To summarize and review, getting rid of fat requires a calorie deficit. 1 of 7. Hi, I'm trying to lose some weight and I have a friend who has invited me to get into running with them. When it comes to the “best cardio workout” or the “best cardio routine”, there tends to be a lot of confusion. https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-016-0700-9?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=BMC_TrendMD. To include weight lifting. Can you comment more on body fat percentage and how to burn that? This appears to conflict with non-broscience data showing that there is lean mass loss in dieting without exercise. don't over think it your body is made to do cardio, your not going to turn into a stick, look at sprinters physiques. sprinters don't do long distance cardio. Without the right balance between workouts, nutrition, and recovery (according to the individual goals), however, this activity can cost you your muscles. Step 1 . Do you skip cardio in fear that it’ll burn off your much-loved muscle? (Was formerly pretty overweight, 205lbs a few years ago, lost 50 on keto and started lifting.) The other issue is that chronically doing too much cardio can lead to actually losing muscle. Just my guesstimate. If you lift heavy you might lose 80% fat / 20% muscle. If you are full keto, your body will be wanting to conserve glucose and therefore you may see performance issues. Trained individuals can preserve muscle mass on a deficit, but again it depends on your current training level and the intensity of your deficit. You will not lose muscle doing cardio. Would adding BCAA help with sustaining / growing? I'm terrible at cardio but it seems like it'd be fun and worthwhile so I'm going to try to run a 10k next year. Our study concluded that long-term fat loss is actually lowest with moderate intensity, long-duration cardio. Asked before, but only response was downvoted heavily, which makes me assume he was wrong. —Chris G., Effingham, IL. Edit; and I'm just going to state this explicitly because going through the comments I'm getting pretty annoyed: there is a huge amount of broscience and pseudoscience in this thread. Well, don't look to "enhanced" bodybuilders for applicable advice. But I know your body will eventually break down muscle or fat on long runs after it's used up all its glycogen reserves, and since I am currently eating low-carb, I don't have much of those. Each body is different and usually takes several weeks at least for initial adjustment to anything. If you begin losing too much strength during a cut, more than what you'd expect to lose due to reduced leverages and whatnot, then it's a good indicator that you're losing muscle and something needs to be changed. Also even if you do.. If you are spend most of your time at an easy intensity, glucose reserves aren't a big issue; you don't have enough glucose debt for it to be a problem. If you do lots of cardio you might lose 70% fat / 30% muscle. Cardio workout – duration Torch calories, boost your endurance, and build strength with these alternative cardio workouts. Skip to content. Endurance and strength will both improve slightly. So you can do both of you know how to recover. There is a theoretical maximum amount of fat loss your body can endure, before it starts losing muscle. In fact, some types of cardio may help recovery by promoting blood flow to the muscles without causing further damage. So it could be 6 weeks. Works for me. I was planning to run a strength block in a small surplus to build (back) a little upper body muscle (mainly bench/arm work with a bit of pulling to supplement the back work from climbing), without looking to add mass to my legs, which is generally deleterious for my sport. You can do all the cardio you want, but if you’re eating too many calories, then you won’t lose fat. Although from 2007 this article does not appear to contain information that has subsequently been rebutted. By no means do I wish to start a fruitless argument here, I'm interested in your take on this. Next best is cardio. Had 1 workout a week where it was just running and just workout out. Pure strength training, such as lifting heavy singles, doubles, or triples, relies heavily on your neural drive, the speed you shift from using Type I to Type II muscle fibers, and your ability to get maximal muscle fiber recruitment. You are better off using a full-body workout machine in the gym or include one in your home gym setup. I'm very late to this thread but let me comment anyway. Explore the benefits of whole food, low carb dieting and achieve your optimal body composition with the help of the Ketogains Protocol. The cardio workout itself is a useful activity. That's more because many guys who lift aren't really great cooks. Not doubting but I’d like to read up. (Source: I studied holistic and sports nutrition), You won’t lose muscle from cardio, especially at this level and if you (assuming are a male) are at 17% BF. The Bottom Line on Cardio for Fat Loss and Muscle Growth. The amount of glucose you burn is mostly dependent on your intensity. Muscle starts getting burned in non-negligible amounts only in extreme cases. https://www.