Cardio-- When to eat

[muscelove]

I do cardio for about 30 min a day 5x a week. Anyway i do cadio after work around 7pm. I usually go home from work hungry and eat and do cardio within an hour after eating and usually eat within an hour after my cardio. What is optimal for fat burning? Should i be doing this on an empty stomach. I would like to preserver as much LBM as possible

 

[pintoca]

I do cardio for about 30 min a day 5x a week. Anyway i do cadio after work around 7pm. I usually go home from work hungry and eat and do cardio within an hour after eating and usually eat within an hour after my cardio. What is optimal for fat burning? Should i be doing this on an empty stomach. I would like to preserver as much LBM as possible

Depends on what you eat... if you eat a protein before your cardio, it is not that bad... DON'T eat carbs before cardio... otherwise you will burn those, and not fat, with your cardio session.

I leave my office at about 6o pm, at 5:00 I have my last "office meal"... Normally a chicken breast with no carbs (normally, only the chicken breast).

I start working out at about 7:00 pm, lift for 1 hour, and then at 8:00 pm I start my cardio (that is 3 hours after my last meal, and with lifting in between to burn any glycogen there might be).

It is common acceptance that the emptier your stomach is, and the more depleted your glycogen stores are when you do your cardio, the more fat you will burn with it. For this reason most people will recommend cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach... for those who like me can't do it, well, I guess the next best thing is after your lifting...

Just make sure you get your properly made PWO (whey isolate, dextrose, maltodextrin) RIGHT after your cardio ends (specially if you lifted before cardio).

Pintoca

 

[deltreefitness]

I try to keep to a two hour minimum wait. This works out nice with my meal schedule too (every three hours)

 

[The Red Dragon]

Cardio and weight training consecutively isn't a great idea

Glycogen stays in the muscle, you can either replete it through insulin or deplete it through usage. Only the liver can release glucose into the bloodstream, and to a much smaller extent, the adrenal cortex. That's the rationale behind AM cardio...by morning your liver glycogen should be very low. It supposedly stores 100 g, 400 cals of carbs

 

[AirWolf]

Just make sure you get your properly made PWO (whey isolate, dextrose, maltodextrin) RIGHT after your cardio ends (specially if you lifted before cardio).

Pintoca

I would recommend against that sort of PWO shake after any session that does not include weight training. In a cardio-only session you are not depleting muscle glycogen and don't need the immediate spike to get protein into the muscles...so if you are just doing cardio in a workout then you should try to postpone eating anything for about an hour afterwards. If you are concerned about losing muscle then take a teaspoon of glutamine immediately after.

Now, that PWO shake is ideal immediately after any weight session. And ideally weights and cardio should be done 6+ hours apart. Personally, I can't get myself going for morning cardio on a regular basis so I do a lunch session of weights followed by that PWO shake then do my cardio late, about 3 hours after dinner....30-60min of medium intesity cardio

 

[pintoca]

I would recommend against that sort of PWO shake after any session that does not include weight training. In a cardio-only session you are not depleting muscle glycogen and don't need the immediate spike to get protein into the muscles...so if you are just doing cardio in a workout then you should try to postpone eating anything for about an hour afterwards. If you are concerned about losing muscle then take a teaspoon of glutamine immediately after.

Now, that PWO shake is ideal immediately after any weight session. And ideally weights and cardio should be done 6+ hours apart. Personally, I can't get myself going for morning cardio on a regular basis so I do a lunch session of weights followed by that PWO shake then do my cardio late, about 3 hours after dinner....30-60min of medium intesity cardio

With "after cardio" I meant the situation I was proposing: First lifting, then cardio, then PWO.

Anyway, this is just what I do...

 

[pintoca]

Cardio and weight training consecutively isn't a great idea

Glycogen stays in the muscle, you can either replete it through insulin or deplete it through usage. Only the liver can release glucose into the bloodstream, and to a much smaller extent, the adrenal cortex. That's the rationale behind AM cardio...by morning your liver glycogen should be very low. It supposedly stores 100 g, 400 cals of carbs

If AM cardio is not possible for whatever reason (schedule, gym opening hours, etc), then Cardio AFTER your lifting is the second best alternative.

I have seen people do cardio BEFORE lifiting... (makes me wonder where they get their info)

Pintoca