how many hours cardio?

hi i was just wondering everyones thoughts on this, i am a little confused on how much cardio u should do a week for fatloss, there is alot of conflicting information out there, with over training and things like if you do high intensity for too long you burn your muscle (and thats the last thing i want!) if anyone could help it would be greatly appriciated :)

Yes, because I do three sessions of weights and one, maybe two days of cardio. I look better than I ever did doing just cardio, and let me tell you my life revolved around cardio.

edit: I should add that I don't just make this stuff up. I lurk around a lot of forums; this is the only one I frequent that fights to defend cardio with its dying breath

Not to completely put you on the spot Laura, but I don't think you've really ever given any specifics as to whether you are trying to lose weight, or if you are maintaining right now.  I think for many of us it would help if we knew that you are at your goal size already, as opposed to not really knowing if you have a 50 BMI or a 20 BMI.  (Not that I would expect you to have a 20 BMI, given what I presume your lean body mass must be, but I hope you know what I mean.)  Or just to know that you have successfully lost x number of inches with your routine.  I'm sure you realize how powerful that kind of motivation can be around here.  :)

Also, again, not to put you on the spot, but your statement about other forums leaves me wondering if you could be a bit more specific with that, too.  I am sure if they are all body building or weight lifting forums then sure, there will not be that much emphasis on cardio.  But are they general health and/or weight loss forums?  Naturally I also frequent other online spots, and I haven't found any disdain for cardio in any of them.  :)  And whether you intend to imply that cardio is bad or not, all of your statements taken collectively do a very good job of saying you believe cardio is a waste of time.

Me, I've lost a lot of fat using good eating habits, strength training, flexibility training, and a good bit of cardio.  ALL of them combined, not just one or the other.  Cardio I can do as much of as I want, whereas the strength training I can only do so much of a week.  I like cardio.  I have no intention of stopping it any time soon.  :)  It's helped me out physically, emotionally, mentally, and there aren't any studies that I can read that will ever make me believe it is a waste of my time. 

edit: deleted post because Pandajenn19 said it better than I could.

60 to 90 minutes a day!!!!!!!!

if you're on a 2-month long plateau, it sounds like your metabolism may have decreased. 

are you weightlifting?  if not, start!

keep doing cardio, maybe take a week or two off - your body gets accustomed to whatever you've been doing for too long.  cycling cardio is a decent idea to try, if you can do it psychologically ;-).  at the very least, try doing different things (differ the intensity, frequency, and duration - in your case, i'd say go lighter for a week, see what happens when you start back up again).

you say that you eat at different times every day - big no-no if you want to maximize your ability to lose fat.  when you're on a calorie deficit, you don't want your body to ever get the idea that it's 'starving' (which is not necessarily the same thing as being in starvation mode, just that your body is likely to keep a HIGHER metabolism if you feed it frequently.  plus, you need to be feeding those muscles you don't want to lose!  eat some protein and some complex carb every 3 or so hours and your results will likely improve).

cheat days! when you're on a calorie deficit for a prolonged period of time, you body adjusts to it by slowing down your metabolism, decreasing your leptin levels, etc.  by periodically taking "maintenance days", you can trick your body into not doing this - "re-set", if you will, to the higher metabolism you want.  this DOES NOT mean eating "whatever you want" - it means eating at or above maintenance for at least one day per week.  if i were trying to lose fat (which i never have, so this is based on what i've read, not personal experience), i would do two non-consecutive days/week.

carb-cycling is something to try if those don't work.  but if you just constantly increase your cardio when you're already on a plateau, your body will re-adjust to that, and you'll be stuck doing high levels of cardio (well, what i would call 'high'; though it may be slightly less than you're doing now) just to maintain.  unless that's what you want, you need to build some variety into your fat-loss plan.

and if you don't want to lose muscle, weightlifting and 5-6 small meals a day.

there's no hard and fast answer to how much cardio people need to lose weight or to maintain.  i've never done more than about an hour and a half of intentional cardio per week (doesn't count walking places, playing with my kids, etc.), but i've never seriously tried to lose fat (i had a couple extra lbs after my 2nd pregnancy, over a decade ago, but they just sort of 'fell off').  some people lose weight doing 30 mins 3x/week.  many people need a bit more. 

here's the question: do you want to do more cardio than you absolutely have to?  if the answer is yes, by all means, keep doing it!  but, if i were you (and i'm not really a cardio-lover; although there are outdoor activities that i enjoy, i don't count those) and on a long plateau, i would take a several day "break" from fat loss - an adjustment period to get your metabolism moving again with higher calories + to de-adjust to the level of cardio you've been doing.  then, i'd start over trying 30-45 mins 3x/week (plus HARD weightlifting 2-3x/week), AND good nutrition (regular meals containing protein and carbs), a maintenance day or cheat meal every 4 or so days, not too large of a calorie deficit.  don't get on the scale until this adjustment period is over - then weigh yourself at the end of it and see if you start losing weight again.  if not, then up the cardio, bit by bit, until you start losing weight.

slow weight loss is a GOOD thing (how much do you weigh, btw?  the closer you are to your goal weight, the more important it is to go slowly) - you're more likely to keep it off.  losing weight too quickly is one of the things that causes you to lose muscle instead of fat.

in my opinion, if you're doing hard cardio + want to do more than 60 mins on a given day, you'll get better results if you break it into 2 sessions.  also, early-morning cardio seems to have gotten many people good results.   

just my opinion

No one said cardio isn't good for you, but it is NOT effective as a fat loss tool on its own. Maybe you didn't catch this study:

Spirochete, the groups in the article you reference weren't studied on their own. It studied the (diet with cardio) and (diet with cardio and weights)...why?  How come it didn't study them equally (diet,cardio)...(diet,weights).  Seems this way would have been a better way to tell which one actually aides better with fat loss.

I don't think either is actually correct.  It probably comes down to the individual and what there able to do and to what capacity they can do it.  To get a good fat loss workout with weights you need to hit it fairly hard.  Just because everyone can lift, doesn't mean they'll be able to engage in a routine that will create a lot of muscle growth and significantly increase their EPOC.  In these cases cardio may be more beneficial in terms of fat loss.  Take someone like yourself who can participate in a good resistance routine and that's probably better. 

 The one thing I do like about the article is that the diet,cardio and weights together did the best and that's probably the way it should be.  Everyone should eat right, resistance train(strengthen muscle and bone) and engage in some form of cardio(increase heart rate and lung capacity).  Diet is most important, but which one(weights,cardio) should have more focus to help with fat loss probably comes down to the individual and what their capable of doing.

 

 

I run 5 times a week 5 aprox..., miles on the treadmill

50 minutes I do intervals the first 5 minutes 6 mph and go up for 10 minutes 6.5 to 7 mph, I can tell my legs get lean fast and burn lot of fat.....

1500 - 1700 cal a day....

Im 5'6" 128 trying to cut fat in fact and gain muscles, I dont want to loose more weight...

can't happen at the same time: building muscle is an anabolic process, losing fat is a catabolic one.  nearly nobody can build LARGE amounts of muscle while in a calorie deficit (there are some exceptions: genetic superiors, people re-gaining muscle rather than building new muscle, true beginners).  you can, however, gain strength. 

if you don't want to lose any more weight, you can do bulking, then cutting - eat a mild calorie surplus + lift weights to build muscle, then, once you have a decent amount, eat a mild calorie surplus, do cardio + lift weights to burn fat + preserve the muscle you have.  you could also try zig-zagging, though it's slow.