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00853.2006. Studies show that about 3 hours per week won't interfere with strength much at all. Sounded great to me until I heard that cardio can cause muscle loss. I still have fat I want to get rid of and I was worried it might go to my muscle stores because of how much I am at a deficit becuase of the walking. I generally recommend that endurance athletes start around 50 grams/day and go up if they run in to performance issues. Cycling at a low-to-moderate intensity for 20-30 minutes the day after a heavy leg workout, for example, will often reduce post-exercise muscle soreness, and may accelerate the rate at which muscle damage is repaired. That being said I am not a professional nutritionist/exercise specialist, so if anything that I've said needs correction/clarification please comment. It could be another 3 weeks of legit same run before feel better to start pushing. https://journals.humankinetics.com/doi/abs/10.1123/ijsnem.2017-0221. So never truly a total rest day off. Experiment. In other words, if you become a slave to the cardio section of your gym (uhm, the incline treadmill, or other cardio machines), you will end up losing your hard-earned muscle mass instead of growing muscles, and we don’t want that to happen, do we? By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. Body. Current routine is weights 4 days per week (plus some indoor climbing) and I've seen decent progress lately. Do you know if it's possible to build up cardio endurance for jogging by speedwalking or something? Not 100% clear that diet only lost muscle but that seems plausible. Empowered. That’s why you don’t have to do cardio to lose fat. Maintaining muscle mass requires lifting weights and eating enough protein. Eat well and train hard and you’ll build muscle. Don't worry about muscle loss if you do this. We also saw that the longer you do cardio per day, the greater the losses are in muscle mass. The best way to achieve that is by lifting heavy. Mind. x. Interesting, I typically do the opposite - fasted for easy runs (<80% Max HR) and carbs for speed work or anything where I'm in the 90%+ zone. How to Lose Fat Without Losing Muscle. How fast can I lose fat without losing muscle? That might mean losing 60% fat / 40% muscle. Thus dying faster. Q: I've heard that doing cardio will keep me from gaining muscle. If you want to improve your cardio without losing the muscle mass you've worked hard to achieve, you can do so by altering your workout and modifying your eating habits to promote the maintenance of muscle mass during cardio training. Thanks for any advice. But don't throw the baby out with the bath water either. Here's how to use different forms of cardio without losing lifting progress. "Conditioning is the tool to improve your cardiovascular system, and it's viable to do this without losing muscle," Holder says. In fact, far from burning away the hard work you put in on the gym floor, the researchers found cardio can actually increase muscle size. These are mutually exclusive physiological adaptations. Have fun with your friend. For as long as I’ve been weight training (over 20 years), I can’t remember a time that I enjoyed doing cardio. Thank you for your awesome reply. Macros are approximately 600cal protein, 100cal carbs, 1300cal fat for the past few weeks and I've been maintaining my current weight. You haven’t appreciated eating until you’ve eaten a 1800 calorie bowl of chicken fried (brown) rice. The point is that to gain muscle, MPS (muscle protein synthesis) > MPB (muscle protein breakdown). I dont have the means to take body fat measurements. Combining cardio and strength training is fab for fat loss and muscle gain and even better for heart health. Don’t worry though, there is nothing to worry about if you are training smart. I jumped to a low carb diet maybe 100g a day and have had much better gains. Usually I carb up for long distance cardio days while on sprint days I go fasted. Ten men aged between 25 and 30 were put through a … www.Ketogains.com, Press J to jump to the feed. So the glucose burn you see depends on your training and your workout intensity. Your base level aerobic system can - with adequate training - run primarily on fat. The goal is to lose as much fat and as little muscle as possible. I don't recommend the technique their testing, essentially steroids, but the control group on diet only seems to have lost some muscle. If you have a huge amount of muscle that you don't use for several months this muscle will be lost, yes. I wouldn't even seriously think about these types of things, but that's me. Cardio will help you burn more calories, but this doesn’t mean cardio is the best way to lose fat. As humans get older, they lose muscle at a predictable rate if they don’t do anything about it. All exercise is catabolic. You will automatically lose muscle when you lose fat/weight. Fitness and weight-loss coach Dave Smith told the Huffington Post that because cardio is not the most effective fat-blasting workout, you'll have to keep doing more and more if you want to see weight loss. I did keto for two years and loved it, but as a bodybuilder the progress was slow. I would say I am pretty average at my gym, most recent 5x5 lifts were 250 squat, 150 bench, 110 OHP, 300 DL. If you're eating a reasonable caloric deficit (250-1000cal below maintenance per day) and eating a balanced diet then you shouldn't worry about muscle loss. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. I’m sure that’s nothing for some of you, but it’s enough to fucking suck, which is why you always see people clean eating the boring plain chicken and veggies when they're trying to bulk up. One of the biggest fears that people have about cardio is that it will make them lose their hard earned muscle mass. its all about caloric intake and stimulation of your muscles... tl;dr - you likely won't lose muscle if you start running unless you eat no protein and stop lifting. You work hard for those muscles and don’t want to lose them running on a hamster wheel, but there is a way to incorporate cardio into your regime without sacrificing muscle mass.. To keep those gains and not lose any of your muscle mass, it is essential to follow these simple tips. Here is one of the main reasons why I don’t enjoy doing 45 … For example, burning 200 Calories doing cardio will allow you to eat another 200 Calories (50 grams) of muscle-sparing protein while still maintaining the same caloric deficit. