# how much cardio a week



## totalwar (Jan 19, 2011)

hey started cutting been doing fasted cardio (30 mins joging outside 15mins on exersize bike)

a done a extra 30mins on the ex bike last night (so 75mins total yesterday no weights)

i have been reading that fasted is no diffrent than normal and can lose muscle doing it

so im thinking of just doing normal cardio

how much cardio is to much im doing weights 4x aweek and cardio 5 days (this is my first week)

im keeping my carbs quite high dont want to lose muscle, strenth

so how much on weight days and how much on none weight days

and how many times a week?


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## Lurgilurg (Aug 15, 2010)

Morning cardio is fine imo, 15min at a steady pace should be fine.

after weight training 15-20min of cardio will be fine also.

You could have separate days for cardio and try 30min of HIIT??, great for losing fat

noticed that your keeping carbs high?, if your trying to lose fat you want to lower the carbs not keep them high in order to use fat as the main energy source for the body

(awaits to be corrected by tha pro's aha)


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## d4ead (Nov 3, 2008)

I agree lower Carbs


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## totalwar (Jan 19, 2011)

ok im on

3300- cals

366g- protine

310g- cabs

84g- fat (stat)13.20

im 100kg at 6.3 bodyfat 26%

so how low?

fat mainly comeing from natt peanutbutter


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## 1Tonne (Jun 6, 2010)

Theres no requirement to lower carbs to lose fat. Its a way of doing it, but doesnt suit everyone and its 100% necessary.

Find your maintenance calorie requirement. Knock off 250 cals and train and eat right. I prefer to keep carbs high on training days for insulin benefits and increase in nutrient uptake. On non training days, i do some light intensity cardio for 1 hr and have 500 cals below maintenance. This works for me.

Simple, find out what works for you.

Your much better off training right and eating suitably. You can change your body type without the extremes of major dieting and bulking. Yes it can take longer, but its more satisfying, easier on muscles, and easier on the mind.


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## Lurgilurg (Aug 15, 2010)

that sure is a lot of carbs for cutting then again that is also a sh*tload of protein probably too much if your 100kg with 26% body fat?

copy and paste your diet into here buddy lets have a look. 

here is what I am cutting with, might help give you ideas on what to eat, hope it helps 

http://www.uk-muscle.co.uk/losing-weight/120984-my-cutting-diet-workout-routine-advise-please.html


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## totalwar (Jan 19, 2011)

well ive lost 4 pounds this week

not lost any strenth so i think i am going to keep my cabs the same and see how it go's

so how much cardio is to much

ive done 30mins fast pace walk this morning and 15mins on the bike on a E/S

when gym done 1hour weights

i do weights 4xaweek so can i do a nuther walk later?

need to know how much cardio to do


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## totalwar (Jan 19, 2011)

so is 45mins fasted ssp fast walking light joging (heartrate 120-150)

then 30-45mins joging at night to much cardio 6days a week

dont want to over train


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## Grantewhite (Oct 15, 2010)

A lot .... on a rly cardio focused week anywhere up to 16 hours in 7 days lol , my hobby is XC MTB tho so i can sometimes be out rideing for 4-5hours at a time which is probably why my legs seem massive dispite havin a fairly average squat 

on a normal spit routine week and bad weather about 4-6 hours cardio i am a freek tho


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## Lunatic (Mar 10, 2011)

I don't know, but this 50 year old guy seems to deny that cardio burns muscle with facts. I tend to believe that only incredibly long cardio hours everyday as consequence over-training might loose muscle. However, non of us would do such long hours, I don't worry about it.


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## Lurgilurg (Aug 15, 2010)

Lunatic said:


> I don't know, but this 50 year old guy seems to deny that cardio burns muscle with facts. I tend to believe that only incredibly long cardio hours everyday as consequence over-training might loose muscle. However, non of us would do such long hours, I don't worry about it.


Scooby's the man!


