How much cardio do I really need?

Just115Pounds

Hi all!
I am currently 122lbs and I would like to tone up my body and shed a few pounds to reach my goal of 115lbs.
Once I get to 115lbs, I know I will definitely want toning as my new goal, not extra vanity weight loss.
Considering my situation right now, how much cardio do I really need? As of right now I am doing at least 20-30mins of cardio per day. Do I really need to do that much? Should I focus on cardio or toning muscles by pilates?
I am maintaining a clean diet and calorie deficit as well...so no problems there.
I want my best beach body for May!
Thanks for your help!

SamanthaRMichel

You should try some weight lifting, it doesn't have to be much! Maybe somewhere from 3-8 pounds and that will help a lot for toning. I'm not too familiar with Pilates. I'm not quite sure how much cardio to do but something is better than nothing. I also know you want to switch it up time to time because you're body will get used to whatever you do. Hope this helps

Just115Pounds

The real problem is that I don't have weights, and I can only resort to running/walking on the treadmill...how can I work with what I have?

SideSteel

Assuming your goal is fat loss then you need to be able to maintain a reasonable calorie deficit so that you continue to lose fat.

Energy expenditure is part of that equation. If you remove cardio from your program then you will also need to reduce energy expenditure.

It's a balancing act of sorts, in that people have different tolerances for cardio (as well as lifestyle differences) and people also have different metabolic capacity.

If you feel like you are doing too much cardio, drop a day or two out of your program and monitor your rate of fat loss. If you stall and need to get back into a deficit then you can reduce intake slightly.

When I say it's a balancing act I mean that you need to balance out intake vs activity. If for example I have a client on a reasonably high calorie intake without adherence issues and they dislike cardio or they are already doing a few days of cardio/week then I'll reduce calories to increase the deficit because that's the most sensible in that context.

Conversely if I have someone with relatively low intake and they aren't doing any cardio (and they don't mind it) then I'll lean on activity increases to keep things moving along rather than further decreasing intake.