Cardio to maintain muscle

Des92

Here's my situation! I did Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and Ripped in 30. Between the 2 I gained a good amount of muscle, not a lot, but I'm happy with it for now. Now I'm focusing more on cardio - I swim about twice a week and am trying to get into running. I also still do JM videos every so often, but not every day like I used to. I also try to get some abs into every cardio workout.

My question is: will increasing cardio without adding strength cause me to lose the muscle I gained? I feel my arms, legs, and chest working when I swim (I do lap-swimming workouts for about an hour at a time with very little breaks) so I feel like I'm getting some muscle conditioning out of it, but I'm just not sure. I usually work out 5-6 days a week.

In case it's relevant, my MFP is set to lose 1 lb/wk which gives me 1220 calories. Soon I am changing it to lose 1/2 lb/wk (when I get within 10 lbs of my goal weight, which will happen when I lose 2 more). It is set to 40% carbs, 30% protein, and 30% fat. I am also open to suggestions for changing this

So, do I need to add more strength to avoid losing muscle?!? Thank you!

polo571

Check out HIIT training. It preserves muscle and gives you a good workout to loose the fat

SaintOnEarth

oh believe me, swimming laps is very muscularly (word?) involved.. Although swimming is very heavy in cardio, you are also working out A LOT of your muscles.. I'd say you will not lose muscles.

MikeDailyIntake

If you eat the right calories and amount of protein then you shouldn't lose much muscle at all if any. when strength training you should only hit one muscle group a week anyway other than doing cardio. (or whenever the soreness goes away)

KavemanKarg

Keep a weekly strength training session, do big full body movements, you will do fine at maintaining.

Jessicaruby

bump

grneyedgf

Your body burns CARBS, THEN FAT, THEN MUSCLE. You need to eat enough protien to sustain muscle, but you won't lose muscle unless you deprive the body of the of the other two (carbs & fat).

Jeff92se

Your body burns CARBS, THEN FAT, THEN MUSCLE. You need to eat enough protien to sustain muscle, but you won't lose muscle unless you deprive the body of the of the other two (carbs & fat).

I don't know about that. I think if you had people measuring the bodyfat after their weight loss, you'd find that most have lost both. Perhaps more excess fat than muscle but it's extremely difficult to lose just fat and not any muscle. Even bodybuilders who go to extreme lengths to maintain their mass while cutting down have to come to terms that they will lose some muscle during the process.

PBJunky

I'm quite tired and don't feel like correcting the others. Just have your 3 strength training sessions a week as to keep stimulating your muscles, your body adapts around your workload so if you don't use you will lose it. As for cardio well there is the wonderful thing called catabolism, so make sure your protein intake is adequate as to preserve as much muscle mass as possible.

Des92

Check out HIIT training. It preserves muscle and gives you a good workout to loose the fat

My Uni offers HIIT classes free to students. I'm gonna have to check it out!

Thanks for the responses!

joejccva71

I'm quite tired and don't feel like correcting the others. Just have your 3 strength training sessions a week as to keep stimulating your muscles, your body adapts around your workload so if you don't use you will lose it. As for cardio well there is the wonderful thing called catabolism, so make sure your protein intake is adequate as to preserve as much muscle mass as possible.

Lol now you know how I feel bro.

lockef

Your body burns CARBS, THEN FAT, THEN MUSCLE. You need to eat enough protien to sustain muscle, but you won't lose muscle unless you deprive the body of the of the other two (carbs & fat).

Ummm... No!

Jeff92se

Your body burns CARBS, THEN FAT, THEN MUSCLE. You need to eat enough protien to sustain muscle, but you won't lose muscle unless you deprive the body of the of the other two (carbs & fat).

Ummm... No!

That doesn't really help anyone

lockef

That doesn't really help anyone

Neither does this.

joejccva71

Your body burns CARBS, THEN FAT, THEN MUSCLE. You need to eat enough protien to sustain muscle, but you won't lose muscle unless you deprive the body of the of the other two (carbs & fat).

Ummm... No!

That doesn't really help anyone

Lock has a point though. People tend to post things stated as facts when they haven't done squat for research to actually see if it's true, which it wasn't. It does get annoying after a while.

Jeff92se

That doesn't really help anyone

Neither does this.

Right. Then again, I've already posted a constructive comment towards the subject.

Jeff92se

Your body burns CARBS, THEN FAT, THEN MUSCLE. You need to eat enough protien to sustain muscle, but you won't lose muscle unless you deprive the body of the of the other two (carbs & fat).

Ummm... No!

That doesn't really help anyone

Lock has a point though. People tend to post things stated as facts when they haven't done squat for research to actually see if it's true, which it wasn't. It does get annoying after a while.

I tend to agree that he's right. But he hasn't posted anything to change that's person's mind either.

I personally blame the piss poor way the site handles(or DOESN'T handle) repeated topics more than anything else.

lockef

There are absolutely no studies (that I know of) that support anything close to what she said. There is accurate information out there... hell, it's even on these forums if people would search for it.

It gets old.

Carbs, then fat, then muscle? This is the first I've heard of that. My first post was me being nice.

Jeff92se

There are absolutely no studies (that I know of) that support anything close to what she said. There is accurate information out there... hell, it's even on these forums if people would search for it.

It gets old.

Why not just keep a bunch of titled links in your sig and each time someone mentions some obvious myth, you can just reply "refer to link labeled "XXXXXXX". So you only have to write out these explanations once.

For the record, I know she's wrong but I'd like to read one article about how the body goes about choosing what to burn in what order. I was trying to bait you into posting an article. A layman's version would be nice.

ninerbuff

Your body burns CARBS, THEN FAT, THEN MUSCLE. You need to eat enough protien to sustain muscle, but you won't lose muscle unless you deprive the body of the of the other two (carbs & fat).

Actually your body will naturally burn muscle before fat unless you deter it too.

Azdak

The adaptive response to your training routine will be dependent on the activities. Training results are very specific. If you "gain muscle" following a specific program, that muscle developed as an adaptation to the specific activity you were doing.

If you change the workout routine, the adaptation will change as well. Whether or not you maintain your current muscle mass depends on how closely the demands of your new routine match those of your old ones. If you had been doing a traditional strength routine, the answer would be pretty clear. Since you were doing circuit-training type classes, the difference might not be so great.

As someone suggested you could add a day or two of 6 or so big muscle exercises that would help maintain your strength and muscle. Swimming, while it involves a lot of musculature, is not really resistance exercise.