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## PumpingIron (Feb 7, 2011)

From my experience, doing cardio has no effect on muscle size, or not any noticeable difference anyway. As long as you get enough protein you'll be good. :thumb:

I have read an article though that sprints are better than long runs due to different hormones being released.

If i recall correctly a hormone called T2 is released during endurance ( Burns fat and muscle, most likely over severely large distances ) and a hormone called T3 during sprints or intervals ( burns fat only ) Now I can't say this for a fact and it was a while ago when I read that, however it would certainly make alot of sense since sprinters look ****ing beastly and ripped and endurance runners look like most ethiopians. Now what also makes sense and should be common knowledge to the average fitness freak, while sprinting you use nearly every muscle in your body, which would certainly explain why your body releases T3 hormone to adapt your body to that situation.

Give both a go and see what suits you best.


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## Grantewhite (Oct 15, 2010)

PumpingIron said:


> From my experience, doing cardio has no effect on muscle size, or not any noticeable difference anyway. As long as you get enough protein you'll be good. :thumb:
> 
> .


Indeed, i never have any ill effect from going for a 40-50 mile bike ride if i eat a decent carb/ protein mean befor hand and stop for a bite to eat on route normaly stick a grilled chicken breast in my saddle bag


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## Fullsquat (Apr 16, 2011)

You want to maintain muscle while losing fat right? Then I see no point in hiit. Hiit takes most total cals but most of those cals come from carbs (glycogen) and not fat. The purpose of it is to get you into a calorie deficit by burning more cals but if your diet is nailed it is not needed and not that beneficial imo. Once a week would be ok if you get board of sscv.

Nail that diet and cardio isn't even that important! Maybe once you get to 10% and your struggling to lose that bit more, but other wise leave it at 3 sessions per week imo, preferably on non resistance training days or at different times.

Your in a cal deficit, your gonna burn a little muscle its tough. But your main goal is to lose fat so (again) aslong as your diet is nailed and cardio isn't to excessive you'll be ok. Remember cardio is catabolic no matter how you look at it. The less you do (and the more its controlled via diet) the better imo.


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## Fullsquat (Apr 16, 2011)

Grantewhite said:


> Indeed, i never have any ill effect from going for a 40-50 mile bike ride if i eat a decent carb/ protein mean befor hand and stop for a bite to eat on route normaly stick a grilled chicken breast in my saddle bag


You shouldn't if you maintain a surplus of calories and decent protein intake.


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## totalwar (Jan 19, 2011)

Lunatic said:


> I don't know, but this 50 year old guy seems to deny that cardio burns muscle with facts. I tend to believe that only incredibly long cardio hours everyday as consequence over-training might loose muscle. However, non of us would do such long hours, I don't worry about it.


this guy is intresting been on his website i like him

his voice is so annoying tho lol

thanks


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## totalwar (Jan 19, 2011)

Fullsquat said:


> You want to maintain muscle while losing fat right? Then I see no point in hiit. Hiit takes most total cals but most of those cals come from carbs (glycogen) and not fat. The purpose of it is to get you into a calorie deficit by burning more cals but if your diet is nailed it is not needed and not that beneficial imo. Once a week would be ok if you get board of sscv.
> 
> Nail that diet and cardio isn't even that important! Maybe once you get to 10% and your struggling to lose that bit more, but other wise leave it at 3 sessions per week imo, preferably on non resistance training days or at different times.
> 
> Your in a cal deficit, your gonna burn a little muscle its tough. But your main goal is to lose fat so (again) aslong as your diet is nailed and cardio isn't to excessive you'll be ok. Remember cardio is catabolic no matter how you look at it. The less you do (and the more its controlled via diet) the better imo.


well ive got my cals down from 3500(bulking up) to 3200 (maintenance)

so looking at loseing my fat thur cardio

still eating cabs to keep energy levels up and streanth


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## Fullsquat (Apr 16, 2011)

totalwar said:


> well ive got my cals down from 3500(bulking up) to 3200 (maintenance)
> 
> so looking at loseing my fat thur cardio
> 
> still eating cabs to keep energy levels up and streanth


Losing fat through cardio?

