# Early morning Cardio.......



## TH0R (Aug 15, 2007)

........If I'm doing 45 mins cardio on waking would it be helpful for keeping muscle if

I consume 30g of whey protein before doing it??

Its something that I've thought about but can't seem to find any info on, the

body should still go for the bodyfat as fuel and the "shot" of protein should prevent

any muscle lost if it doesn't??

Too simple or does it have credence??

:beer:


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## tmacf (Jan 27, 2009)

i use bcaa tablets before morning cardio. Normally drop 6 then go do cardio.


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## hertderg (Jun 15, 2007)

I'd also like to hear peoples opinions on this , currently i'm doing 7x30mins on waking and I'm talking BCAA's and a caffeine tablet before I start. The weight is dropping but I feel I'm losing too much muscle also.

Are you taking any BCAA's Tel ?


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## TH0R (Aug 15, 2007)

hertderg said:


> I'd also like to hear peoples opinions on this , currently i'm doing 7x30mins on waking and I'm talking BCAA's and a caffeine tablet before I start. The weight is dropping but I feel I'm losing too much muscle also.
> 
> Are you taking any BCAA's Tel ?


When I remember pre workout, doing cardio post workout atm, but changing

because I'm getting a x trainer for home.

Never thought of BCAA's, was just thinking whey would be faster acting


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## Big Dawg (Feb 24, 2008)

Having whey will spike insulin. The point of AM cardio is to do it in a fasted state as blood sugar is low and the body will turn to body fat for fuel (in the absence of dietary fat) if the cardio is low intensity. Having whey beforehand will defeat the object. You won't lose muscle by waiting 45 mins to have breakfast


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## LittleChris (Jan 17, 2009)

5G BCAAs will be more than enough.


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## B-GJOE (May 7, 2009)

YOu will not burn muscle if intensity is low.


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## stevo99 (Nov 28, 2008)

How would this compare to pwo cardio?


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## Big Dawg (Feb 24, 2008)

stevo99 said:


> How would this compare to pwo cardio?


Your blood glucose would still be a fair bit lower in the morning, but I doubt there'd be much if any tangible difference in fat loss


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## Peter V (May 27, 2009)

This is mainly in your head. It is very difficult to do am cardio and not think you're losing muscle. Upon waking, having not ate for hours you don't feel and look 'full' like you do durning the day and therefore you don't feel muscular. Like others have said, you won't lose muscle, BCAAs if you like, but try and get your head round it and you'll be fine.


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## Kezz (Sep 3, 2007)

i just have a coffee then do it, have eggs and toast after it......... dont lose fuk all muscle just gain


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## ste247 (Mar 18, 2008)

AlasTTTair said:


> Having whey will spike insulin. The point of AM cardio is to do it in a fasted state as blood sugar is low and the body will turn to body fat for fuel (in the absence of dietary fat) if the cardio is low intensity. Having whey beforehand will defeat the object. You won't lose muscle by waiting 45 mins to have breakfast





B|GJOE said:


> YOu will not burn muscle if intensity is low.


 this^^^^^^^^^^^you wont lose muscle by doing am cardio fasted, i wake up take my eca or clen have a black coffee wait 20 mins then start cv low intensity and ive never lost muscle this way.....


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## kaos_nw (Jul 9, 2008)

I am thinking about starting early morning CV even though im lean bulking at the minute in a bid to minimize fat gain and potentially loose a little BF in the morning, then build muscle for the rest of the day, does this sound ok?

But im just curious to know if i was to have a coffee with a dash (and i mean a tiny dash) of milk pre cardio is this enough to stop my body using fat as a energy source? I will have it black anyway but just curious


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## StephenC (Sep 2, 2007)

I have isolate & glutamine pre cardio in the morning and it's working great for me:thumbup1:


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## TH0R (Aug 15, 2007)

StephenC said:


> I have isolate & glutamine pre cardio in the morning and it's working great for me:thumbup1:


thought I had it sussed till i read this:lol:

Never thought of the rise in blood sugar created by the whey, good call

Its not in my head I'm going to lose muscle, its something I'm trying to avoid

before starting it.

Think I'll just try it with my water, would love the eggs on toast Kezz but

breads off the diet for now, just having Honey, berries, quark and nuts and 5 egg/banana shake after.