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, Discussion of physical fitness/exercise goals and how they can be achieved, Press J to jump to the feed. Your hard work is paying off! A: It depends. they retain muscle because they are training in explosive bursts... the guys you are likely talking about are also on steroids. At the end of the day, fat loss comes down to one thing: energy balance. That being said if you're an intermediate or above powerlifter and you haven't been powerlifting for months and only running and dieting, you will lose a non-negligible amount of muscle. Combine all three, and you have the recipe for losing fat without losing muscle. Then adjust training from there... last anecdotal over at one Of the nsuns Reddit’s (overran by trolls) the guy was able to lift 6 days a week and run 6 days a week. True? Not sure how much context is relevant but I'm 26M, 5'8", 158lbs, and 17% BF. Between ages 50 and 70, most people will have lost 30% of their muscle mass, and then another 20% or so to age 80, a full half of all muscle being lost by that age. Muscle loss with aging. The high level aerobic system runs purely on glucose. Combine Strength With Hypertrophy. As long as you train properly, I wouldn't worry about catabolism as it's not an issue at normal durations. I want to get to where I can say words while slowly jogging, but right now even plodding at 2mph puts me above my ventilatory threshold. Their use of anabolic drugs counteracts any drawbacks that cardio could have on muscle mass. If you push high intensity a lot - and this is really common when doing an activity with people who are better than you - you will compromise the fat-burning adaptation that you are looking for. Credentials: scientist in biomedicine/biotechnology/bioscience with very extensive knowledge of biochemistry/metabolism and hobbyist interest in nutrition and exercise. Follow these seven tips to burn fat without losing hard-earned muscle. Cardio after weights = more weight loss. It will be negligible. How To Do Cardio Without Losing Muscle. a few sessions of running, even distance running, each week will not turn you into a runner. Period. His goal was to squat 500lbs the same day he ran a 5min mile or was it 6? Without adequate amounts of protein, you’ll end up losing muscle as well as fat. Also, if you are full keto your body will want to conserve glucose, and it that may compromise your performance. Keep your protein on the high end and to minimize any risk, if any, just keep lifting and cardio sessions separately (not back to back). Cookies help us deliver our Services. Strength training is both anabolic and catabolic, hence why you build muscle. Keto eating, new workout regimen. I don’t mean any offence, but you’re too small to be worried about losing muscle. Subscribe. That amount is 31 calories/day/lb of fat (Note that the author revised this number from 31 to 22 cal an email exchange with Redditor, Chr0me). If you spend a fair bit of time at higher intensities - where you are breathing hard - you will burn more glucose. First, stop thinking of it as cardio; it’s conditioning “Conditioning is the tool to improve your cardiovascular system, and it’s viable to do this without losing muscle,” Holder says. Going to be simplistic here compared to the answers you’ve seen. View author archive; Get author RSS feed; Most Popular Today 1 … It's frustrating but understandable, sifting through the vast amounts of information out there on nutrition and exercise is very difficult, which is why I did it for you and provided my credentials. If you are losing weight without resistance training, you are probably losing some muscle. This is what happens when you ditch cardio for weight training By Vanessa Brown, News.com.au . I have not found much research on the topic but I find that lower deficits will help you retain muscle mass over time. He did it. You seem to have the knowledge I need. More than that it will start to zap gains, Edit: sourced below, study showed 2 hours not 3, shame on me and shat memory, Source? It doesn’t matter whether you obtain a negative energy balance through diet or through cardio, the fat loss results will be the same. Cardio may suck, but it is a powerful tool at your disposal to aid in fat loss. Define 'losing muscle' when you are doing cardio. We hear you! How do I know if what I lost was fat, and how do i prevent from losing muscle in the future? Also make sure you get enough protein in your diet...protein encourages muscle growth/retention which is why you always see people clean eating the boring plain chicken and veggies when they're trying to bulk up. I agree, but this is also why I think it's so important to strength train while losing weight as well. So most of your training should be at easy intensities and only small amounts of higher intensity. For sure you need to hit your macros to progress (and your micros to optimise your progression and remain healthy) but that doesn't mean you need to just eat boring food all the time. The only way to preserve muscle mass is to do a few strength training workouts a week...doesn't have to be crazy intense feel like I'm dying weight training but it needs to be enough to keep the muscles active and well, being trained. I'm currently on a quest and wondering if I'm doing it right. