Maria, I have logged 1250 min so far this month, and most of that is not "light" cardio. 
Right now I am exercising 5 times a week. Mon is an hour of ice hockey. Tues/Thurs 45 min kickboxing classes, which are KILLER, I think the instructor is channelling Jillian! Then, at least 2 more 30-60 min workouts a week, my choice. Sometimes a hockey game, sometimes a wog, sometimes elliptical, and then started weights as well this week.
So far I am not hungry much, and I have tons of energy throughout the day, but I do crash HARD around 10PM. Keep in mind that I get up for work around 9AM and my days tend toward the later side, so that might be more like 8PM for someone in a different situation. I am also sore, but that has more to do with my overall out of shape level before starting this regimen than anything else.
Two things though... one, the first week is TOUGH. For at least the first few days you will feel tired and cranky. Once you push through that feeling, you're golden. Two, DRINK WATER. Like minimum ot 64-96oz, and plain. You have to push that fat you are burning out of your system, otherwise it will make you feel icky.
Oh, and finally... I have had to learn to live with hunger. It is just a byproduct of weight loss and eventually you learn to get past it, distract yourself, or try different ways to thwart is and then "reward" (like, if I go do 20 min on the elliptical I can have that treat, and then a lot of the time I don't even want it).
I have been reading this free e-book that was written by a programmer, and takes a very mathematical approach to dieting. He says it better than I could:
"There is one, simple, unavoidable fact of dieting. To lose weight you have to eat less food than your body needs. Only by doing so can you cause your body to burn its reserves of fat and thereby shed excess weight. If nutrition is about meeting your body's needs, losing weight involves deliberately shortchanging those needs--in a word, starving. This isn't a pleasant or inherently healthy process, but it's better than carrying around all that extra weight. "
Of course you need to try and make that as nutritionally balanced as possible, but, to be honest, you do have to create an intake/outtake deficit in order to do anything but maintain.
Right now I am exercising 5 times a week. Mon is an hour of ice hockey. Tues/Thurs 45 min kickboxing classes, which are KILLER, I think the instructor is channelling Jillian! Then, at least 2 more 30-60 min workouts a week, my choice. Sometimes a hockey game, sometimes a wog, sometimes elliptical, and then started weights as well this week.
So far I am not hungry much, and I have tons of energy throughout the day, but I do crash HARD around 10PM. Keep in mind that I get up for work around 9AM and my days tend toward the later side, so that might be more like 8PM for someone in a different situation. I am also sore, but that has more to do with my overall out of shape level before starting this regimen than anything else.
Two things though... one, the first week is TOUGH. For at least the first few days you will feel tired and cranky. Once you push through that feeling, you're golden. Two, DRINK WATER. Like minimum ot 64-96oz, and plain. You have to push that fat you are burning out of your system, otherwise it will make you feel icky.
Oh, and finally... I have had to learn to live with hunger. It is just a byproduct of weight loss and eventually you learn to get past it, distract yourself, or try different ways to thwart is and then "reward" (like, if I go do 20 min on the elliptical I can have that treat, and then a lot of the time I don't even want it).
I have been reading this free e-book that was written by a programmer, and takes a very mathematical approach to dieting. He says it better than I could:
"There is one, simple, unavoidable fact of dieting. To lose weight you have to eat less food than your body needs. Only by doing so can you cause your body to burn its reserves of fat and thereby shed excess weight. If nutrition is about meeting your body's needs, losing weight involves deliberately shortchanging those needs--in a word, starving. This isn't a pleasant or inherently healthy process, but it's better than carrying around all that extra weight. "
Of course you need to try and make that as nutritionally balanced as possible, but, to be honest, you do have to create an intake/outtake deficit in order to do anything but maintain.
