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2003/06/21, 10:38 AM
..that muscle is not atrophied?
I am 5'7, male and 148 lbs. I am just trying to bring down the body fat percentage and gain lean muscle. I eat 5 meals/day and have a good eating pattern.
But whenever I do cardio for 45 min/ 3 to 4 times per week, I have noticed that I lose muscle. How do I focus on losing fat without affecting the muscle?
Should I focus on running at a specific heart rate to achieve this? or is there any other solution?
thanks
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2003/06/21, 11:30 AM
For gaining muscle 45 minutes is a pretty long time to do cardio. If you've ever noticed in the Olympics marathon runners are always real skinny, but sprinters are usually pretty big and look strong. So that goes to say it might be a little better to run sprints to put on muscle.
If your eating right and working out, I would just cut back to 20 minutes of cardio about 2-3 times a week.
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2003/06/21, 12:32 PM
Try cutting your cardio sessions down to 20-30 minutes and stay at around 65%-70% of your max HR. And post workout have good carbs and protein, not to forget about good fats also in that meal.
Hope this helps.
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You can walk to anywhere you want, it only takes time.
Ivan Montreal Canada (aka SpongeBob Square Pants to some!)
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2003/06/21, 04:28 PM
45 min. of cardio is way too long. If you are trying to gain lean mass, and cut bodyfat, then do your weight training first if you do not now. Do 2-4 sessions of cardio, 2 standard, 2 HIIT type, every other time to keep your body from guessing. On the HIIT type, stay at 15-18 min. max, on standard, 20-25 max. Do these either after weight training, or on another day is fine. Too long a duration of cardio will actually send your body into what it percieves as starvation mode, and catabolic hormones will be produced to help save fat, and thus use muscle. Your bodies main goal is not fat loss, but preservation of life. And then most of all, none of this will do any good without proper diet. Have a diet low in carbs that have a higher GI rating, thus creating rising and falling blood sugars. This is job one to avoid to either gain or lose. One other note, in contrast to our esteemed colleague Carivan, I would not include fats in your post workout meal. They are not metabolized well at this time, and also slow absorbtion of nutrients needed for muscle repair. Hope this helps and makes sense...good luck...
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As far as genetics go, the skies the limit. You are limited only by your mental perception of it.
Ron
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2003/06/22, 10:19 AM
Thanks.I do weight training. When you say 2-4 sessions, do you mean per week or per day?
What do you consider std cardio session? I run at 6-7 miles/hr on a treadmill forr 20-25 min. Is that considered standard?
Also wen you do HIIT for 18 min...(say on a treadmill)..do I run for 30 sec at high intensity and jog for 30 sec?(and continue the same for 18 min? Or can at high intensity for 2-3 min and then jog for 3 min and repeat thhe cycle?
Thanks again everyone.
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Quoting from bb1fit:
45 min. of cardio is way too long. If you are trying to gain lean mass, and cut bodyfat, then do your weight training first if you do not now. Do 2-4 sessions of cardio, 2 standard, 2 HIIT type, every other time to keep your body from guessing. On the HIIT type, stay at 15-18 min. max, on standard, 20-25 max. Do these either after weight training, or on another day is fine. Too long a duration of cardio will actually send your body into what it percieves as starvation mode, and catabolic hormones will be produced to help save fat, and thus use muscle. Your bodies main goal is not fat loss, but preservation of life. And then most of all, none of this will do any good without proper diet. Have a diet low in carbs that have a higher GI rating, thus creating rising and falling blood sugars. This is job one to avoid to either gain or lose. One other note, in contrast to our esteemed colleague Carivan, I would not include fats in your post workout meal. They are not metabolized well at this time, and also slow absorbtion of nutrients needed for muscle repair. Hope this helps and makes sense...good luck...
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2003/06/22, 02:25 PM
2-4 sessions of cardio per week. This depends on your goals. For yours of bringing down BF, I would opt for the 4. What you do on the treadmill for 20 minutes is fine as far as standard, a steady pace. HIIT is exactly as you described it. Either way is fine, just keep trying to improve your times of high intensity to active rest. The key is the interval times. Heart rate up and down, use muscle at an all out pace, like a sprinter as compared to a runner's physique. All out short bursts of work as compared to long duration stuff.
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As far as genetics go, the skies the limit. You are limited only by your mental perception of it.
Ron
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2003/06/22, 07:39 PM
I'm so glad you asked about that; I've been wondering how to do HIIT on a treadmill!
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