Cardio Time Limits

Abigailsings1023

I've lost 55 pounds since April 2016 and still have more to go. My next goal is 150 and I'm 170. It's taken me two months of off/on gym visits to get from 175 to 170, but now I'm going to make time for the gym as best I can.

Originally I drastically changed my diet from fast food three times a day and no exercise to rarely fast food and moderate regular activity and some weight lifting. My new interest is trying to focus on fat loss and do walking and biking at the gym. If I put the time in I should see results within the month.

Is their a daily limit I should put on cardio? I walked for an hour and then biked 45 minutes one day this week so would it be best to shoot for 1.5-2 hours a few days 3-5 days a week?

I use to spend 45-60 minutes walking then 30 minutes weight lifting but was only going to the gym 2-3 times a week and results were 1-3 pounds a month and I want to get down faster than that.

rsclause

I did it by not only running a lot but on gym days I started running to the gym. I would do a three mile loop and stop at the gym for a Nautilus set. I then would do a one mile run back to the house. On off days I would do a 6 or 7 mile run and on the weekend do a 10 mile run. One day I asked myself why I was driving to the gym and then running or biking as a warm up.

shadow2soul

Keep this in mind:
- If you want mostly fat loss don't aim for more than 1% body weight loss per week
- Strength training helps perserve muscle mass
- Cardio helps with cardiovascular health, but too much can lead to injury and early burn out. If not done with some sort of strength training you are also likely to lose more LBM then you would if you included some strength training.

If your wanting mostly fat loss:



If your only worried about weight loss then more cardio might help. Just remember that weight loss doesn't directly mean that you are decreasing overall BF%. You can lose both LBM and Fat, so even at a lower weight your BF% hasn't really changed much and you still end up "squishy" so to speak.

Fat loss requires patience.

Hornsby

As long as you are recovering properly, there is no need to put a limit on cardio. Weight is based on how many calories you eat more than anything.

chocolate_owl

Losing weight faster is not recommended, especially now that you're close to your goal. If you increase your cardio and drop the weight training, you're more likely to lose fat AND muscle. You don't want to lose the muscle if you can help it. Keep lifting weights. Resistance training is important for body composition and overall health.

Also keep in mind that many people get a lot hungrier when they increase their cardio and they have a hard time sticking to their calorie goal. They end up eating too much, and their weight loss slows.

To answer your question about a cardio limit: the "limit" is usually based on what you're conditioned for and training for. A person training for a marathon is going to do a lot more cardio than a person who does cardio 2x a week on their off-days from weight lifting. In both instances, these people are going to eat enough to fuel their workouts. I wouldn't say there's a hard limit for the casual exerciser, but an hour a day is generally all you need. Cardio can be a tool to help achieve a calorie deficit, but using it to achieve a big deficit when you don't have a lot to lose is not a good plan.

If your goal is fat loss with good body composition at your goal weight, I'd recommend looking into a full-body lifting program that you do 3x a week. Do a short cardio stint as a warmup, and do longer cardio sessions 2-3 times a week on your non-lifting days. Stick to your calorie goal, and be patient.

clh72569

I started at 20 min walk once a week, to three times a week. At my craziest I did 2 hour workouts M-F and 3 hour workouts Sat & Sun. I have backed off to 1 hour M-F and Sat & Sun 2 hours. Close to maintenance I added weightlifting.

trigden1991

There is no limit to how much you can exercise however there is a point where it becomes pointless. For fat loss; create a calorie deficit through diet and exercise.

TimothyFish

I don't usually go over 4 hours in a day. It's not that I couldn't do more, I've just had not need to ride my bicycle farther than that.

dfc4

Hi, my experience shows that longer a higher training frequency is better than longer sessions,

Eg 6, 45 Minute cardio sessions are more effective than 3, 90 minute sessions.

Londer cardio sessions can also slow down your metabolism, - more frequent shorter bit intensiver sessions (interval training) + strength work in the gym is better

AnnPT77

There's really no "dangerous" level of cardio as long as you're conditioned to it, and it fits in your day.

My advice, in addition to the thought-provoking comments of others above, would be to consider what kind of lifestyle you can and want to maintain forever. Eventually, you'll work on maintaining a healthy weight, rather than losing. You (presumably) want that to be a balanced life - whatever that means to you - in terms of exercise, work, daily-life chores, social life, some sedentary hobbies (perhaps).

Start practicing for that life now. Find a level of eating and exercise that you can sustain basically forever. Once you reach maintenance, you can add a few hundred calories (more or less) to each day, which is a bonus.

And a loud & clear +1 to the "lose no more than 1% of bodyweight per week" idea. Less as you get closer to goal weight, even!

(Edited to fix typo - had typed 15 instead of 1%).

JeromeBarry1

^ That. One thing to keep aware of is that you can do so much cardio that you make it difficult to refrain from overeating. It's on you to figure out what you can do.

Azdak

You have to be careful about arbitrarily choosing weight loss target dates. Esp if you have already lost a lot of weight. The lower your body fat, the harder it becomes to mobilize fat stores.

You can also get to a point where you are getting diminishing returns from high volumes of endurance cardio minutes. For where you are in your weight loss journey, there is little support for doing 1.5-2.0 hours of cardio per day, unless there is some reason why you cannot work at a harder intensity. Rather than add more endurance cardio, I would look to slowly introduce some higher-intensity interval training, or tempo training, and even consider increasing the volume/intensity of your strength training.

apullum

Yes to much of what's already been said. My biggest concern would be to gradually increase the time you're exercising, so that you don't risk injury or burnout. And if you do a lot of cardio you might wind up really hungry. I'm a runner, and for long runs (over 1.25-1.5 hours for me, other people have their own preferences) we usually eat small amounts of simple carbs while running to fuel our workouts. So keep in mind that if you're doing lots of cardio, you might find it harder to avoid overeating.