running can be sustituted with swimming)
3.Winter swimming instead of running can be substituted
4.Adapting other exercises in the plan would still result in weight loss,but you would be able to continue the schedule later on as well.and in any case the weight loss should be gradual.
5.have seen some people drink juices,eat protein bars before rowing.Personally I stick with water stop in 15mins to drink a few sips.

Can you get some dumbbells and a bar with few disks then a nice muscle building schedule can be made.

two sites for yoga --http://www.yogasite.com/postures.html
http://www.webindia123.com/yoga/suryana.htm
always do Hala asan,sarvanga asan,surya namskar (My dad 64 does those since the last 20 years and he feels good)
Yoga you can add/subtract any number of postures depending on how you feel after you try them a couple of times.

Free hands--
*Pushups legs up on sofa/chair face down (slanting position) try 5*25
do it as slow as possible.
*Crunches ---types ----http://www.ab-core-and-stomach-exercises.com/how-to-do-crunches.html

* Chin ups if you have some where to hang

Conclusion-
The best combination would be cardio /yoga/and some weights.

I am not brilliant at yoga but find it helps quite a bit.

Seems I need to add swimming and weights to my program.

Swimming that is going to be easy as I am pretty good swimmer but out of practice.

Weights, that is going to have to be a learning curve, anyone any web links for good beginner sites also any recommendations for bar/weight/dumbbell combinations for home?

I hate gyms they never have and never will work for me I think.

are you kidding me? Youre telling me cardio is better for you for FAT loss than a good weight lifting program?

You must crazy, I got 10% body fat and Ive never done any type of "running" for cardio. Swimming's great along with weight lifting. Heck, if you do a good routine with weights you can incorporate your cardio right there. No need to go run for kilometers...sheesh people

No, we're not. I'm over 50 with a BMI of 21. I've gained 3 kilos in the last 30 years. I've never set foot in gym (OK ... once). I love biking and running. Weight training bores me witless.

If you think weights are better than cardio for fat loss, let's have reference to a decent scientific study.

BMI has nothing to do! BMI is crap. Cause some athletes BMI's are waaay over their age group or where theyre supposed to be. why? Cause muscle weights more than fat. I'm not implying to be a body builder, Cause I'm nowhere close to that, but a good weight training program for FAT loss is much much better than for example running.

FrankZappa & SNS where you are both right in that you have both found what works for you and are passionate about it.

Nike's Moto is 'Just do it'

Mine is 'Do any sport/activity you enjoy' Chances are if you enjoy it you stand a better chance of keep doing it.

What works for one person maybe does not work for others, we are all different as individuals.

I am with FrankZappa about the gyms I hate them, they just do not work for me. However I would consider doing some weights at home, something I would not have considered a while back.

Anyway I managed to dispatch my first 10K run this morning so feel good about that.

Thanks for all the tips and program someone PM me, so going to take a look at that in more detail.

I'm into tri as well and if you're after speedy weight loss I'd stick with cycling and running. You don't burn as many calories doing weights (because of all the rest in between).

If you're already overweight I'd bias it heavily towards cycling as there is a high risk of injury when running if you're carrying an extra few pounds.

Having said that any exercise is good. But from experience weight falls off me when I'm cycling and running every day.

And I wouldn't say you need scheduled rest days. They happen when you're too busy anyway so just train every day you're able to and then if you've got plans you won't feel guilty about missing a session. (If you're hurting then be sensible and take a day off).

Everyone will give you different advice though.

BMI has nothing to do with age.

True your age can affect your metabolism but that in itself is nothing to do with the calculation of your BMI. Running and other cardio sports are good for all round fitness. Weight training is not really as effective for heart health, for example.

I'm the same as FrankZappa above - never set foot in a gym but a keen runner/swimmer. My BMI is just under 20.

Rowing should work more your upper body than your legs: try to use your back to pull when moving back, not your legs; you can also work your pecs by directing the bar to your sternum and lifting your elbows.

Also the more muscle you gain the more calories you'll burn just to maintain it, so it is quite efective to avoid gaining fat if you stop/slow your exercise routines.

Like someone mentioned, try to put some muscle-building exercises in your routine. For me it is actually the opposite, working-out at home never worked for me! How about adding wrist and ankle weights when running...?

Weights aren't necessary, just some basic body-weight resistance training a few times a week could do the trick at the beginning.. I tend to alternate push-ups and elbow-plank leg lifts (jumping jacks in between sets), 4 sets of each until I'm exhausted. This usually takes around 20 minutes, I drink a protein shake right after (not necessary, but I find it helps with recovery), and top it off with 30 minutes on exercise bike right after. Since you've done the push-ups and leg raises beforehand, 30 minutes are more than enough as you're already exhausted and in fat-burning mode.

This takes as much time (or less) as your usual 60 minutes bike routine and if done few times a week could fill the gap in muscle building that you need.

Running does that to you

Actually, another benefit of a bit of running over swimming and cycling, is that it helps protect against brittle bones later in life as there's a bit of impact involved so don't drop the running and if you do, do some fast walking instead.

I wouldn't run with weights as another poster suggested. If you want to build a bit of leg muscles then do a few hills or undulating runs instead (this is like interval training without having to do the maths).

I looked at some advice on the Concept2 website as to routines for workouts on the rowing machine, it has some interactive program that helps generate workout. Based on the fact I can spend 1 hour a day (5 days a week) on the rowing machine and basically I want to burn fat, then if I set rowtime = 60 minutes and go for a HRT of about 70-75% does that sound good?

Alternatively the workout plans seem to vary the intensity by doing reps, at different levels.

Just looked at Ascent that I use for cycling and that shows the last 2 years my MaxHR = 177 and seems pretty constant, my Resting HR = 58 so based on that I should work out between 141 and 147 BPM.

Having said that my BPM has been 125 BPM average for doing 60 mins so not sure if I need to move the difficulty on the fan up as that was at 26 SPM, unless I row like crazy which I tried a couple of times and that does not seem to work so good.

At the moment just doing the distance for running I find hard enough but for sure I can bear that in mind as I gain some fitnees to add some weights.

Doing some research on doing weights routine at home and will work that in one day a week to start along with swimming on another day

It is the hills that seem to take away my energy when running, I really have to keep pushing because gravity just seems to remind me of that extra mass I am carrying.

But that's the big idea - and why it is so rewarding to lose a bit of weight and then realise how much easier it has become. Not many people run up the stairs with fifteen kilos of shopping either.

I wanted to ask you when we met on Friday how you lost the weight, you are looking good and I would never have guessed you shed all the KG's.

Lots of good ideas for me to think about.