How many days of cardio is needed to lose fat?

Anything goes! You could do something different everyday, cardio is cardio in my opinion. As you get strong, run farther, and go longer if you want, but do things you enjoy! I agree with the previous poster, weight training is very important. Not to mention the more muscle you have the more you burn at rest
Maybe find someone to work out with to keep you going?!

You need to do both if you want to look great, feel great, and be healthy. Don't be afraid to mix it up. Try adding in some new stuff--tennis or raquetball might be a good one since they are very active and let you interact with others, or maybe swimming now that the weather is warming up.

To answer the original question, cardio is not needed to lose fat. Cardio is great for your health but diet is far more important for body composition.

I still have 53 lbs to go and am burrrrrnnnning out on exercise. I"ve been doing 6 days of cardio and 1-2 days of light resistance training for almost 3 months, and I want to revamp my workout routine because I'm getting bored with it. Was thinking of doing 2 days of running (2.5 miles each time) and 2 days of 45 minute Turbofire, plus 2 days of weight training and 2 days of abs. Does this, paired with a tight clean diet, sound like it do the trick?


Is it possible to lose fat without cardio? I love it once I'm doing it, but the whole part leading up just stinks. LOL...

I usually do cardio 3 days a week and weight training 3 days a week. In my opinion, and from what I've read on here, they're both equally important so I try to do every other day. If for some reason I'm not going to make it to the gym 6 days I will condense and do 30 minutes of cardio and then my normal weight routine. I haven't noticed the scale moving as much as I'd like it to, but I'm definitely losing inches.

Have you considered adding in something like a zumba class to count as your cardio? That would burn tons of calories and allow you to get the most out of your workouts without being bored.

Some research shows that people who lose weight and keep it off for more than 2 years regularly do 200-300 of cardio a week. That's the habit I've been trying to build.

To answer the original question, cardio is not needed to lose fat. Cardio is great for your health but diet is far more important for body composition.

Pretty much spot on.

The kind of "cardio" and intensity will have more of an affect than how often. Running/Elliptical, for example, is not intense cardio (I love running; I know I'll catch flack for this). Try something like squat thrusts + mountain climbers + squat jumps. You'll be amazed at how much more you feel these. Your heart rate will rocket. Keeping that HR up will help you burn fat/calories. Here's a video (heads up: the guy is selling a program, but the video is worth the watch): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkD9LwDBWW0

I do very little cardio (still run a couple miles once a week and warm up with cardio), but I've managed to lose fat. I used to dedicate 2-3 days a week to cardio. Just my experiences.

Cardio is helpful for all around fitness but diet is the key to losing fat. Diet Diet Diet.

bump

My opinion is to skip the light weight training and do some serious lifting! Then for your cardio, focus on interval training (HIIT) instead of a steady pace. You can do MUCH shorter workouts and get all the benefits and more! Eat enough protein and don't leave yourself with too high of a calorie deficit.

I know how hard it is to change up your routine. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

I don't think anyone has suggested this yet but why not try combining the two with a class like Body Pump? Although it's a weight training class you do a high number of reps which makes it more of a cardio workout than just normal weight training. I wear a hrm and I burn the same number of calories in a Body Pump class as in a spinning class.

Obviously what you eat matters..... I don't think anyone would suggest excercise without changing your diet to lose weight. And it is correct - technically you do not have to excercise to lose weight. I guess it just depends on what your goals are and where you want to end up at. If you change only your diet, chances are high that you will lose a lot of muscle and therefore your metabolism will slow and you'll have a hard time keeping any lost weight off. And chances are also high that eventually you'll probably go back to your old un-healthy habits and with all the lost muscle and lean tissues, you'll be potentially worse off than before.

What do you want your less-fat body to look like, and do you want to maintain it? I, personally, want to be lean, and I definetly want to maintain my loss, so I choose to combine diet with excercise (especially weight training - which I wish I'd have done right away instead of waiting until I'd lost 70 pounds to start). I'm not arguing that what you eat isn't important - it most definetly is extremely important. What I am suggesting is that you probably don't want to skip excercise - depending on your goals, of course.