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## MillionG (Nov 17, 2009)

I don't know how you can do cardio, or any exercise for that matter first thing in the morning.. Makes me feel ill. :confused1:


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## StephenC (Sep 2, 2007)

tel3563 said:


> thought I had it sussed till i read this:lol:


Proofs in the pudding mate:cool:

Down 30lbs in 10 weeks and almost def no muscle loss, as i'm hitting PB's still (140kg bench for 5 reps on wednesday, proper reps too).

As you were gents, I've got my am shake sitting in front of me (just letting the froth settle) and then i'll be heading out to do my cardio in 10 mins:thumbup1:


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## Big Dawg (Feb 24, 2008)

StephenC said:


> Proofs in the pudding mate:cool:
> 
> Down 30lbs in 10 weeks and almost def no muscle loss, as i'm hitting PB's still (140kg bench for 5 reps on wednesday, proper reps too).
> 
> As you were gents, I've got my am shake sitting in front of me (just letting the froth settle) and then i'll be heading out to do my cardio in 10 mins:thumbup1:


That's no proof at all. What would be proof would be for you to do everything exactly the same but without the shake beforehand. Then we'd have a basic for comparison


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## StephenC (Sep 2, 2007)

AlasTTTair said:


> That's no proof at all. What would be proof would be for you to do everything exactly the same but without the shake beforehand. Then we'd have a basic for comparison


It's the real world though mate:rolleyes:

In BB'ing we're never going to get double blind studies that will resemble anything like what we're trying to achieve.

Ok, I'll give you that proof may have been a poor word choice but it was before half 6 and I am 10 weeks out from a comp so everything isn't quite right in the old cerebral:tongue:

What I was trying to say, was for me to be achieving new PB's at the mid point of a show diet (CNS stiimulation aside) then I highly doubt I have lost any significant amount of muscle, however my fat loss has not been hindered (as per your comment a re-run of the entire diet, without any other changes whatsoever, would be required for scientific proof) but I dont think I could lose much more than an average of 3lbs per week over a 10 week period without lean tissue being lost.

I think from now on I'll refrain posting after being awake for over 20 hours or when I just wake up, slight case of diet insomnia:tongue:


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## Big Dawg (Feb 24, 2008)

StephenC said:


> It's the real world though mate:rolleyes:
> 
> In BB'ing we're never going to get double blind studies that will resemble anything like what we're trying to achieve.
> 
> ...


LOL fair enough mate, it was just the last sentence of that post sounded a bit like "my way is better than yours" so that's why I got picky lol. As I said mate there's probably little if any tangible difference, but I personally don't feel the need for a protein hit straight before cardio when dieting. Even when gaining I'd do cardio first, but if I wasn't doing cardio I'd neck a shake straight on waking. Probably no difference, but I just don't feel another 45 mins of no food will make me catabolic, esp with synthetic hormones floating around the old system


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## StephenC (Sep 2, 2007)

AlasTTTair said:


> LOL fair enough mate, it was just the last sentence of that post sounded a bit like "my way is better than yours" so that's why I got picky lol. As I said mate there's probably little if any tangible difference, but I personally don't feel the need for a protein hit straight before cardio when dieting. Even when gaining I'd do cardio first, but if I wasn't doing cardio I'd neck a shake straight on waking. Probably no difference, but I just don't feel another 45 mins of no food will make me catabolic, esp with synthetic hormones floating around the old system


My diet is being done by someone else so I'm just following orders, but my personal POV is why chance it, if there is any possibility of muscle loss.

IMO it's much easier to lose an additional bit of fat than gain muscle so would rather take my chance with the insulin spike etc and do an extra bit of cardio than risk losing whats took me so long and so much £ to build:beer:


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## nothing2fear (Jul 7, 2007)

Kezz said:


> i just have a coffee then *do it, have eggs and toast after it.........* dont lose fuk all muscle just gain


x2... Weekend ritual now 

Scrambled on a saturday, fried on a sunday 

... I think I need to get out more :whistling:


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## martin brown (Dec 31, 2008)

StephenC- all you have prooved is that It really doesn't matte when cardio is done, it's the big picture that counts.

You could have done the cardio pre bed and the results would be the same.


