cardio eats into muscle?

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cnra

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english as a 3rd language here, so i'll try as best i can:

at what point during cardio workouts does your body start eating your muscle for energy? (at least thats the way i understood it, correct me if im terribly mistaken)

thanks!
 
depends on intensity, typically something like 30 minutes low intensity or something like that.
 
depends on what report you read I've seen everything from 30 minutes to an hour.
 
cnra said:
english as a 3rd language here, so i'll try as best i can:

at what point during cardio workouts does your body start eating your muscle for energy? (at least thats the way i understood it, correct me if im terribly mistaken)

thanks!
Click to expand...

1) Your engish is excellent, I only wish I could speak a 2nd language as well as you speak your third (I'm working on languages so hopefully in time I'll have a third language down)

2) I've heard lots of different studies on the subject with lots of different results. I bulked up, then kept the weight while doing cardio 4x a week by making sure I'm lots of nutritious foods, and I also eat a big meal about 2 hours before my cardio and I haven't lost muscle mass.
 
Your in English is very good, I wish I could speak 3 languages. I can only speak two. I think I'll learn German next, or maybe Russian, or maybe Portugese? So many decisions...

It depends how much you eat, what you eat, and if you lift weights a lot or not, or the intensity, and duration.
 
thanks for the english compliments :)

as for as your replies, yes, the reports i have read all seem to be mixed and have inconsistent results
 
i think it also depends on how much body fat you have. i only have 1 percent right now, so i can barely work on my cardio. and your english is great for a 3rd language
 
It all depends on how much your body has to work off of. Before I knew what I was doing, I would lift and run for about an hour and hardly eat because I was paranoid about gaining fat, soon after I was wondering why I was putting no muscle mass on at all. If your body has fuel to burn it won
 
I am Ukranian :))) I wish i spoke the language though :(((

Depends on how many calories you are taking in as well as the ratio of carbs.fat..protein as well....bascially if you keep your calories up, then don't worry about it..or Do less long distance cardio and do more intervals and weight lifting..
 
yeh man 1%'s impossible, what the fuck are you measuring this with?
 
Duncon76 said:
I am Ukranian :))) I wish i spoke the language though :(((

Depends on how many calories you are taking in as well as the ratio of carbs.fat..protein as well....bascially if you keep your calories up, then don't worry about it..or Do less long distance cardio and do more intervals and weight lifting..
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Yeah...also check the Diet forum. There's some stuff there about post workout meal or snack that should consist of a fair amount of protein to fuel "damaged" muscle.
 
I was going to say something about the 1%, but I won't bother now.
I remember talking to a guy at my uni gym, he was about 95kg and I was chatting with him when he mentions he's like 5% bf. I don't believe him off bat and ask to look at his abs (rough indicator, under 10% 6 abs show), he didn't have 1 showing. The boy kept coming up to me and tried to brain was me into thinking he was 5%. I showed him my abs and said I was about 9-10%, grumbles and walks off. There are too many stupid people in the world IMO.

On topic, I've heard 30-45 minutes depending on intensity also. BBers go on pathetic 45 min walks to try and burn fat before a competition. Try and get to a 6 1/2-7 min mile for half a hour and you should be fine cardio wise and it 'shouldn't' cut much into the muscle
 
Ian1983 said:
I was going to say something about the 1%, but I won't bother now.
I remember talking to a guy at my uni gym, he was about 95kg and I was chatting with him when he mentions he's like 5% bf. I don't believe him off bat and ask to look at his abs (rough indicator, under 10% 6 abs show), he didn't have 1 showing. The boy kept coming up to me and tried to brain was me into thinking he was 5%. I showed him my abs and said I was about 9-10%, grumbles and walks off. There are too many stupid people in the world IMO.

On topic, I've heard 30-45 minutes depending on intensity also. BBers go on pathetic 45 min walks to try and burn fat before a competition. Try and get to a 6 1/2-7 min mile for half a hour and you should be fine cardio wise and it 'shouldn't' cut much into the muscle
Click to expand...

You're forgetting that the time is not as important as the level of intensity. You need to get the number 220 as a standar, deducted from your age and that will give you your 100% capacity. When your heart rate is between 65 to 75% of that number you will be getting into your fat stores and increasing your O capacity. More than that and you will be burning muscle
 
It depends on your level of conditioning and your diet, the more conditioned you are to a particular exercise the more efficient your body becomes at using fat as fuel source. Also, the more glycogen stores you have, the less likely you are too use protein as a fuel source, since glycogen is the preferred fuel, followed by fat, and then protein. If you sip a sports drink during long training sessions, you can keep your glycogen levels higher and within an hour after training you should eat some quality carbohydrate foods and protein.
 
Muscle mass will be affected if your over training and doing too much cardio. It basically affects your recovery if doing heavy weight training and may see regression. I've lost a few lbs of fat but have appeared to have held on to all of my muscle and I'm pretty big muscle wise. Why are you thinking of it as losing muscle in one training session. Jes man, it doesn't happen that fast, steady on guys. It would take a period of time from over training to see noticable affects from muscle loss. When heavy training your body is very reluctant to give up the muscle it needs. The old muscle memory thing eh. If you have sufficient energy in your body to start with i.e. food, then your body is gonna be using that up isn't it. This surely is enough to cover a 30 min cardio session? just don't do it every single day/max efforts etc.
 
OZ1972 said:
You're forgetting that the time is not as important as the level of intensity. You need to get the number 220 as a standar, deducted from your age and that will give you your 100% capacity. When your heart rate is between 65 to 75% of that number you will be getting into your fat stores and increasing your O capacity. More than that and you will be burning muscle
Click to expand...

Thats why I said about walking for bbers and getting a sub 6 min 30 mile.

I'm not into the whole range of heart rate thing personally. I always work for cardio gains and not fat loss (conversely a slow sweat run), so I ran as hard as I can all the time when I can. The rest is just gettign the body used to higher workloads

Also, to my knowledge the whole 220-age thing is the max safe number of beats you heart can do safely per min, not your capacity. I know its a trivial thing to point out, but it does make a difference
 
By the way i'm 0% body fat =P

If you are starving yourself, your body will start using your muscle as fuel. Eat a good, balanced, clean diet and you should be fine. If you go nuts on your cardio you may lose a little muscle, but as long as you aren't going crazy you should be fine.
 
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