is cardio skippable if you lift?

Not counting the obvious things like improving your heart health and mental well-being, cardio will just allow you to eat more. This is due to two things: the calories you burn while you do the cardio, and the extra calories you burn from your increased metabolism after you finish your cardio.

There is no requirement to do cardio in order to lose weight. You have exactly the right approach with your lifting, which will prevent muscle loss while you are on a caloric deficit. If you want to eat more, then by all means do the cardio and eat back the calories.

Nope cardio is definitely not necessary for muscle gain and technically not necessary for weight loss either although some people find it either speeds things up or allows them to have a bit more flexibility in their diet (i.e. eat more).

The problem with your goal as listed is that gaining muscle and losing weight are opposing processes. Generally speaking gaining muscle requires a calorie surplus (as you're building) and losing weight (fat) requires a calorie deficit. There's a fair bit of debate on this topic but the commonly held view is that beyond some initial "newbie" muscle gains when you first start lifting you won't be able to build muscle while at a calorie deficit.

So basically if you're got a lot of weight to lost then you probably want to eat at a slight deficit (but plenty of protein) while lifting to retain most of the muscle mass you have and then once you get closer to your goal weight start doing bulk/cut cycles to build muscle.

The only thing to note is that while you can't build significant amounts of muscle in a deficit you can gain strength through neuromuscular adaption.

Also in order to focus on different goals: strength, size, endurance you need to properly structure your lifting program towards your goal. Generally low reps build strength, middle range reps build size and higher reps build endurance.

Final point I promise. While cardio isn't necessary to meet your physique goals, it is important for other reasons like heart health and cardiovascular fitness so I would never recommed cutting it completely. Also good on days where you are extra hungry or have special events that involve eating.

Best of luck

Not necessary, but it adds to your calories deficit. My workouts are 45 minutes with 30 second rests between sets.

I am still losing, clothes looser and still gaining strength. My cycling and walking (30 minutes on the "non-lift" days) add endurance to what it takes for me to get enough O2 while flying through a whole body workout every "3rd day."

I also do not eat my exercise calories. If I do 400 calories of cycling and lifting thats 2800 calories a week I get to deduct. I have lost 30 lbs in the past 12 months working out this way.

20 more to go.

Stay with it.

There's no need to do cardio if you don't care about your health.

Huh? :huh:

There's no need to do cardio if you don't care about your health.

:huh:

There's no need to do cardio if you don't care about your health.

lolwut

Cardio after lifting may be counterproductive to muscle maintenance or growth. It burns calories but is not in any way necessary, especially right after lifting.

It's good for your cardiovascular health, but so is lifting. Don't feel like you need to do cardio. I do suggest you find some activity you enjoy rather than putting in hours on a treadmill or something.

There's no need to do cardio if you don't care about your health.

There are studies that prove that lifting weights alone improves your cardiovascular health.