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## hilly (Jan 19, 2008)

i would suggest glut and bcaa or eaa


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## rs007 (May 28, 2007)

martin brown said:


> StephenC- all you have prooved is that It really doesn't matte when cardio is done, it's the big picture that counts.
> 
> You could have done the cardio pre bed and the results would be the same.


Thats my personal view, I very rarely if ever do am cardio now, fvck that.

Also, all this getting overly concerned about insulin spikes is bullsh1t in reality - I synthetically spike my insulin levels 2 or 3 times a day while on a diet, never stopped me losing bodyfat...

If there was some magical combination of shakes/timing/cardio we'd know it as concrete by now. Just pick a plan and stick to it...


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## StephenC (Sep 2, 2007)

martin brown said:


> StephenC- all you have prooved is that It really doesn't matte when cardio is done, it's the big picture that counts.
> 
> You could have done the cardio pre bed and the results would be the same.


I actually feel warmer for the rest of the day (metabolism increase?) when doing cardio first thing am.

I do agree though that it is the big picture that counts rather than just whether or not to do your cardio am fasted/am with a shake/pm etc:thumbup1:

Re your 2nd statement, I would agree if the body was already semi depleted of glycogen that the results would be very similar.

All just my personal experience though


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## b4kun09 (May 20, 2009)

i use bcaa caps on am cardio with multi vitamins and a t5. then i just crack on. i take 3 bcaa caps before it and 3 after it. i suppose to take 12 a day but i split them btween my cardio sessions and pre and post workout.


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## hilly (Jan 19, 2008)

StephenC said:


> *I actually feel warmer for the rest of the day (metabolism increase?) when doing cardio first thing am*.
> 
> I do agree though that it is the big picture that counts rather than just whether or not to do your cardio am fasted/am with a shake/pm etc:thumbup1:
> 
> ...


x2 on this


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## TH0R (Aug 15, 2007)

I'm not a stranger to early morning cardio with various sports, its a big lift to

the day and improves the mood immensely, but in them days it was hard cardio

training, and I wasn't bothered about muscle depletion too much.

Post training cardio is getting a bit much, as in taking up too much of my time so I'm looking

to get it in early and out of the way so to speak, no magical timing and only not eating because

the Mrs won't of made my breakfast by then

I just want to guard against any muscle loss, and trying to find out what ways there are

of doing this, and tbh I'm still confused:lol:

After 4 days of puking, spraying, not eating, not training I think the cardio will be given a

missfor a while now anywayaround 7lb down in 4 days, maybe I should

sell this fvcking bug on


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## martin brown (Dec 31, 2008)

StephenC said:


> I actually feel warmer for the rest of the day (metabolism increase?) when doing cardio first thing am.


Yes raised metabolism can happen - if you believe this works then you really should be doing HIIT. It wipes the floor with steady state cardio for Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption. Just as it happens, HIIT cardio also has been shown to burn far more subcutaneous fat than steady state cardio - fasted or not.

Whilst on the subject - doing cardio pre bed may not be such a bad idea. Think about it - 8hrs of fasted state with a raised metabolism. And IF you believe steady state cardio burns more fat because your in the "fat burning zone" then this would be ideal. After all we burn mostly fat at rest- so we should all be getting lean whilst we sleep 

M


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## ManOnAMission (May 1, 2009)

When you burn fat as fuel, that doesn't mean your directly burning the actual fat away from your body does it? so isn't it just a mental thing where people believe to burn fat as fuel it makes more sense when it reality it doesn't matter what time of the day you do cardio, as its the overall amount of calories you burn that helps you lose fat.


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## B-GJOE (May 7, 2009)

Fasted cardio makes sense to me. Because blood sugar is low your body will burn fat, and because there will be no dietary fat floating around either, then there is only 1 place to get it from.


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## Big Dawg (Feb 24, 2008)

John XTC-SE said:


> When you burn fat as fuel, that doesn't mean your directly burning the actual fat away from your body does it? so isn't it just a mental thing where people believe to burn fat as fuel it makes more sense when it reality it doesn't matter what time of the day you do cardio, as its the overall amount of calories you burn that helps you lose fat.


Yes that's exactly what it means as Joe says. I've read it in a few books and apparently this is the case. Therefore after doing say 45 mins AM cardio you will be genuinely leaner than you were beforehand.


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