Is 25 minutes of cardio enough?

That is certainly going to help. More so than doing Kegstands and eating pizza playing video games. I would say if you are doing moderate work in that 25-30 you are burning at least 250 calories. SO that is more than not doing anything

You don't need to do any cardio to maintain your weight, just don't eat more than you burn. Adjust your calorie intake on days you don't work out.

Forgot to add, the time frame of my goal is to lose .5 lbs per week for 6 months.

Enough for what?

It will be enough/too much/too little depending on how much you're eating.

If you're eating 2,000 calories and your body needs 2,000 to maintain your current weight, 25-30 minutes may burn you 200-250 calories, which would create a deficit of 200-250 calories every day that you work out. If you worked out 3X per week at that rate, you would lose 1 lb every 4.6 weeks, or 1 lb per monthish (250 cals X3 days a week = 750 cals a week deficit).

If you eat 3,000 calories and you need 2,000 to maintain and you burn 250 cals 3X per week, you will be eating a surplus of 250 calories per week. You would gain 1 lb every 14 weeks (3.5 months).

In order to determine if you are working out enough to compensate for your eating habits, you need to either monitor your weight and adjust as you gain/lose, or you need to track your intake and exercise.

lilylenz wrote: »

Hey guys,

So, as well as starting college and having a job, I don't have a lot of time on my hands..some days I wake up at 4AM to work out and then i'll go to work (which is far, far away) and then my classes and then I come home to try and do homework and whatever and basically feel dead. (queue the small violin)

However, some days if I don't wake up early enough I won't have a lot of time to do a full hour/45 minute workout (which usually is a combination of strength/cardio), so usually 2 - 3 days a week I will only do around 25 - 30 minutes of cardio and I was wondering if that's enough? I'm not trying to lose weight or anything, I'm basically just trying to not gain the "freshman 20" and maintain my weight :P

Yup. That will rev up your metabolism and is good maintenance amount of cardio. If done right, you should be able to burn 250-450+ calories in 30 minutes depending on the intensity. At your average of 2 - 3 times a week, I would suggest at least two of them being intense to get maximal burn and fire up the metabolism. It's not difficult to recover from such short sessions, but I would still allow a day of rest between higher intensity efforts.

Combined with not eating above your maintenance calories - and you'll avoid the Freshman 15 or 20 or whatever the number is these days.

If you keep your Heart Rate in the Cardio Burning zone (typically 70-80% of Max Heart Rate) for 20 minutes then 25 minutes should be OK, giving you a few minutes of Warm up and Cool down.
We are all busy and getting exercise in around our schedules can be challenging.

I watched an interesting YouTube clip by Jill Coleman. She gave advice on weight loss. I found it interesting that research now suggests its more effective to do smaller high intensity workouts. Jill says running, aerobics, and swimming are good workouts but it's the 10 minute exercises that help shed more pounds. For example, if you choose a 10-minute workout, you might go hard and fast for a couple of minutes...then slow your pace..then ramp it back up.

Seriously, some of ya'll just should refrain from answering questions that aren't complete.

OP as others have stated...enough for what?

I'm currently doing Focus T25, which is only 25 minutes per day of pretty high intensity exercise. I love it, and I can tell I'm getting more fit. But I'm not trying to train for a marathon, or anything like that. This program works very well for me because 25-30 minutes is all I'm willing to commit to structured exercise at this time.

Chieflrg wrote: »

Seriously, some of ya'll just should refrain from answering questions that aren't complete.

OP as others have stated...enough for what?

She stated her goals and question quite clearly with the sentence in bold:

However, some days if I don't wake up early enough I won't have a lot of time to do a full hour/45 minute workout (which usually is a combination of strength/cardio), so usually 2 - 3 days a week I will only do around 25 - 30 minutes of cardio and I was wondering if that's enough? I'm not trying to lose weight or anything, I'm basically just trying to not gain the "freshman 20" and maintain my weight

Reading beyond that, there is a lot of stress and anxiety involved with being a college student. So the suggestions of getting some routine exercise sessions in - be they 25-30 minutes short at 2 or 3 times a week, or as time management allows - is an excellent coupling with eating at maintenance to meet her goals that she raised in her question of the shorter cardio sessions being enough.

