Ok, so under Dec's advice I upped my cardio from 30 minutes to an hour a day. This time however I have a heart monitor, which I like a lot. I had always gone pretty hard with my cardio and years ago it all helped. Now i'm a little older and it doesn't do the same thing lol.

Based on what i've read with the low inensity cardio with my age and such I have been keeping my HR at 125-130 BPM.

I'm 33, 165 lbs with a resting pulse of about 60 and am 5'9.

According to the monitor my calories burned are pretty much always a little over 600. At 6 days a week that's pretty good for me. Do those calories sound accurate? I'm doing my exercising on an elliptical.

If my pulse is only 130 or so, is my heart getting much benefit? If not, should I up my BPM or do a separated 20 min session at say 160 bpm for 20 min or so?

I've always been pretty knowledgeable with this stuff... but never did the low intensity stuff.

Also, what should I be eating before and after these sessions?

By the way... I know HIIT works well... and i've done it, but i'm just not interested in doing it any longer.