Is there such a thing as too much cardio....

AliciaBeth78
AliciaBeth78 Posts: 437 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
For the last 8 months I have been strength training and I have to admit - I LOVE IT! I had been following my trainers advice and doing a 5 minute warm up, 30-45 minutes strength training/circuit session and then 30 minutes of intense cardio. I continued to stay within my calorie range and hadn't lost a pound!

Last month I finally started cutting back on strength and focusing on more cardio to lose this stubborn fat around my tummy! I've been strength training on Monday with my trainer doing the same thing as always and then Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday doing at least 1.5 hours of pretty intense cardio, usually burning 900-1000 calories. The weight is finally dropping! YAY!

Herein lies the problem, everyone keeps telling me that I'm doing too much cardio and I'm burning muscle... Not sure how to react to this! What do you guys think?

Help?

P.S. Pretty intense cardio = 60 minutes on the elliptical followed by 30 minutes walking on the treadmill at 2.5mph and a 10-15% incline - and no I don't hold on to the rails! :tongue:

Replies

  • h0m36r0wn
    h0m36r0wn Posts: 33
    http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2010/02/01/what-burns-more-calories-cardio-intervals-or-weight-training/
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
    I'd say yes.. you are doing too much cardio. You need to do both strength and cardio to retain what muscle you have and burn the fat. Muscle burns more calories than fat at rest, so the more you have, the more you burn over all during the day.

    I'd say do 3 days of strength and 3 of cardio and see if that helps. I never do my strength and cardio in the same day.

    This week for me it will prob. look like this:
    Upper Body on Sunday
    Lower Body on Monday
    Cardio Tuesday
    Cardio Wednesday
    Trainer on Thursday
    Cardio Fri
    Rest Sat

    Repeat cycle on Sunday.
  • AliciaBeth78
    AliciaBeth78 Posts: 437 Member
    Just have to say that I LOVE THIS! I'm a total ORIGINAL star wars geek and anything with storm troopers working out is totally going to get my attention! Thank you for posting this article!!!!

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