How long should I do cardio?

motivatekait

Hey guys! I'm 5'5" 128lbs looking to get down around 120, so I'm almost at my goal. I just recently started lifting weights about 2 weeks ago for about 30 minutes 5 days a week, with one day of about 30 minutes of HIIT cardio.

I keep hearing different things everywhere, so I would love to hear from people who have reached their goal weight and experienced the same struggle of the last 10lbs. Should I be doing more cardio? If so, how much more?

I know that lifting will stall my progress on the scale so I'm not super worried about my actual weight so much as I am my body composition. Also if you have any tips on how I should be treating my diet/macros, feel free to share, I appreciate it!

juggernaut1974

You're looking at things backwards.

Neither lifting nor cardio will get those "last 10 lbs" lost. Lifting doesn't stall weight loss. DIET is what controls 90% of weight gain or loss.

Lifting is good to preserve (in a calorie deficit) or build (in a calorie surplus) muscle mass, and to build strength.

Cardio is good for cardiovascular health.

The effects of either on weight are incidental.

time2cutnow

So you want to hit 120 lbs, but you say you're not super concerned with your actual weight? So what are your goals with weightlifting? To lose pounds or to gain muscle? You can't do both at the same time (unfortunately).

motivatekait

time2cutnow wrote: »

So you want to hit 120 lbs, but you say you're not super concerned with your actual weight? So what are your goals with weightlifting? To lose pounds or to gain muscle? You can't do both at the same time (unfortunately).

Well obviously I'm looking to lose about 10lbs of fat. I'm more concerned about my body composition than strength or the number on the scale.

ACanadian22

Weights likely will make it slower(has for me) but my body looks tighter so who cares what the scale number looks like?

Kilika735

juggernaut1974 wrote: »

You're looking at things backwards.

Neither lifting nor cardio will get those "last 10 lbs" lost. Lifting doesn't stall weight loss. DIET is what controls 90% of weight gain or loss.

Lifting is good to preserve (in a calorie deficit) or build (in a calorie surplus) muscle mass, and to build strength.

Cardio is good for cardiovascular health.

The effects of either on weight are incidental.

I wish I had really absorbed this in the past! I would work out until I was ragged, but over eat junk while making no progress. Something I need to focus on now.

Lifting will help with body composition and you may not need to lose those last 10 pounds. Try googling body composition comparisons with the same scale weight. I'll be shocked if you don't rethink adding strength training!

time2cutnow

motivatekait wrote: »

time2cutnow wrote: »

So you want to hit 120 lbs, but you say you're not super concerned with your actual weight? So what are your goals with weightlifting? To lose pounds or to gain muscle? You can't do both at the same time (unfortunately).

Well obviously I'm looking to lose about 10lbs of fat. I'm more concerned about my body composition than strength or the number on the scale.

Your quickest way to lose the 10 lbs is cardio and a deficit. I would add some lifting in there too to maintain whatever muscle you do have.

If you want to build muscle I would suggest little to no cardio and eat at a surplus.

Talan79

Look into recomp. Also? Are you following a specific program? Or just doing your own thing? Having a structured program will help you as far as the body composition goes.
I think this photo is the one that Kilika735 talking about.

smnovosad1

I don't have any great advice, but thought I'd chime n as I am also 5'5" and 128 lbs as of today

robertw486

If you just started lifting you might be retaining more water in glycogen stores, and that might cause a plateau for a little while. If you do cardio after you lift, it's an easy way to knock out some calories and increase your deficit, but at the same time you want to eat enough for proper recovery from both the lifting and cardio.

I can easily create a deficit of 25% or more of my daily intake doing cardio. So really you can set your goal and create what you want. You get the bonus of eating at least some of it back if you work out long enough.

motivatekait

Talan79 wrote: »

Look into recomp. Also? Are you following a specific program? Or just doing your own thing? Having a structured program will help you as far as the body composition goes.
I think this photo is the one that Kilika735 talking about.

I'm following a workout plan (a new one as of today that includes 20 min cardio and then about 40min of strength and hiit circuits), but I'm not following a structured plan for nutrition or anything, just the 30f/40c/30p macros. And yeah that photo looks great, like I said I'm really not worried about what the scale says, I think I've just got 10lbs of fat to get rid of/replace with some muscle.