Losing weight is easy, you simply have to be in a cal deficit. Losing fat while maintaining muscle is another story.

Your theory is to eat maintance cals and do cardio to use up more cals to put u into a deficit. Why? Put yourself into a deficit through diet by reducing carbs and keeping good fats (mainly in the form of efa's) at 20% of total daily cals then do some nice sscv which is proven to burn fat at a higher rate than hiit (not cals).

That way you'll have more glycogen to propel you through you workouts imo, and hiit makes me ache like a bitch. Not good when I want to feel refreshed ready for a big weight session.

AND carbs are not as important as you think (by your reluctantness to reduce them) you will train perfectly fine on 200g ed or less. How do you think ketogenic diets maintain muscle with such a low amount of carbs consumed?


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## Fullsquat (Apr 16, 2011)

Oh and I'm 7 weeks into a 12 week cut. 91kg, 10%bf, still eating 200g'ish carbs ed but dropping it next week.

Benching 120kg for 8

Squating 150kg for 8

Deading 170kg for 6 (dropped abit with these  )


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## totalwar (Jan 19, 2011)

Fullsquat said:


> Losing fat through cardio?
> 
> Losing weight is easy, you simply have to be in a cal deficit. Losing fat while maintaining muscle is another story.
> 
> ...


it dose make sence

ive not been doing hiit

been doing joging(hart rate 140-160) and walking(hart rate 110-120) i have a hart rate monitor

what do you do for ssp cardio??

so if my maintance is 3200 should i drop it to 3000? and have 200g carbs and 330 protine (1.5 per pound of body weight) the rest fat??

and have my carbs in the morning and around work outs


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## Fullsquat (Apr 16, 2011)

totalwar said:


> it dose make sence
> 
> ive not been doing hiit
> 
> ...


My steady state cardio heartrate is 148bpm. Yours will be different, you can use a formula to work it out. No need to always stick to sscv if you get board of it, I just do it the majority of the time. Any form of cardio will do the job, what ever you like doing the most.

Don't just drop you cals straight away drop them down steadily. 330g of protein sounds good yeah, keep fats around 20% and reduce cals from carbs until your losing weight. I usually knock 50g (200cals) off in the first week and see where I go from there. Perhaps 50g again in the second week, then I reduce them lesser amounts for the further 10 weeks. If training begins to suffer too much I'll increase them a little and see where I am and see where I am in a few weeks time.


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## Fullsquat (Apr 16, 2011)

totalwar said:


> it dose make sence
> 
> ive not been doing hiit
> 
> ...


My steady state cardio heartrate is 148bpm. Yours will be different, you can use a formula to work it out. No need to always stick to sscv if you get board of it, I just do it the majority of the time. Any form of cardio will do the job, what ever you like doing the most.

Don't just drop you cals straight away drop them down steadily. 330g of protein sounds good yeah, keep fats around 20% and reduce cals from carbs until your losing weight. I usually knock 50g (200cals) off in the first week and see where I go from there. Perhaps 50g again in the second week, then I reduce them lesser amounts for the further 10 weeks. If training begins to suffer too much I'll increase them a little and see where I am and see where I am in a few weeks time.


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## totalwar (Jan 19, 2011)

yeah ive got my cals at 3000 just under 600(20%) rest protine carbs

so how much cardio do you do?

hey thanks for the advice


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## Fullsquat (Apr 16, 2011)

totalwar said:


> yeah ive got my cals at 3000 just under 600(20%) rest protine carbs
> 
> so how much cardio do you do?
> 
> hey thanks for the advice


Lost me there pal, read my post above again. Unless you've just made a typeo

I start with only 2 cardio sessions per week, one unfueled 45min and one fueled sscv for 45min

I then add another cardio session for 45min, fueled or unfueled. Then just over halfway through my cut I up all sessions to 1hr long.

I'll only think about adding another session if I've dropped carbs to around 130g ed as I won't want to go any lower so I avoid ketosis but still burn extra cals/fat


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