Is doing 5-10 mins of 'proper' exercise (cardio) better than doing none

[FreakoidOrganisoid]

Or do you really need to do the 20-30 mins recommended in order to gain anything?

yes it's better than nothing -why can't you do 20-30?

Something is better than nothing. or do 'interval' training where you go NUTS for one minute, then jog or whatever for one minute then GO NUTs again etc etc

It's 30 mins over the course of a full day that makes the difference so 6 times five mins would make a great difference.

Star jumps while your waiting for the sink to fill/pots to soak, run the first five mins of the school run etc.

I thought to get a "training benefit" ie improve performance, you needed to raise your heart rate for a minimum of 20 minutes. If your aim, however, is just to burn calories, then 5-10 minutes is better than nothing.

Too lazy cornsilk

And I really don't enjoy it and get bored after just a few minutes...

Not trying to lose weight, and I walk a lot but just want to tone up a bit (especially the belly)

I feel your pain. I hate tummy exercises. Walking is good. What about swimming?

If it's toning up you want you would probably be better to go for exercises that target specific muscle groups, eg abs, rather than cardio stuff, which really is mainly for fat burning

Yes agree with jooly. I hate exercising but I love doing weights. Get some good tunes on your i-pod. Sorted.

There are many reasons why not swimming. 2 buses to get to pool, extortionate price, never without ds so wouldn't get a proper swim....I could go on but really I am just too insecure to wear a swimming costume (or bikini or tankini...)

Yes that's too much effort!

Yes I have been doing some abs stuff and I do have some muscle there but it's currently covered up with a flab layer so I think I need the cardio. Plus the cardio feels more worthwhile afterwards iyswim.

I have tried doing various exercise regimes but have always given up because I CBA to do the 20-30 mins so it's good to hear that doing a little bit is still worth it in some way...

any excersize is better than none, but if you want to tone your tummy, rather than just increase your heart rate or burn calories you need to do excersises that target those muscles.

Do a minute of 'plank' a day, and increase this as your tummy gets stronger to however long you can hold the position for.

running is really good, it quickly burns off fat, so that combined with specific tummy excersises should get you a more toned flat tummy quickly.

So if I do say 5 mins running/aerobics/dance then some ab work will that be enough to start with?(and maybe as I get more used to doing it I will be able to last longer )

There isn't a lot of point in building muscle without losing the fat, you will jsut have like you say, nice muscles under a layer of fat!

I read somewhere that there is no such thing as 'jsut toning'. It is after all jsut building a moderate level of muscle but without losing the fat, you aren't going to see it. The fat will only go by burning more calories than you consume. So if you don't like doing much cardio then you jsut need to eat a lot less!

I get bored spending too long doing cardio, but cycle a lot now which I find slightly less boring. I also swim once or twice a week.

I still have a bit of fat over my muscles even though my bmi is healthy so I'm working on that, but I find I have to do a lot more than 30 mins a day to make a difference!

also, to burn fat, you need to exercise more in the fat burning range rather than full out cardio range, which is easier to sustain for longer periods. You shouldn't be so out of breath that you can't talk. I aim for a heartrate of about 135bpm.

I can't really aford to eat less, I barely have a healthy BMI as it is (verging on underweight). The issue is that ALL my weight is around my middle so it looks worse than it probably is. But I also know there is no such thing as targetted weight loss...

blimey and you don't do cardio? I'm rather envious now!

You could prob do with speakign to a personal trainer.

No, but I do have a houdini 2 year old and don't spend much time sitting down. Walk 3 miles 2/3 times a week, sometimes more.

What are you eating? You can eat a little of the wrong food which will mean you have a bmi of 18 or less, but can also mean that you have far to much fat.

What are you eating, you you change you diet so that you eat more and then can biuld some muscle - though biulding muscle is really not easy without a lot of work for females

Could be that ivykaty.

Breakfast is cereal (big bowl)-usually weetabix or porridge, sometimes shreddies. And tea.

Lunch is usually something like a sandwich, sometimes leftovers.

Dinner just normal main meal type food, veggie 3/4 times a week. Fairly healthy stuff I think.

Don't usually bother with puddings, I snack on biscuits/chocolate/cake if I have it in but often don't so a snack would be toast/crackers/fruit etc.

I drink 2/3 teas or coffees a day, then about the same of water. Don't drink anything else really, sometime a glass of wine or g&t.

Could probably do with drinking more water but it makes me feel sloshy!

Probably use too much butter in cooking etc-left over from when I was v underweight and was told to add butter to everything.