Cardio Am / Pm ???

[Cuts]

I think SuperDave's saying that AM cardio is better if you can do it (although, I don't see any reason one couldn't do it if they wanted to)... if not, evening cardio is better than doing nothing. I agree.

 

[Hoffmeister]

Not really looking to argue here. Y'all can can make up your own minds. But here's some information you might like to consider.

First, from Lyle Mcdonald:


Here's the deal.
There is NO doubt taht you use a greater percentage of fat as fuel in
the fasted state (i.e. after going many hours without food so that blood
glucose nad insulin are down, counter regulatory hormones which mobilize
fat and blood FFA are up, etc). None. In that sense, the 'gurus' are right.

Here's where they fuck it up, several places actually.
1. What you burn during exercise doesn't matter for overall fat loss.
Because the body is smarter than we are. Studies show that if you burn
fat during exercise, you burn less fat the rest of the day (because you
have more glycogen and use it because you didn't deplete it). If you
burn glycogen during exercise, you burn more fat during the day. End
result: 24 hour fat balance (fat intake - fat oxidation) is THE SAME.

1a. In support, several studies did the following: take two groups,
exercise one at low intensities, one at high intensity ; match time so
that both groups burn identiccal numbers of calories. Can you guess
the result? Yup, fat loss was identicaly. Because fat loss is a
function of total calorie balance.

2. STudies clearly show that high intensity (which burns more glycogen)
is at least as effective if not MORE effective for fat loss anyhow.
Because not only do you get the calorie burn from exercise, you get a
larger post workout calorie burn (which does NOT occur to any
significant degree, unless you count 5-10 total calories extra, with low
intensity activity).

2a. One study by Tremblay showed that interval training caused 3X more
fat loss than low intensity cardio, despite total caloric burn during
the exercise bout to be lower with the interval group (the results
contradict what I wrote above but is explained by the greater post
workout calorie burn as well as a muscle gain in the interval group).

3. The total calorie burn during most cardio bouts is insignificant
compared to total daily calorie expenditure (i.e. average 150 lb male
may burn 2700 cal/day basally, and you're going to argue that the 200
calories burned during moring low-intensity cardio is relevant). This
ties into 1 and 1a: total 24 hour fuel utilization is far more important
to fat loss than the small number of calories burned during the
activity. Becaue the body simply compensates: burn more fat during
exercise, burn less the rest of the time and vice versa.

A *possible* exception: stubborn fat (defined as fat stores which are
more resistant to normal fat moblizing signals) may be easier to get rid
of with a combo of morning cardio + caffeine and/or yohimbe.

So the bottom line is that the magazine 'gurus' took a part of
fundamental biology and misinterpreted the hell out of it without
looking at the other issues.


http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&rnum=15&[email protected]

Here's at least one of the studies that backs this up:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8883001&dopt=Abstract

And finally, an article on the WSU site:

http://www.wsu.edu/~strength/HIIT.htm

Again, all pointing to the same thing: the actual fuel used during exercise has essentially no effect on overall fat loss.