Can I still lose fat if I only make it to the gym twice a week sometimes?

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strive2behealthy
strive2behealthy Posts: 74 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
My nutrition has been pretty great, but physically it has been really hard going full force into an intense work out regimen and I keep being told that it's imperative to do cardio 3-4x a week in order to lose body fat. I've been incorporating more exercise these last two months--I'll do lifting 2x a week along with high intensity cardio, but I find it difficult to find motivation to go more than that in a week. My macros each day are very good and I'm still losing but I don't know if it's fat that I'm losing.

I know fast weight loss isn't the key, I'm trying to do this realistically, but I am going to an event in late May and would like to lose at least 8 pounds.

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  • strive2behealthy
    strive2behealthy Posts: 74 Member
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    Another thing is that I'm working at a job 4-5 days a week where I'm constantly running around and scoopng ice cream... I feel like this may be why I don't always have the energy or motivation to be doing intense workouts 4x a week..
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    strive2behealthy wrote: »
    I keep being told that it's imperative to do cardio 3-4x a week in order to lose body fat. I've been incorporating more exercise these last two months--

    That's BS. While cardio is great for your health, you can lose fat just fine without it. To lose fat, you just need a deficit. And, frankly, being more active in your day-to-day life will burn more calories than a couple of hours a week at the gym anyway.
  • karenzehob
    karenzehob Posts: 87 Member
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    I've barely worked out these past 3 weeks (1-2 times) and I've steadily been losing 2lbs a week. It's not necessary :)
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
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    As others said, deficit is all you need to lose. Cardio can help you get there but it's not necessary. Strength​ training will help preserve muscle as you lose.

    To give you an idea, when I lost about 15 lbs after my second baby I reduced my body fat % and retained muscle... I only did strength training 2-3x per week (30 min per session). The only cardio I did was walking and breastfeeding lol.
  • ChristopherLimoges
    ChristopherLimoges Posts: 298 Member
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    Sure your weight loss can still be positive if you only workout twice a week. You could try Yoga and Pilates or a combo of the two. I find separating my meals throughout the day and consuming a little more of the energy boosting foods in the pre-workout meal one to two hours before workouts effective(having more grams of fat or carbs in said meal than in the other meals through the day.)
  • crazyycatlady1
    crazyycatlady1 Posts: 292 Member
    edited April 2017
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    You can lose weight by going to the gym 0 times a week. Weight loss happens when the correct calorie deficit for your weight loss goals happen. Exercise gives you a bit more calories to play with, but as far as weight loss goes it plays a pretty minimal part.

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