Cardio days

spm2010

Okay I am 5'9 and weigh 190lbs..I just started back up so no food diary to look at yet. I drink 3L of water a day, I am lactose intolerant and have some gluten issues so I avoid dairy and eat lots of chicken, fish, fruit and veggies, I won't lie I do allow some treats, no where near perfect. Would love to lose 15-20 and I have started doing treadmill intervals..I cant go too crazy as I work 60 hours a week and am a single mom and in school part time so I figured they are better than trying to find an hour a day on the treadmill. My question is...How many times a week should I be doing the 20-30 minute intervals if I would like to lose 15 pounds and burn off all that lovely snuggly cushion lol by March 1st (vacation time). And I do do strength training 3 times a week so I am not just doing cardio. Just don't know how often would be best to see great results that wont take forever to get. Thank you.

Mediocrates55

You don't have to do any cardio to lose. Just calories in < calories out. Eat less than your maintenance and you WILL lose. Of course, it's better to add in exercise to help prevent muscle loss and to get that lean look. I do 30 minutes a day cardio, 5 days a week, and lift 3-5. Remember, you CANNOT OUTRUN A BAD DIET. Take care of that first.

999tigger

So you have 15-20lb to lose in say 15 weeks.
most of what pincushion said. Its about how much your burn exceeds your consumption.
Just running it through one of the many calculators it says 1500 calories will get you a 1lb weight loss a week. Remeber weight loss is not linear. To make sure you hit that calorie traget you need to use the MFP to log all your food and a scale to weigh it accurately.

On top of that you cna do some exercise. You will have to do some research on how many calories you are burning There are a lot of vairable so use one of the many treadmill calculators. Besides portion ccontrol the cardio is the most straightforward way to burn calories. If you burn 450- 600 an hour on the treadmill that ives you from 150/200-225/300 per 20/30min session. 5x 30 min sessions are going to burn you about 1000-1500 calories a week. You need 3500 for 1lb. So combined with increased walking and the weights you could look at an extra 1/2lb per week through exercise.

There are a lot of provisos including weight loss not being linear, you needing to log all your food and then make sure the calorie count and caloirues burn was accurate. You would simply adjust your programme and keep a close eye on it. the point is you have an idea that its really the eficit created by eating less that will be the biggest part of your diet and that exercise is needed in larhe amount and sufficient intensity plus duration to make a significant impact on weight loss. the results take as long as they take. If you arent getting any, then you need to eat less or exercise more.