How much cardio is too much?!

You need to develop habits leading to long term health, not aim for fast weight loss. Fill out your MFP profile with an appropriate weekly loss goal (for most women the max sustainable is 1.5 lbs per week but it does depend on your starting weight.) Eat those calories plus half of your exercise calories and then evaluate progress after 4 weeks.

Amount of cardio does not matter. As others have said, calorie deficit matters, and it's probably wise not to have more than a 1000 calorie deficit, whether achieved through diet, exercise, or -- easiest, IMO -- a combination. Depending on how obese you are you might be able to get away with a little higher at first, but generally that's not a great idea.

As for how much cardio, how much can you see yourself happily including in your life? What worked for me (starting when I was obese) was to focus on what I could do without burning our or resenting it, what seemed fun, and then setting goals and working from there. I got to the point where I was doing a lot, but had to work up to it, and still need to include lighter days and rest days to keep from overdoing or getting burnt out.

What you don't want is to get dependent on exercise just for weight loss, as you will have to adjust the eating when you stop.

Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »

IMO

A few weeks back when i started this new medication i am on it sent my energy levels through the roof, i can put in 3 hours of cardio pretty easy in one session.

However i thought about it and decided that while its nice to have the energy and while extremely high calorie burns look absolutely awesome, All i am doing is fueling my workout because i am negating the 1600 calories i am eating.. i am not really leaving much left for myself as a person, so personally i think its better to focus on maintaining a calorie deficit that is sustainable and then do a healthy amount of cardio rather then burn yourself out. I decided myself that despite my crazy energy levels, its better in the long run for my health and body

How did you ramp up to 3 hours of cardio? Going from nothing (or very little) to a lot of any exercise is a sure prescription for injury.

I like Ann's response above, but I would also add a number 3: any amount that causes you to injure yourself.

I've definitely gone out too hard and fast before and injured myself which then stops me exercising and makes it hard for me to keep up the momentum with eating well and general healthy habits.

When you are obese you are making your joints work harder to carry your weight, and if you don't have strong muscles and good form it's easy to cause problems, especially if you really push it.

I've also learnt that getting stronger, especially around the core, has a really positive flow-on effect to cardio (running for me) and my ability to do more with better form, which helps prevent injuries.

I started off obese, I did 20 mins of exercise daily. I couldn't do anymore I was so unfit
The most important thing is logging as accurately as possible, that's what will help

Read this the whole way through since you could be self-sabotaging yourself

The only way to lose weight is through calorie deficit. The app tells you how many calories it is to lose up to 2 pounds a week (when you start losing weight it comes off quicker the first two weeks). The reason they do they do this is because it is probably unhealthy to eat too so little in a day to lose more then that. Though cardeo is good for losing calories so you can eat more in a day and still lose weight.

Though keep in mind that the amounts of calories burned are estimates that are usually over the actual amount you burned. So exerciseing to much without knowing how your body burns calories could slow down your weight loss progress. Some people eat back only half of the calories burned until they figure it out.

Though to answer you question about cardeo workouts I go around 1-3 times a week and do 20 minutes on the weight machines (good for gaining muscle and warming up), 15 on mild spinning, 30 minutes on the elliptical, 5 minutes on the stair master, and then mild spinning for 5 minutes. I burn around 400 calories at the gym with the gym machines estimates and I only eat back half. Then I also walk around 2 miles a day and I also walk to and from the gym when I went. I also was very strict with only eating what I was allowed to with my calorie budget. I even ate slightly under the calorie limit almost every day in order to make up for underestimating the calories in my food. Though this amount was never over 100 calories and I weighed myself to see if I wasent losing to much.

By doing that I lost ten pounds a month for three months. I stopped after three months since I met my goal. Through careful logging you can do the same thing. The only problem was by doing this I was getting burned out after three months. So please take this advice and count calories eaten carefully and dont go to crazy with cardeo.

Lose your weight in the kitchen and do enough cardio that isn't killing/exhausting you or making you bored and fed up. Change it up in the gym/exercise routine, if you jump on a treadmill and hammer it you will get bored, stop and eat pizza (imo)