How to get the scale to move?

I'm going to tell you some things that you may not believe but I'm gonna put it out there. I hope this helps.

0. I don't think you should do any of these short term programs. 21 day fix, 30 day shred, etc and whatever. They're scams because once you're done, you haven't made any real long term changes to your behavior. You might be controlling your portions on the program, and when its over you stop doing that. Maybe you won't, maybe you'll keep it off this time. But the odds are I think that you'll regain the weight. That makes them pretty worthless and not very good for your health.

1. How can you lose weight and build muscle? Do some kind of weight training routine 3 days a week for 45mins each. That should fit into your busy schedule I hope. Stop doing cardio, you're only burning calories with cardio, you aren't preserving lean mass. What does that mean? Cardio burns calories, it doesn't target fat. Those calories also come from your muscle, your lean mass. You want to get stronger and lighter? Do strength training, weight training, or resistance training. Whatever its called, something where you burn calories while moving weights. That will allow you to keep the muscle you have and burn fat.

2. There are no good 20min cardio videos, don't do them. It's a waste of your limited time.

3. What else needs to be done? It's diet, exercise and rest. That's it.

3a. Make sure you eat enough and not too much (knowing your TDEE and eating just under it).

3b. Make sure your exercise is some kind of resistance training (could be machines, could be resistance bands, could be dumbbells, could be all of the above), do it 3x a week covering all of your major muscle groups. You only need to do this for 30-60mins per workout. Don't wimp out on yourself either, really put in the effort. Resist the urge to add more days or add in cardio.

3c. Make sure you get plenty of rest. 8 hours a night, get naps if you can, re-center yourself, rest. No sleep, no improvements, increased risk of injury. This is very important!

4. If you really want to throw in some kind of cardio that's your call but I wouldn't waste my time personally. I do very little cardio and I've lost over 50lbs, dropped over 10% off my bodyfat. And believe it or not, weight training will improve your cardiovascular health. Anything that gets you breathing and blood going will improve your cardio health.

Cardio training is fine if you are a marathon runner, but its not going to help you achieve your goals of losing weight and building muscle.

Best of luck to you.

I am not sure what "eating sensibly" means. But if you want to lose weight, you need to log your food and run a calorie deficit.

Walking 3 miles a day, four days a week at your current weight burns about 500 calories a week. 0.15 pounds of fat. At a fifteen minute mile, that takes about three hours a week.

Eating a 500 calorie a day deficit burns about a pound a week. No extra time constraints needed.

To walk enough to burn a pound a week would mean 72 miles a week. That is about 18 hours of walking at a 15 minute mile.

This is why weight loss happens at the dinner table, not at the gym.

Don't get me wrong, the gym helps, and strength training definitely helps with perserving the muscle you already own, while losing the fat. You will also, most likely, be happier with the way you look after you lose the fat, if you follow some sort of strength training program while you lean up. Oh, and there is the advantage of strenous exercise having an appetite blunting affect thanks to the sympathetic nervous response, making it actually easier for some to eat at a deficit.

Cardio exercise does have its place. It helps with cardiovascular health. And improving your cardiovascular health will go a long way towards making your golden years more enjoyable. But, as was demonstrated with the math above, it can not be solely relied on for any kind of significant weight loss. Not without a calorie deficit anyway.

In fact. A person could do an hour of moderate cardio daily and eat an extra 1500 calories daily and *gain* fat. So even if you are going to try to use cardio only as your weight loss plan, bad idea, you still have to log calories to make sure you aren't just eating them all back.