Wondering why Orangetheory is bad? I’m going to share why I quit Orangetheory.
I thought Orangetheory was a great way to lose weight, get fit, and tone up, but it was anything but that. If anything, I gained weight and wrecked my health. It actually ended up being kind of a bad decision, and I soon realized why Orangetheory is bad.
I initially started Orangetheory and felt really good. It was a really high-intensity workout, and I loved that feeling post-workout from the endorphins. I really, really loved it at first. But as the weeks progressed, I just felt more and more negative health symptoms that I just couldn’t ignore. It really got to a point where it was very obvious that it was the Orangetheory that was throwing my body out of whack. I started to make sense why Orangetheory is bad for some women.
Here are some of the symptoms that I noticed and why these aren’t necessarily good symptoms to have, especially if you are a woman and you want to lose weight and change your body.
Why Orangetheory is not the best option to get toned and build muscle
What really surprised me was that I gained weight. And it was pretty quickly! I had been doing Orangetheory, probably eight to 12 weeks, consistently, anywhere from three to five times a week. I slowly started to see the number on the scale increase. Initially, it went down, but then it started to increase. And, of course, going into this new workout routine, I thought I was going to lose weight and not gain weight. What also really surprised me is a lot of the weight started to accumulate in my belly area and that was the last place I wanted to gain weight! This was a clue that something needed to change as far as my workouts go.
The second symptom that I noticed was that I was waking up in the middle of the night. I am normally a pretty good sleeper. I usually fall asleep pretty easily. But, once I started Orangtheory, I’d wake up anywhere from one to three o’clock in the morning, I would be tossing and turning, and I was not getting a full night’s restful sleep. It was starting to really bother me. I just felt exhausted all the time. I later learned this was a sign that my blood sugar was crashing overnight.
Should you stop Orangetheory?
If you think about what happens when you’re doing an Orangetheory workout and how you’re using your muscles, it makes sense. The glucose that your body produces, as far as energy goes, is being used up and ideally it would be replenished. I was either not fueling enough or doing workouts that were too hard. My blood sugar was crashing, and it was waking me up. What happens is when you have ow blood sugar is that your cortisol, which is our stress hormone, increases to get your blood sugar back up to a normal level. Essentially, I was waking up a little stressed out in the middle of the night, heart racing and not able to get back to sleep. And it almost seemed like there was nothing I could do about that until I changed my workouts.
The third symptom that really surprised me, and I couldn’t ignore it was that after my Orangetheory workouts, I would crash. Immediately after, I would feel okay. I would actually feel pretty energized and excited after accomplishing an hour long workout. It was a fun workout! But a good 30 to 60 minutes after that workout, I felt exhausted and needed a nap. And, of course, on a random Tuesday when I needed to go to work, it was really challenging. The amount of coffee that I could have consumed; I just felt like it didn’t make a difference. Exercise should not make you feel depleted. It really should energize you and make you feel good, but I just felt awful. At first, I just figured it was part of a new workout.
Why Orangetheory is Bad
Finally, the symptom that I really couldn’t ignore was just how hungry I was between workouts. I was craving carbohydrates and sugar. Carbohydrates are quick energy. They give you the most bang for your buck when it comes to fitness and giving you quick energy and that’s all my body wanted. Having crazy cravings and endless sugar cravings was actually not helping me as far as my body composition goals went because I was probably eating a little too much of the not so healthy stuff. My blood sugar was a mess!
The truth about Orangetheory workouts
Orangetheory was quite the experience, and it taught me so much about my body. I can honestly say that I ignored a lot of the symptoms that I experienced until they got to a point where I couldn’t ignore them anymore. I mean, I felt awful. I was gaining weight, I couldn’t sleep, and I was craving carbs non-stop. I just felt like this workout impacted my health in so many ways.
Nowadays, I work out very differently. I treat my body very differently. I do a lot more strength training and actually created an at-home workout program call StrongMadeSimple. It’s a great way to build lean muscle and lose fat without stressing out your body, so you get the body composition changes that you want.
I want to throw in a quick disclaimer because I do not hate Orangetheory I think it’s a great workout. I think high-intensity workouts are a lot of fun, and they can be right for the right person at the right phase of their health journey. At the time, it was too much for my body.
If you like Orangetheory and you think it’s working for you, keep doing it. If you’re somebody that’s doing Orangetheory, let me know that you love it. If you’re somebody that’s doing Orangetheory and a lot of this resonates with you, let me know because you are not alone and maybe it’s time to look a little bit differently at your workouts.
