How Much Cardio Should I Do When Cutting Reddit

The Real Answer: Cardio Is Only 10% of Your Cut

If you're on Reddit asking 'how much cardio should I do when cutting,' the answer is to start with 2-3 weekly sessions that burn 250-300 calories each, because your diet is doing 90% of the work. You're probably asking this because you've hit a wall. You've seen the conflicting advice: one thread says "cardio kills gains," while another preaches hours on the treadmill. The truth is, both are wrong. You're stuck because you're treating cardio as the solution, when it's just a tool. The real engine of fat loss is your calorie deficit, period. Cardio is just a way to make that deficit a little deeper without having to starve yourself. Thinking you can out-run a sloppy diet is the #1 reason people burn out, lose muscle, and quit their cut entirely. We're going to fix that by treating cardio like a scalpel, not a sledgehammer. For a 180-pound person, this means starting with about 30-40 minutes of moderate-intensity work, like incline walking, just two or three times a week. That's it. Anything more, and you're likely creating more problems than you're solving.

The "Calorie Budget" No One Talks About

Here’s why that small amount of cardio works. Fat loss is just math, and your body runs on a weekly calorie budget. To lose one pound of fat, you need to create a deficit of roughly 3,500 calories. The most reliable way to do this is through your diet. For example, eating 500 fewer calories than you burn each day creates that 3,500-calorie weekly deficit on its own. This is your foundation. You could stop here and lose one pound a week without a single minute of cardio. So, where does cardio fit in? It’s an optional tool to widen that deficit. Let's look at the numbers. Three 300-calorie cardio sessions per week adds up to a 900-calorie deficit. When you add that to your 3,500-calorie diet deficit, you get a total weekly deficit of 4,400 calories. That's about 1.25 pounds of fat loss instead of just 1 pound. The mistake people make is trying to create the *entire* deficit with cardio. They eat at maintenance and try to burn 500 calories on the elliptical every single day. This approach fails because it dramatically increases fatigue and cortisol, which signals your body to preserve fat and break down muscle tissue. Your recovery capacity is already limited during a cut; hammering it with excessive cardio is the fastest way to lose the muscle you've worked hard to build. Cardio is a supplement to your diet deficit, not a replacement for it.

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Your 8-Week Cardio Protocol for Cutting

Stop guessing and follow a structured plan. This protocol introduces cardio strategically, only when it's needed, to preserve muscle and prevent burnout. This is for someone who already has their lifting routine dialed in 3-4 days a week.

Step 1: Lock In Your Diet First (Weeks 1-2)

Before you even think about cardio, your diet must be the priority. For the first two weeks of your cut, do zero formal cardio. Your only goal is to establish a consistent calorie deficit. A good starting point for your daily calories is your bodyweight in pounds multiplied by 12. For a 200lb person, that's 2,400 calories. Eat this amount every day and weigh yourself 3-4 times a week under the same conditions (e.g., right after waking up). If your average weekly weight is dropping by 0.5-1.0%, your diet is working. For that 200lb person, this means losing 1-2 pounds per week. Do not add cardio until this is stable.

Step 2: Introduce Your "Cardio Budget" (Weeks 3-4)

After a few weeks, your metabolism will adapt and fat loss will slow. This is normal. Now is the time to use your first tool. Introduce two weekly sessions of Low-Intensity Steady State (LISS) cardio. This is your "cardio budget." Aim for sessions that burn approximately 300 calories. Don't trust the machine's display; a good proxy is 35-45 minutes of activity at a heart rate of 120-140 BPM. The best option is walking on a treadmill at a high incline (e.g., 3.0 mph speed, 12% incline). This minimizes joint impact and won't interfere with your recovery from lifting. Schedule these sessions on your rest days or after your lifting workouts, never before.

