wesley90 said:
What I am trying to figure out is if just by keeping yourself out of starvation (500cals + BMR) can you do any amount of cardio without burning much if any muscle?
Thanks.
You have to see how your body responds to cardio. Example:
I am 6'0, 31 years, 211 lbs, about 26.5% BF
Now what I found out is that I burn fat at a rate of 80% (for every 10 lbs I loose, 8 are fat, and 2 are LBM). I can live with that number, in fact, it is VERY good. I do this by running a deficit of about 1700 cals daily (1700 BELOW TDEE, but always eat above BMR)
Another thing you need to figure out is how efficient your body is at burning fat: for a 100% efficiency, you would only need to create a 3500cals/week deficit to go down 1 lb.... If you have been in this game long enough, you would have noticed that is normally the case and that you will need to create a larger deficit to go down that same lb of fat. This is your Fat burning efficiency. Mine is about 80%, you need to figure yours out.
Only after you know these two things, you will be able to tell how much cardio you need/can do to go down the amount of lbs you want every week with the amount of LBM lost you can live with. You WILL need to get used to the idea of LBM lost, it is basically imposible to cut without some LBM loses.
In a nutshell, I cannot tell how much cardio or how much of a deficit you can have in a week, you need to try and test.