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2003/10/24, 08:03 AM
I started working out about 3 months ago and am doing weight training as well as cardio. I've gotten my reps up to 4 sets from 2 and have gone from 30 minutes to almost an hour of cardio (18 treadmill, 18 crosstrainer, 18 bike). My goal is weight loss and tone, not muscle gain so im stayin at lower weights and doing more sets and reps. Someone at work said you should be staying at 45 minutes of cardio because during your cardio workout, your body is burning fat, yes i agree to that, but he said after 40-45 minutes of cardio your body will stop burning fat and will start burning muscle. any truth to this? should I be staying at 40-45 minutes of cardio and just increase speeds or is it alright for me to keep increasing my times on cardio machines.
thanks for the info!!
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2003/10/24, 08:36 AM
Cardio is a 2 edged sword. Yes it will help burn fat, but after a while (about 45 mins to 1 hr) it will burn muscle over time. That is why long distance runners are very lean. AS for your plan to do light weights and lots of sets, well I am do not believe that is the only way to go. I used to do that, and lost more weight and inches by switching to a high weight lower rep scheme. Your body, will actually burn more fat by haveing more muscle. I mean by this is that if you increase your overall muscle mass, there will be 2 effects. One is that you will lose size and lose body fat. Two is that as your muscle mass increases it will burn more fat resting (just normal activity) than if you had less. So the best way to lose and appear toned(i hate that word), is to build muscle. The workout you have outlined is bascialy all cardio. While for whort periods this is actually a good thing over a long time frame(months) it could cause you to lose muscle and increase the fat. Just my opinion as we all are different, but if you are unhappy with the progress change it up. You might be very surprised what a heavier weight workout can do, and do not worry about building to much muscle that takes a good amount of time to get really huge.
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Eat More, Drink More, and Lift Harder than you thought you could, welcome to Becoming!
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2003/10/24, 01:01 PM
Honestly, I didn't have any serious improvements in tone until I started lifting AHAP. (As Heavy As Possible). I lift like there's no tomorrow but also wear the smallest clothing sixe I ever have. All on only 30 min. of cardio at a time. Keep in mind that adding muscle to your frame will also raise your metabolic rate and burn fat with less effort. Of course, you need to be properly instructed and spotted when necessary, safety must be your first priority. Read some previous posts, there's great information about this topic.
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Think you can or think you can't; either way you're right--Goethe
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