Quote from Shotglass :

definitely not something you should do if youre as untrained as he is

Why not? If you start to train, why not to go all out while you are at it?
Sure he may be a little gassed at the end of day one, but it will soon get better.

Meh, personally I think anything that messes with your natural metabolism is asking for trouble...

[rant]Modern society is all about doing nothing and getting what you want when you want it.. fast food, instant this,instant that. Diets don't work because, oddly enough, if one desires a carcass that's in shape, one needs to USE the damn thing. Taking some funky pill to essentially mess up your system won't have long term results, and will likely make you feel like a turd since your system is all out of kilter...[/rant]

I suppose I should throw in the fact that certain things may have their time and place, but I see a lot of people basically "depending" on the wrong things all the time.

Quote from geeman1 :

Why not? If you start to train, why not to go all out while you are at it?
Sure he may be a little gassed at the end of day one, but it will soon get better.

if his fitness is bad enought to get a headache from a little treadmilling hes going to feel so miserable after any hit session that hell just give up entirely

both psychologically and physically hit usually requires you to start off from a high level to cope with it

Indeed, you need to work up to it or in fact it's not good for your body, and you certainly won't feel very well. Overtraining doesn't produce good results at all, if you want to progress you need to slowly increase the stress you put on your body, and not damage it to the point that you're not recovered enough prior to your next workout.

Quote from Ball Bearing Turbo :

Indeed, you need to work up to it or in fact it's not good for your body, and you certainly won't feel very well. Overtraining doesn't produce good results at all, if you want to progress you need to slowly increase the stress you put on your body, and not damage it to the point that you're not recovered enough prior to your next workout.

Absolutely, work out for 15min a day is better start, it is not much but it still helps when another option is doing nothing. Also that way one can have exercise to be part of day routine and slowly add amount of workout when it starts to feel very easy.

After college last year I was up to 185 pounds (no idea what in the hek 'stone' even is! :P) so I decided I'd start biking again. 3 months later I was doing 20kms a day, then I started working the night shift at Wal-Mart. I did not loose any weight at all from biking, but I did give myself a good workout, and felt so much better for it. I burned away some of the fat, which was promptly replaced with muscle in my legs. I lost 40 pounds over the first 4 months of working at Wal-Mart (probably not healthy) and I was down to 145 pounds. Underweight, no doubt. I was there another 3 months until April when I finally got fed up with their BS and quit. I maintained my 145 pound weight over that last 3 months. Once I quit, I got back on the bike and I found that it took me only a week to get back into the swing of things and I was doing 20ks like they were cake walks again. Within another 3 weeks I was up to 45 kms a day.

Now, I've gained about 5 pounds since then. I'm hovering in the 150 region. I've turned down my biking to about 15kms a day (takes roughly 45 minutes) and I've started working out at home (pushups, situps, a little bit of weight lifting) and I'm not feeling nearly as good. Obviously I need to bike further to give myself that cardio workout.

What I wanna know, is there anything unhealthy about what I'm doing? I know the 40 pound loss while working was unhealthy; night shift took away my appetite quite a bit, combined with the intensive workout while working I lost a lot of weight very very fast. But, what about now?

I'm about 5'9", btw.

Just one tip from me: Aloe Vera Juice
my mum got it once, and even that I'm very sceptical about these stuff it helped me feeling better. Just some big spoons mixed with orange juice for breakfast (otherwise its too bitter)

Well, when you say "not feeling nearly as good" do you mean that you feel tired all the time? Or mentally not so good? Both? Other things?

15K of biking is enough to stay in reasonable shape, although I would aim to do that in less time... Is this a stationary bike or a real bike? I think it's good to mix some strength training in with your biking like you are - but expect to feel a tad crap for a couple weeks, and then start feeling better. Different chemicals are released with weight training and your body's response is different, and if you're not accustomed to it a few weeks can go by before you start to really notice the benefits. Night shifts can REALLY mess up your body as well, there are profound physiological effects of working through the night... see if you can dig up some info on it. I even read one study that suggested people that regularly worked night shift throughout their life even die younger! From what you've told me so far I don't think there is anything unhealthy about what you are doing at this point - 5'9", ~150 (not that underweight really), 15k/45min biking along with pushups, situps and some lifting... Regarding the pushups, situps, & weights - How many and how often? What are you using for weight lifting and what excersices are you doing? You'll still need to increase your intake to compensate for the extra activity as well.

By not as feeling as good I mean tired physically and mentally.

When I bike I ride a mountain bike. Every now and then I toss up my biking routine. Today, since it's much cooler out, overcast, and I had some time, I decided to do a ~50-55km ride. I surpassed my distance goal for the summer today.

Yea, the night shift really messed me up; loss of appetite resulting in eating much less than I should, resulting in substantial weight loss; depression and other sour mood issues, sleep patterns. All for $9 an hour. =/ I wouldn't doubt that working nights makes you die quicker. It's really depressing to literally never see the light of day, add that to all the other negatives and it seems logical enough.

Little embarrassing; pushups 5-10, situps 50, weights 20 reps with 20lb dumbells. I've noticed a significant improvement with the pushups just in the last week or so. I should probably punch it up to 10 (still embarrassing! :P) which I should be able to do. [edit] Oh yes, I do this 3 times a day.

I've gotten most of my appatetie back again, unfortunately also including my love for pizza. That's an issue on my side that I have to deal with on my own though. The easiest way would be to not carry any cash on me ever, so even when I really want to order one I can't. :P I've started eating a little healthier, but still not very healthy. Another mental by-product of my old night-shift. I need to get a lot more vegetables in me. A caesar salad doesn't cut it in that department.

I think my niggest hurdle is my diet, I need to improve that to really be healthy. That will be difficult once I'm back in school, so I've got to make the change right now and make it stick throughout the year. At leas this year I'm in a suite-style room, so I'll have a fridge to store food and not have to rely on the craptacular caf food.