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. We're afraid of losing our hard-earned muscle. I am also getting enough protein to sustain. You can lose fat and reach an extremely low body fat percentage without doing one day of cardio. You have a lifetime to figure it out. Big asterisk needed. Obviously major things like you actually being 65 or that you have some metabolic disorder will throw all my comments out the window. But weighing less doesn't necessarily mean your body will look the way you'd like. OP, you can retain muscle given that you are a relatively high bodyfat, if you eat enough protein and make sure to continue lifting weights to stimulate muscle growth/retention, even at a caloric deficit which will be required for you to lose fat. Those are the limitations not catabolism. The muscle loss from cardio is due to the interference effect. Cardio and weight lifting are the two most popular types of exercise, but many wonder which is better for weight loss. Peter Muller / Getty. This made me feel a lot better. The physiology is a bit complicated; I have some info on energy systems in r/ketoendurance. OP, this is what you're looking for. Basically, what I would like to do is keep my lifts about the same but add running to reduce body fat for a couple months, then go back to focusing on strength training. Worst is just starving yourself with no exercise. Everyone is different. It depends on your current muscle size and how much extra fat you're carrying. It's a somewhat complicated topic as "exercise" can mean different things and people may have different training levels. This is an extremely thorough answer. Not all exercise is catabolic. Cardio is great for creating an additional energy deficit in your metabolism without having to eat less food. I cannot give specifics workouts on this but I'm sure there will be lots of people up here who can give some great suggestions on where to start. We get it! Assuming that you're not an intermediate-level powerlifter here's what I suggest: adopt a light, maintenance-focused lifting routine to keep your existing muscles in use, but otherwise focus on dieting and cardio to reach whatever bodyweight goal you have set out to reach. You work hard for your muscle and don’t want to lose it by doing cardio. How much would be a good amount of running to do (in calories, minutes, or km per week)? Your body cannot become good at endurance and strength training at the same time. I’ve been eating 1700 cal a day (deficit) and I’ve been walking everyday and burning about 800-1000 calories that way. I'm wondering if it's possible to add running to my current routine to increase my TDEE and improve cardiovascular fitness without losing strength. Additional assumptions are that you are young and otherwise healthy. “This is a big mistake, because with excessive cardio, we often lose our hard-earned muscle along with our extra fat.” Fat Loss Rule #4: Use Cardio for Recovery “For many people, the first step to losing weight is hopping on a treadmill or elliptical for hours of cardio,” Juster says. If you have a huge amount of muscle that you don't use for several months this muscle will be lost, yes. Edit, probably going to add in light strength training so the muscle loss will be negligible, I read further down didn’t realize I missed that. Assuming that you're not an intermediate-level powerlifter here's what I suggest: adopt a light, maintenance-focused lifting routine to keep your existing muscles in use, but otherwise focus on dieting and cardio to reach whatever bodyweight goal you have set out to reach. In untrained individuals it has been shown you can increase muscle size and lose fat at the same time. As a result, your body will find a compromise. Mass is about nutrition and being able to recover from your workouts. Not a single one requires running. Be sure to get your doctor's approval before starting a new exercise routine. The Best Cardio Workouts For Building Muscle And Burning Fat Homepage I’ll be honest with you, I don’t like doing cardio. Do you want to just be muscular and have shitty cardio health? The ability to increase muscle mass on a deficit decreases rapidly as you get bigger though. Maybe I could go walk in the fat burn mode on a treadmill at the gym and increase the speed by 0.1mph each day? There’s a YouTube video of it. Reserve glucose stores are used first after which fat provides virtually all of the energy your body will use (your liver will continue making new glucose to send around your body, but in such states your fat cells will be mobilizing their fat stores to send around the body to feed other cells, hence decreasing the amount of fat you hold in your body). Practically speaking, you usually can't know for sure. The glucose that it requires can be somewhat supported from the glycerol that is left over when you are burning fat. You will automatically lose muscle when you lose fat/weight. I’m mainly just walking so I probably should do this. Download my FREE workout and Nutrition plan http://BURNTHEFATFASTASHELL.COM How to get ripped abs fast! The body is extremely reluctant to burn muscle for energy. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. GO. Think about it this way. Cookies help us deliver our Services. Cardio remains a tool that can help us get leaner and healthier. June 14, 2020 February 20, 2018. Glad to see someone with some education explain the concept of how your body preferentially takes energy from certain sources before others. But if I read everything right then it sounds like I’m okay. I’ve lost some muscle dieting down to be lighter for climbing. Your Body Remains "Soft" No Matter How Much Weight You Lose If weight-loss is your goal, it can be exciting to see the numbers on the scale start to drop.