How much cardio is too much?

i've always heard it takes 20 mins to get into your fat stores, so before that time you're burning your calories you ate that day and aren't tapping into your fat. i dunno if that's a myth like everything else though lol! i try to aim for 45 mins with each cardio workout.

if weightloss is your goal...then cardio is good...I have alwas been told and found from personal experience, 20 minutes is a minimum...but for me, it is more of a balancing game...more cardio = bigger appetite....so i try to do enough to burn 400-500 calories but NOT increase my appetite to enormous levels....for me 30-40 minutes works well....I can do much more, but whatever i burn gets offset by the fact I eat more!!!

I am not a expert, but this has been key for me personally!!

I only do a 16-20 min interval cardio session 3-5 times a week. However, I am "huffing and puffing" the whole time. Quality over quantity.

How much cardio depends on several factors:

Your goals
Your current weight and body fat %
Your fitness level
Your workout history

First, let's dismiss two cliches: the "burning fat" and the "burning muscle" ones. For 95% of the people on this website they are either untrue or irrelevant. I don't have time to go into detail, so you will have to take my word for this.

There are two reasons to engage in cardiovascular training: improve aerobic fitness and endurance and burn a significant amount of calories.

If you are a beginner, and have a higher percentage of body fat, and have a low or moderate fitness level, then a higher volume of cardio is indicated--5-6 days/week, 30-60 min per session. That's because you are probably only in the 300-600 calorie per hour fitness range--so you need to put in the time to burn calories. Endurance cardio (that's what this is) can also have some benefits in improving fat oxidation and improving insulin sensitivity, but mostly it just helps contribute to maintaining a calorie deficit. And it improves your fitness.

(A beginner would also want to include some strength training. It may not contribute as much in the beginning, but it is essential for long-term success, so you might as well start right now).

As your fitness level improves, you can begin to add some interval training. In simple terms this means alternating intervals of higher intensity exercise with lower intensity recovery intervals. How hard and how long the work intervals should be will vary widely based on your abilities and fitness level. You can do 2 interval sessions per week--these will be shorter than your endurance cardio, in the 25-35 min range.

Someone with a lower percentage of body fat and higher fitness level can get by with a lot less cardio volume and will probably need to do a little more high-intensity interval training. Even at this level, I think it is still necessary to include some endurance cardio. All HIIT and no play tends to give Jack a dull metabolism.

Ultimately, IMO, I still think the best plan for cardio is a balanced program where you train as much for fitness as for weight loss. That means a combination of lower-intensity endurance, medium tempo workouts, and higher-intensity interval workouts. Whether that's 3, 4, 5, or 6 days a week.

Another key to cardio is that it has to be focused. By that I mean you have to maintain a 60%-80% effort level the entire time. I see a lot of people in the gym doing "cardio" that basically consists on them sitting on a recumbent bike, idly turning the pedals while they read the newspaper, talk on the phone, etc.

Or walk on the treadmill at 3 mph, every day, for the same number of minutes. You don't have to kill yourself every time you work out, but you have to have a focus and learn how it feels to work at the right effort levels (or use an HRM) and maintain that effort.

This made me smile. I go to an all women's gym and I swear half of them just go to socialize.. I was next to one gal the other day and she was doing a good 5 mph on the treadmill. Her phone rang and for the next 30 minutes she did 2 mph while chatting. Now I can't do 5 mph (yet ) - I'm between 3.8 & 4.1 with intervals of 4.7-4.8. Not the fastest but I'm sweating, huffing, and doing it for 45-60 minutes. Who do yu think got the better work out?? Common sense!! I'm not a big Jillian Michaels fan but she always says one thing I agree with - totally focus on your workout and don't "phone it in" from the first minute to the last.