Half an hour at the gym - is that enough?

I have to agree with most of the other posts. Twenty minutes of cardio a day is great and you may loose some weight but to be serious about your goals and not be discouraged you probably need some more gym time. If your following a good calorie nutrition plan, then 30 minutes of cardio and weight training 2 to 3 days a week is good. I had to really ramp up my exercise routine to get the results I was wanting though and not get behind. I do zumba at least 3 days a week which is an hour long. Sometimes at home due to weather or a busy schedule and then weight training 3 days a week for at least 30 to 60 minutes depending on my schedule. A lot of people I know do crossfit combining weight training with cardio and they're extremely successful. They're doing it 3 to 5 days a week for 30 to 60 minutes as well. Good luck on your goal!

30 minutes is plenty a day if you are watching your calorie intake. I try to mix things up, especially as I get older. One day I will walk 30 minutes, next spin 30 -45 spin, next yoga, next weights and walk etc. It all adds up. I just find I try to fit in bits of exercise when I can. Good luck!!!!!!!

That will definitley be enough if you do High intensity interval training. If you get on a particular piece of cardio and do one interval hard where you get your heart rate way up, then once it is up take it easy and go slow until you caught your breath, and then repeat... HIIT will speed up your metabolism for 48 hours following, and only takes 15-20 minutes.... So you do a 3 minute warm up, then 1 minute hard, 2 easy, and repeat.... then do a 3 minute cool down..... You burn 10X the fat as regular cardio in a quarter of the time. Also you get to keep your muscle when you do this, unlike regular cardio. Can be done on a treadmill, stairstepper, bike, elliptical, etc....

I think something is better than nothing nad MFP, does tell you how many times a week and for how long, for example mines say workout 3 times a week for 30 minutes.. so I workout 5 times a week for 30 minutes at least sometimes I can only do 20 minutes , so i really try to balance it out. Hope this helps and good luck on your weight loss.

It's not the time you put in, it's what you do with the time.

An intense 30 minutes is better than a moderate hour or two.
A moderate 30 minutes is better than a boring hour or two.
A boring 30 minutes is better than nothing at all.

Just my two cents.

My thoughts exactly - I only work out for 30-40 minutes at a time, but it's INTENSE. I can be pushing hard on an elliptical sweating and panting while someone else walks on the treadmill next to me for 90 minutes. We can burn roughly the same number of calories. It's all what you're willing to put into it. I have a life outside of the gym and I'm not willing to spend my entire evening there.

No one can answer your question without knowing what your diet looks like.

This!!

But something is ALWAYS better than nothing.

I think any amount of exercise is better than none.

There are times that I exercise up to two hours a day. If I did that every day, I'd have no time or energy to have any kind of life. Most of the time, I budget about 30-45 minutes to exercise a day.

Because really, exercise is supposed to be something you do to make your life better. It shouldn't be ALL you do, unless you're a professional athlete or supermodel and your paycheck demands being in tip-top shape.

There are times that I exercise up to two hours a day. If I did that every day, I'd have no time or energy to have any kind of life. Most of the time, I budget about 30-45 minutes to exercise a day.

Because really, exercise is supposed to be something you do to make your life better. It shouldn't be ALL you do, unless you're a professional athlete or supermodel and your paycheck demands being in tip-top shape.

Yes. I do a minimum of 1 hour in the gym each day but almost never more that 90 minutes. Weight loss has been good, strength gains have been good. I am active outside of workouts, but I am not, nor do I want to be an athlete.

Don't worry right now about whether it's enough - just go as much as you can to start a habit. You don't have to get all your workouts at the gym - working out at home is a terrific time saving option. Could you do just weights at the gym a couple times a week, and a couple mornings do an intense cardio video? Or do something like The Firm for an hour at home? That's what i did when I was in school and super pressed for time - DVD, workout clothes and water were ready to go. I was working out within a few minutes of waking up.

I only read the first two pages but I think I am in the minority when I say 30 minutes is fine.
I exerciesd for 5 minutes a day at first.
I did pushups and that was it.
Then I started also doing pullups.
Then I started running 1 x / week
I think you will increase time naturally as you become stronger and fitter.
.
Now I run 2 miles 2-3/week
Play tennis 30-45 minutes 2/week
Jump rope for 5 minutes 3x/week
Do 100 pushups, 15 pullups and 30 dips.

Even my new increased amount of exercise is not very many minutes, but I see results.
I am toner and have little baby muscles.

Some of you are ridiculous. It's stuff like this that discourages people from exercise altogether.

OP, ANY amount of exercise you can do is better than nothing. If you're wanting to be full-on ripped, then yeah, you'll need more than what you currently have planned (and you can build up to that over time). But if weight loss is your objective, then as others have said, you don't need any exercise for that at all as long as you keep your calories in check. But again, any exercise beats NO exercise. Start with whatever you feel comfortable with and go from there.

I didn't read the through the entire post either. But I agree with this whole-heartedly. Before I changed my lifestyle part of the reason I didn't exercise was because I had this mental block that if I can't go for an hour, why waste my time. It was really flawed thinking.

Now that it's summer and I don't have to help get the kids ready for school I can get to the weight room early and do what I'd "like" to do. However, before that I had a weekly plan that involved 20 minutes workouts in the weight room over my lunch hour 3 times a week. It was effective as I could "feel" the workout the rest of the day, and I like the longer term results.

Is that how I want to work out? No, but it's doing something, and something is better than nothing.

I always say ...every little bit helps! And plus it's better than being at home sitting on you bottom.

I even do little 3 minute workouts @ home....

I have also read studies that the first 15 minutes of working out REALLY counts....

so just keep moving!! even if it is only minutes or hours....doesn't matter as long as your moving your body!

Alot of people have already commented, but I think you are fine with 30 minutes 3 times a week plus a walk on your lunch break. That is exactly the same as my older sister, she 37, 5ft tall, and very slender. She is, however, very careful with what she eats.

I agree with whoever else has said try to make your gym workouts high intensity and/or weights.

Also, there are quite a lot of videos on youtube. After you get started if you're really feeling the fitness you may want to add 20-30 minutes of videos another morning or two a week. I do this and have been losing inches and finally lost some weight too!

On the local news during their healthy life segment they said that longer is NOT always better. They found that between 30 minutes and an hour were the best for fat burning. And unless your training for a marathon running for more than an hour does not burn more fat. I don't know I'm not an expert, I'm just repeating what they said. Me personally I think that between 30 minutes and hour is enough time, but then again anything more than that for me is boring.

Beyond a certain point, there's no overall health benefit to going any further/longer. The only thing you're accomplishing is further increasing the amount of calories it takes to keep your body running properly. Yes you do see continued gains in terms of overall endurance, but it can come at a cost to other areas of fitness. At that point you're pigeonholing your body into only one aspect of fitness.