Is 20 minutes of cardio enough for weightloss?

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andrea7164
andrea7164 Posts: 22
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi everyone,

Just wanting to know what your thoughts are on this.

I do 20 minutes of cardio as well as some weights at my gym but i'm beginning to think that maybe this is not enough cardio for weightloss. I notice many people there are doing more.

What do you think?

Replies

  • btdublin
    btdublin Posts: 250 Member
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    If it is high intensity training then yes thats ok! Look up HIIT.

    Definitely good in conjunction with strength training - gets the heart going. Strength training will burn more fat over the course of the day in the long run...

    But if you can fit more cardio in then great. I would suggest that 20 mins walking on a treadmill wont help much but do 20 mins sprint training (on any machine: tread, elliptical, bike) and it will improve your strength training and boost your fat burning metabolism rate!

    Good luck!
  • nicoleh82
    nicoleh82 Posts: 52
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    Cardio burns calories and people can see the calories getting burned visually when doing cardio, therefore get a little (lot) obsessed with cardio.

    The best way to burn calories is to build muscle - this cardio does not do. Muscle requires more energy to keep it going, so it will start eating through your fat cells faster than cardio. That's the theory anyway, I've been testing it on myself.

    Three months ago I would eat right, exercise and lose half a kilo (a pound) a week .

    Now, I eat right, exercise and lose 1 Kilo (2 pound) a week. The difference - the muscle i've developed (i think).

    Also, doing a combo of a 1 min strength based activity, followed by a 1 min cardio activity should really shred the fat
  • needlework
    needlework Posts: 141 Member
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    bump
  • cadency
    cadency Posts: 51
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    Muscle work is great. I've been reading a lot of recommendations that if you have a lot of fat to lose to focus more on HIIT / Cardio at first with combination of muscle work. You can even do weight lifting as a cardio workout with limited intervals between sets. Less rest periods and use combination muscle workout. As you lose fat, then increase muscle work.

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