Cardio...too much?

mslh84

@Azdak...thanks...I wouldn't even consider 1200 calories, my intake on here is 1530, and normally I burn at least 500 a day m-f...which puts me at just over 2k calories, I do eat some of it back, but not 2k worth...that still seems rather high to me...and I am thinking of changing my workout a bit...I just have no idea what I want to do...and I'm not paying for a personal trainer...the economy is too bad, and I can't afford that lol.

queenbeaumont

When I started going to the gym , I worked with a personal trainer to map out my personal goals to get to my desired goal. A few weeks later he saw me working on the treadmill and asked me how cardio I do in my workout, and I told him that I do about 90 minutes of cardio each time I worked out. He told me I should do no more than 60 minutes of cardio because I was dangerously close to burning muscle tissue and not fat doing that much cardio.

So now I only do a hour of cardio and 30 minutes of strength training.

Cooriander

bookmarked.

tigersword

cardio will never burn muscle unless you use up the body's store of glycogen AND fat. Only people in the last stages of starvation mode will burn muscle off.

Absolutely false. Fat is NOT a preferred energy source for the human body. Fat is an endocrine organ, and given the choice, the body will break down muscle and keep fat because fat is a higher priority. Body fat is responsible for creating and distributing various hormones to regulate normal body function, as well as regulating body temperature and protecting internal organs. If you aren't eating enough to support both muscle and fat, your body will burn off muscle first. Also, muscle takes a lot more calories to support than fat, so during times of large caloric deficits your body will burn off the muscle in order to conserve energy. This is essentially what people refer to as "starvation mode," as when you lose muscle, your BMR drops which slows your overall metabolism.

ninerbuff

That has nothing to do with the issue.

The statement being made (cardio burns muscle) implicitly if not explicitly states that it is some inherent mechanism of the cardiovascular exercise itself that results in "muscle burn". Or that "cardio is useless for fat loss". Or that "cardio kills metabolism". It is disingenuous to suggest otherwise--that these "trainers" REALLY mean "excessive cardio without adequate protein intake could lead to losses in fat free mass."

Inadequate protein intake, regardless of one's activity level or regardless of type of activity will bead to negative nitrogen balance. To selectively apply this to cardiovascular exercise suggests that one is trying to defend an ideological position rather than a scientific one.

Fair enough, however how does one know if their are in positive nitrogen balance? I would venture to bet that most people eat much less protein than they need to to reach it and stay in it. Institute of Medicine states a DRI of 0.4 grams per pound of bodyweight, but that's just to maintain. Doubling it would help with muscle building or retention provided you also have enough calories to support the workouts, but most people here are on deficits. So 1 gram per pound of bodyweight would be ideal. And IMO, I doubt that majority of people here are taking in that much protein, which would lead myself to believe they are losing lean muscle tissue if they are doing cardio only exercise.

ninerbuff

cardio will never burn muscle unless you use up the body's store of glycogen AND fat. Only people in the last stages of starvation mode will burn muscle off.

Incorrect. Research it. Even the best people at losing body fat (bodybuilders who compete professionally) lose muscle along with body fat.
Long distance and marathon runners are another example of people who high carb and lose lean muscle with cardio.

ninerbuff

And that's just not true. Unfortunately, a lot of personal trainers seem susceptible to chasing whatever buzzword or fad is in vogue that particular week.

Cardiovascular exercise does not "slow your metabolism". That's such utter nonsense that the only way someone can say that with a straight face is if they are just blindly repeating something they heard or read without even thinking about it.

Weight loss plateaus can be frustrating and weight loss success is uneven. Everyone wants to find a simple reason why they are not seeing the success they want.

The single biggest reason why weight loss plateaus is because people go back into energy balance. They either decrease their casual activity, subtly increase their caloric intake, or both. That's not the only reason, but it is so prevalent that it is always the first place you should look. In addition, many people here overestimate their exercise calories and eat back too much.

Weight loss can also stall when people go into the opposite direction--they combine a high volume of high intensity exercise with a low calorie intake. This can lead to chronically elevated levels of stress hormones. If you have been trying to maintain 1200 calories a day for a while, you might want to consider a "diet break" of 7 days, eating at maintenance.

Since you are already putting in the time, I would look at the quality of your workouts. If you are not doing so, I would do a couple of days of harder intervals/circuit workouts, and make sure you are pushing hard on the weights.

I completely agree with you here.

ninerbuff

Absolutely false. Fat is NOT a preferred energy source for the human body. Fat is an endocrine organ, and given the choice, the body will break down muscle and keep fat because fat is a higher priority. Body fat is responsible for creating and distributing various hormones to regulate normal body function, as well as regulating body temperature and protecting internal organs. If you aren't eating enough to support both muscle and fat, your body will burn off muscle first. Also, muscle takes a lot more calories to support than fat, so during times of large caloric deficits your body will burn off the muscle in order to conserve energy. This is essentially what people refer to as "starvation mode," as when you lose muscle, your BMR drops which slows your overall metabolism.

Good to see some people actually know what they are talking about. I love biology, endocrinology, kinesiology!