How Much Cardio?

For those of you who are actually losing weight right now, how much cardio (if any) are you doing per week?

It would be a good idea for you to do an hour of cardio, 7 days a week! As painful as that may sound it is so very healthy for you to get physical activity in your daily life! Your future self will thank you tremendously! 

I do cardio 3 times per week for a half an hour.  I also lift weights 6 times a week alternating between upper and lower body to keep from loosing muscle mass.  My calories I keep at 500 under my metabolic rate.  I lost 8 pounds in the last month.

I gotta say that the cardio seems to take it off when I am faithful to doing it.  However, since I have added weight lifting, the weight is staying off.

This summer I did the eliptical machine for 45 mins with resistence level of 12 and level at 7, then after doing a few weight exercises I'd run on the tredmill for a mile or half a mile. Although this was when I was training for this upcoming soccer season, so this may be a huge stretch to some people for cardio and also a little too much but I needed to kick myself into better shape!

Now I usually run 2 miles on the tredmill-- one in the morning, one at night. I occassionally will do the eliptical for 20 mins or so. I enjoy running a lot more, so which ever makes you feel more comfortable to either or both.

I read in a fitness magazine that too much cardio 45 mins and up is way too much and you should be more focused on condensed cardio and more strength and weight training. If you lift weights or do machines it does burn more fat than cardio.

I do an hour a day 6 days a week, lifting 3 days a week and calisthenics, Pilate type work 6 days a week.

30 minutes 5X a week.

:)
~H~

This season, I'm doing weight lifting 3x per week, intervals (15 min) about twice a week and longer time/distance about twice a week. Longer time/distance could be running for 45 min or cycling for 1-2 hours.  I enjoy running and cycling, and I don't think of the time as "minutes of cardio" - I have sport-specific goals for the workouts.

Currently I have been doing this:

MWF I run the treadmill for 20 minutes with walk/run (3.5/7.5-8.3) and then weightlift for 25 minutes

TuThrSat I use the elliptical for 35 minutes.

I do a couple days of (intense) cardio for about 15 minutes each, and a couple days of lifting. I'm definitely not a fan of those long, easy-paced sessions of cardio.

If you want to really lose some weight, and get in seriously great condition, you should certainly consider HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). I would NOT try this if you have not been working out regularly for at least 3 months, and I would NOT try the even better Tabata Interval training unless you have been working out for a year. There are two kinds of HIIT, long interval & short interval. Tabata works better than either, though you could call Tabata a very structured kind of short interval HIIT.  The good news: you will receive MUCH more benefit from HIIT in terms of burning calories and conditioning than you would doing the equivalent time in cardio. The bad news... its gonna hurt! (good hurt though, not injury hurt)... You will still need to control your calories, but bottom line HIIT increases your capacity for VO2 uptake far better than conventional cardio, and it is far better for burning fat (you burn less fat during the actual activity, but FAR MORE during resting activity) The other good news, depending on what you are doing, the total activity time will be as high as 1.5 hours a week, or as low as TWELVE MINUTES!!! (TABATAS!)  the 12 minutes will be the worst moments of your week, I assure you, and DONT DO TABATAS UNLESS YOU ARE ALREADY IN PRETTY DAMN GOOD SHAPE.  I recommend starting with long interval HIIT for 30 minutes three times a week, ABSOLUTELY NO MORE YOUR BODY NEEDS TImE TO RECOVER.  You do this with a good quality food plan that includes protein & complex calories @ every meal, and a reasonable amount of calories and you wont believe how fast your body changes... you will lose fat and you will be shocked by how much stronger you get. For a starting source, you can look up in Wikipedia. For gods sake, DONT RUSH INTO IT you will kill yourself lol. However, if you can pull it off you wont recognize yourself in 2 months. I lost 6 inches in my waist in 6 weeks, and picked up massive strength and endurance ( i do 3 30 minute free weight sessions a week in addition to HIIT... Write back and thank me in 2 months lolololol good luck 

Original Post by giasbash6260:

It would be a good idea for you to do an hour of cardio, 7 days a week! As painful as that may sound it is so very healthy for you to get physical activity in your daily life! Your future self will thank you tremendously! 

 I disagree.  Your body needs a rest day (on which you can still walk, if you really want, but intense cardio every day gives your body no opportunity to rest/heal so you're more likely to get injured).  If you're really into cardio, 5-6 days a week would work.  For weight loss, I'd recommend 3 days a week cardio alternated with 3 days a week strength training - and one day off. 

I just started hitting the gym again these past few weeks. Tomorrow will be the start of my third week.

My first week I started my first day with  light cardio 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. 2nd days warmed with a brisk walk on the treadmill for 20 minutes, light upper body weight lifting  and then 30 minutes on elliptical. 3rd and 4th days was was the same for cardio but did pilates for 15- 20 minutes. friday was rest

Second week, M,T,Th, started to jog on treadmill, only about 1/2 each day and continued with ellitpcal for 30 -45 minutes and 30 sessions of pilates. Wen, cardio was the same but I did 15-20 minutes each of pilates and upper weight lifting. Rest on Sat and Sun

Tomorrow i will be upping my jogging and resistance on the elliptical. I will also be really focusing this week with my pilates time. Making every move really count. Sat, I will start taking a group pilates class and then do light cardio and sunday being my only day off of working out.

For me, it's not about how many minutes I do, but the amount of calories I burn because I do different workouts.

I aim for a minimum of 500 calories. each day, everyday. Although there are sometimes when I miss a day or I do less than 500 calories.