Personally, I wish every college student would work in some form of routine exercise that is beyond walking to class to help them combat stress, and maintain their sanity along with weight.

SingingSingleTracker wrote: »

Chieflrg wrote: »

Seriously, some of ya'll just should refrain from answering questions that aren't complete.

OP as others have stated...enough for what?

She stated her goals and question quite clearly with the sentence in bold:

However, some days if I don't wake up early enough I won't have a lot of time to do a full hour/45 minute workout (which usually is a combination of strength/cardio), so usually 2 - 3 days a week I will only do around 25 - 30 minutes of cardio and I was wondering if that's enough? I'm not trying to lose weight or anything, I'm basically just trying to not gain the "freshman 20" and maintain my weight

Reading beyond that, there is a lot of stress and anxiety involved with being a college student. So the suggestions of getting some routine exercise sessions in - be they 25-30 minutes short at 2 or 3 times a week, or as time management allows - is an excellent coupling with eating at maintenance to meet her goals that she raised in her question of the shorter cardio sessions being enough.

Personally, I wish every college student would work in some form of routine exercise that is beyond walking to class to help them combat stress, and maintain their sanity along with weight.

Yet she didn't state how many cals she is consumig, nor how many she burns in a day, what her TDEE is.

Cardio is not what loses weight, eating at a deficit is. So for anybody to answer how much cardio is enough without knowing the answers to those, is like throwing darts at the wall.

JoRocka wrote: »

There is not that much stress with being a college freshman- you show up- you do your homework- you don't punch your roommate in the face. it's pretty straight forward.

I honestly am flabbergasted by how people go to college and just get fat.

I'm on the other side of the college equation as a Professor. I see a lot of stress, anxiety, and demands put on the students - including college freshman. We enter finals week this week, and I would venture to say that about 3 weeks ago I noticed the burn out look on the faces of nearly all students from the load they are asked to take on at our institution. Enough so over the past 12 years to qualify my statement that there is indeed stress at the collegiate level for the students. Exercise is indeed a welcome stress reliever that I suggest to my advisees and students. Time management is a difficult thing to learn, and freshman usually suffer the most as they try to learn that skill.

The flabbergast shouldn't be a shocked surprise. It simply comes from the reality that a lot more calories are being consumed with the constant social interactions, parties, all you can eat cafeterias, snacks, late night study sessions, late night paper writing, etc... than they faced in high school while living at home. And back to the stress issue. It's well known that some people react to stress by eating more. I'm of the opposite side of the coin - I don't eat much when under a lot of stress.

JoRocka wrote: »

I left my comfortable home and went 2000 miles away to a school that's consider more difficult than bootcamp. With no friends- no family andno support.
- On top of a full academic load- and playing a sport. And getting morally and physically degraded for well over 6 months of my life and told I was complete and utter piece of filth.

I simple cannot fathom how "going away to college" is that stressful.

I do understand that finals weeks are stressful- but one doesn't get fat over the last month of their terms.

But- I would agree- college students should participate in physical fitness. After my freshman year- I played soccer- but PT was mandatory every week- 3 miles- 100 sit ups- 25-50 pull ups and 100 push ups. Every week- required.

There is no question my college life was better with mandatory PT- and it's something I continue to participate in as an adult- like it or not... which is why I'm successful at what I do.

There's the difference. You played a sport in college. Student athletes, as a percentage, are a minority of the college student base. The mandatory PT you were required to do would be a welcome addition to all. But it is not mandatory, hence typical weight gains are far too common even in today's exercise induced society. Most have to gain weight, come to terms with it, then learn the reality of what it takes to lose it and keep it off.


The odds of playing sports in college is minimal and the odds of being paid to play a college sport is even worse. Your best bet for capturing college money is to succeed in the classroom.

Plenty of stress from those trying to capture college money in the classroom and in their career pursuits...