Cardio and weight lifting

Trying to lose weight.

Doing 3 time a week weight training and 5/week cardio.

I'm unsure as to when to do my cardio (after breakfast?) and whether interval training at a high or low speed. What do u guys think of the 60/80% of your maximum heart rate thing? Is this enough?

You lose weight by burning more calories than you intake. You have to burn 3,500 calories more than you intake to lose one pound. That having been said, people with more muscle burn more calories due to having a higher resting metabolism. So if you have more muscle, you'll have an easier time of losing weight.

Cardio 5 times a week seems like overkill to me. You want to make sure that you're not overtraining. I'd only do cardio 3 times a week, but its your choice. The most effective times to do cardio workouts are right after you wake up, and after doing a weightlifting workout.

In both cases you want to make sure that you're not burning muscle. To prevent this in the morning, have something with protein, but little to no carbs before your cardio. Examples are cottage cheese, a glass of milk, a scoop of protein powder, or a few eggs.

After a weight training workout, don't overdue the cardio. Your body has already spent its energy, so doing cardio will tap into your fat reserves. But don't do 60-80% of your max at this time, more like 30%, with an incline.

The biggest thing is to get your metabolism up. Eat regularly, don't skip meals, and watch your portions. I've also read that interval training works well. So while doing cardio, do 90 seconds at 80% of your max, then 90 seconds at 60%, then 90 at 80%, etc.

Okay so I got busy...... no excuse I know but adjusting to a new schedule and starting this whole dating thing over again has really taken up a lot of my time. I Penis Enlargement'd for most of January but just started again last night.

So just giving myself a bump here to try to re-motivate myself.

heed this advice...everything he just said took me about 1 years worth of reading through all the crap at bodybuilding.com...

only other advice i would offer is to make sure you drink a lot of water....some say to drink your bodyweight (ie., if you're 180 lbs, drink 180 ounces of water per day)...the more water you drink, the less you retain

also, don't neglect your legs....they are the biggest muscles in your body...if you train them, they will help increase your metabolism AND will produce more testosterone

stay motivated and remember that change doesn't happen overnight

az

Not wanting to sound like a smart ass, but drinking water only flushes out water if you eat a low sodium diet. If you get too much sodium, the more water you drink, the more it will make you bloat. :D
Esteban and syncmaster gave some good advice. I should warn you about interval training, though: if you combine it with a weight lifting regimen, chances are you will overtrain your legs, since it is in effect a completely anaerobic exercise, and places strain on your CNS as well as causing lactic acid buildup. HIIT or other interval sprint type of cardio have caused me to mess up my diet in the past, so I'd say you would be better off with steady state low to moderate intensity cardio on most days of the week, and perhaps only doing the sprint thing on one day as an addition. But, then again, some guys have well conditioned legs, and they don't burn out that easy. It also depends on what type of a weight lifting program you've got going- I do HST, which involves full body workouts 3 times a week, so my legs (and other body parts) probably burn out faster from sprinting since they don't have a full week to recover. You would do well to experiment and see what works for you. If the interval thing feels too intense combined with weight training, you can skip on it. It isn't a prerequisite for fat loss- low intensity cardio will also get you there.

Shafty said:

If the interval thing feels too intense combined with weight training, you can skip on it. It isn't a prerequisite for fat loss- low intensity cardio will also get you there.

Click to expand...

I agree, and thats why I said it would be bad to do after a weight training workout. I only mentioned it because its believed to (and I also think its correct) burn more calories. But after a weight training workout...or even the day after working out legs, I would stick to the 30% of your max at an incline for about 30-40 minutes or so. Not so much as to stress the legs, but enough to get your heart rate up. Oh, and thats 30-40 minutes on an off day (not weight training). If you're going to do this on the same day as weight training, I'd cut it to about 20 minutes because your body is already semi-fatigued.

esteban said:

I agree, and thats why I said it would be bad to do after a weight training workout. I only mentioned it because its believed to (and I also think its correct) burn more calories. But after a weight training workout...or even the day after working out legs, I would stick to the 30% of your max at an incline for about 30-40 minutes or so. Not so much as to stress the legs, but enough to get your heart rate up. Oh, and thats 30-40 minutes on an off day (not weight training). If you're going to do this on the same day as weight training, I'd cut it to about 20 minutes because your body is already semi-fatigued.

Click to expand...

Right on. Personally I've found that doing cardio (low intensity, around 30 minutes) later in the evening on the same day that I do my weights works well, since I have a complete day of rest without any strenuous physical activity in between my workout/cardio days. It's all up to personal preference, though. In the end, the amount of calories burned or more specifically, the size of the calorie defict you've created through cardio and watching what you eat, is what determines the amount of fat loss you will experience. HIIT does indeed burn more calories than conventional cardio of any kind, so it would be the best choice if you can handle it. It would be especially beneficial when you're bulking up, since it is somewhat anabolic, and it is effective at keeping bodyfat at bay by raising your metabolic rate for the entire day.

I used to hate cardio, but that was probably because I tried to force myself to do HIIT first thing in the morning, believing it is the only way to lose fat. Nowadays I actually enjoy doing my easy paced 30 minute sessions on my elliptic trainer. :D

I think your doing fine. You could actually do less cardio but 5x a week is outstanding.

HIIT - is that high intensity interval training? And what exactly does that involve?

Cardio is most effective with about 2-3 hours before or after weightlifting but this is impossible for most people, in which case after weightlifting is fine. 5 times is definitely overkill. I've heard good things from HIIT cardio and Max-OT cardio is really effective as well. Basically I would do interval training cardio because it burns more calories post session and keeps your metabolism up where as straight 30 min cardio only burns during the session.