Half an hour at the gym - is that enough?

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.
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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.

I had great success doing the strong lifts 5x5 program. It's only about a half an hour 3 times a week and I saw wonderful results. Also, lifting weights gave me wonderful tone!

It depends on your body type. And fitness level. Each of the body types require different exercise regimens.
Check out these websites for the best info.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wotw70.htm

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/becker3.htm

Different things work for different people (as I'm sure we are all aware of. However, while 30 minutes may seem nothing to one person, it can be something to another. For me personally, 30 minutes would be my first exercise of the day (yes I do more than one workout a day). What I usually do is I start with my Dailyburn workout in the morning (usually 28-30 minutes), then I go head to the gym at planet fitness for 30 minutes. Then after work, I go home and do the dailyburn 365 workout. That gives me about 1.5 hours a day of working out. All different levels of intensity. But again it is more about what you eat.

If you are limited to 30 minutes then you may want to incorporate HIIT instead of steady state cardio.
30 minutes of HIIT (providing you keep the intensity up) will leave you exhausted and feeling like you've had a good workout!

I think your time would be better spent on doing either cardio or strength training for the full 30 min and alternating days. You can get a full body strength workout done in 30 min, and it would be better to hit all those muscles 2-3x week rather than just some parts for the 10 min at the end of your cardio. If you continue your walks at lunch, you don't necessarily have to do more cardio at the gym.