Step 3: Make a Strategic Adjustment (Weeks 5-6)

Eventually, your fat loss will slow down again. You've hit another plateau. Now you have a choice. You can either a) cut another 150-200 calories from your daily diet, or b) add a third 300-calorie LISS session to your week. For most people, adding the cardio session is mentally easier than eating less food. This is the strategic power of a cardio budget. You're not just mindlessly doing more; you're making a specific change to overcome a specific plateau. This keeps your cut moving forward without making you feel deprived or exhausted. If you add the third session and fat loss resumes for another 2-3 weeks, you've made the right call.

Step 4: Deploy HIIT as a Finisher (Weeks 7-8)

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a powerful tool, but it's also incredibly taxing. Using it too early in a cut is a mistake. Save it for the final weeks to break through a stubborn plateau when LISS is no longer enough. Do NOT simply add HIIT on top of your other sessions. Instead, replace ONE of your three LISS sessions with one 15-minute HIIT session. A great example is on an assault bike or rower: perform 10 rounds of a 30-second all-out sprint followed by 90 seconds of slow recovery. This is more than enough. HIIT creates a significant metabolic disturbance that aids fat loss, but doing more than 1-2 sessions per week during a deep cut will crush your ability to recover and compromise your strength in the gym.

What Your Cut Will Actually Look and Feel Like

Forget the 30-day transformation photos. A real, sustainable cut is a 10-16 week process with distinct phases. Knowing what to expect will keep you from quitting when things get tough.

Weeks 1-4: The Honeymoon Phase. You'll see rapid weight loss in the first couple of weeks, mostly from water and glycogen. You'll feel motivated. Your lifts will stay strong. The 2-3 LISS sessions will feel manageable, almost easy. A 180-pound male can expect to lose 5-8 pounds in this first month. Enjoy it, but know that this initial pace will not last.

Weeks 5-8: The Grind. This is where most people fail. Fat loss slows to a crawl, maybe just 0.5-1 pound per week. Your muscles will look flat because of lower glycogen stores. You'll feel tired. Your lifts might stall or even drop slightly (a 5% decrease is normal). This is not a sign of failure; it's a sign the cut is working. This is when you make your strategic adjustment-adding that third cardio session or making a small diet change. The mental game is more important than the physical one here.

Weeks 9-12+: The Finish Line. You're lean, but you're also fatigued. This is where you deploy your final tool, like a single HIIT session, to push through the last few pounds. The goal now is simply to hold on to your strength and muscle. A warning sign that you're pushing too hard is when your main compound lifts (squat, bench press, deadlift) have dropped more than 15% from their starting numbers. If your 225-pound bench press has become a struggle at 190, you are losing muscle. It's a clear signal to increase calories slightly or reduce cardio volume. Preserve your strength at all costs.

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Frequently Asked Questions

The Best Type of Cardio for Cutting

For 90% of your cut, LISS (Low-Intensity Steady State) is the superior choice. This means activities like incline treadmill walking, stair climbing, or stationary cycling at a pace where you can hold a conversation. It effectively burns calories with minimal impact on recovery, which is your most valuable resource in a deficit.

Fasted Cardio vs. Fed Cardio

It makes no meaningful difference for total fat loss over 24 hours. While fasted cardio may burn a slightly higher percentage of fat *during the session*, your body compensates later in the day. The best time to do cardio is whenever you will consistently do it. Don't wake up at 5 AM for fasted cardio if you hate mornings.

Cardio Before or After Lifting

Always perform cardio *after* your weight training session or on separate days. Lifting requires maximal neurological drive and muscle glycogen. Doing cardio first fatigues your system and reduces the amount of weight and volume you can handle, compromising the very signal needed to maintain muscle during a cut.

How to Track Cardio Calories

Do not trust the calorie counters on cardio machines; they are wildly inaccurate and often overestimate burn by 20-40%. Instead of chasing a calorie number, use time and intensity as your metric. A "300-calorie session" is a target. The real goal is "40 minutes on the incline treadmill at 3.0 mph and 12% incline."

What If I Absolutely Hate Cardio

You don't have to do it. You can create the entire calorie deficit through diet alone. However, this means you will have to eat less food. Cardio is a tool that buys you calories. A 300-calorie session means you can eat 300 more calories that day, which can make a long diet much more sustainable.