Doing cardio, or HIIT on a empty stomach in morning burn more fat? muscle in danger?

[TrailRix]

Doing cardio, or HIIT on a empty stomach in morning burn more fat? muscle in danger?

AM cardio is what I am talking about, I hear alot of people saying to burn fat do exercise without any food!.

 

[gymtime]

It's true. You will burn plenty of fat that way. You will also decrease muscle mass considerably.

Doing cardio on an empty stomach, after an eight-hour fast, glycogen stores depleted, your body will use anything and everything for energy, including muscle.

IMO, a certain amount of AM cardio is fine if you're considerably overweight. But if you're bodyfat is relatively low (even 18% is considered low by normal standards), you'll likely sacrifice more muscle than is acceptable.

 

[Shak]

gymtime -

in your opinion, when is the optimal time to do cardio to preserve the most muscle?

 

[gymtime]

You will find as many opinions on this as there are ways to do cardio.

I suppose evening cardio would spare the most muscle. But the downside is that it's probably not the best time for fat burning.

If I could pick and chose, I'd do it mid afternoon, an hour or two after lunch. I think doing cardio even after a small breakfast (assuming you're dieting) is too risky. But running with a couple meals down I think is best for fat burning purposes.

But ultimately, we're probably splitting hairs here. To me, pretty much anytime after lunch, right up until 8 or 9pm will do the trick.

 

[Shak]

in april, i'm going to add in HIIT after my weight training. I usually lift around 3-4:00. i hope it works.

last year, i did a lot of running outdoors and lost a decent amount of fat but a ton of lean muscle too. it sucked.

 

[gymtime]

last year, i did a lot of running outdoors and lost a decent amount of fat but a ton of lean muscle too. it sucked.

I had the exact same experience. Two months straight of am cardio, three-four days a week. The results on the scale were great, but the mirror told a different story.