Evening cardio

[Bigreds]

How effective is evening cardio for fat loss bearing in mind all the food that has been consumed throughout the day.

Thanks

 

[alex2678]

As long as your in a restricted calorie state, it's not a problem at all. I do my workouts at midnight and lose fat just as fast.

 

[Juiced]

It really dont matter when you do cardio as long as you do it bro, all fat loss is is calories burned to calories taken in.....Its that easy.

 

[SgtSlaughter]

I do evening cardio... Works for me!

It's not so much as what you do in the gym, as how hard you push and how much your metabolism is elevated for the rest of the day

 

[poysyn]

The only downside of the evening cardio is you don't, in my opinion, recieve the FULL benefits of the raised metabolism like you would had you done it earlier. I think that as long as you get the cardio in, whether it be at 5:30am on an empty tank or midnight right afer a weight session, then you will shed bodyfat.

I do half of my sessions in the A.M. on an empty stomach and the other half right after my weight training in the afternoon. I find it much more enjoyable to do the cardio after the weight session as I tend to have more energy, focus, and motivation to put forth a greater effort.

 

[Goldprospector]

I understand the concept behind the "elevated morning metabolism" and how it is supposed to benifit you throughout the day.

But when you have an increased metabolic rate, wouldn't you actually feel it?

I mean when I do morning cardio...I feel like shit for the rest of the day, super tired, drained...I just cant figure it.

 

[vin01]

I mean when I do morning cardio...I feel like shit for the rest of the day, super tired, drained...I just cant figure it.

Weird. Anytime I do AM cardio, I feel like I have more energy and am more awake the rest of the day..

 

[36drew]

Cardio is cardio for me. It doesn't matter where I place it the results are the same so long as duration and intensity remain the same.

The only exception has been AM cardio which has shedded more fat, but took a great deal of muscle with it. That is why I recommend against it. If you must do AM cardio have a scoop of whey before hand. The body needs amino acids to burn fat anyway.

 

[36drew]

Here is a conversation me and Lifterforlife had via PM's that I found very interesting.

One thing I left out of the discussion was AM cardio.
Are you an advocate of this?

I assume you mean fasted state.

If so, it depends, if you have "plenty of fat" to spare, then ok. If preservation of lean mass is priority, and you are currently lean, then no.

And when I mean fasted state, I am talking first thing in the morning. Amino acids are vital for fat burn to occur at all, if you understand the mechanism of how fat is burned. First thing in the morning, though FFA's are higher due to liver glycogen, they are used up quickly.

For continued FA useage, if amino acids are not available, then there is only one place to get them.

On a starvation....or a high fat/low carbohydrate/low protein diet(which could be from an overnight fast also, there is the chance amino acids will not be available sue to "starvation") will cause other problems......for fats to be converted to citric acid, oxaloacetate must be available. Without oxaloacetate, citric acid cannot be formed and acetyl-CoA cannot be further processed.

Oxaloacetate can be produced from the breakdown of certain amino acids. However a person on a high fat/low carbohydrate/low protein diet(again read lean, overnight fast), will need to use the oxaloacetate for gluconeogenesis.

Fatty acid breakdown however must still occur for ATP generation and acetyl-CoA will need to be processed through an alternative pathway. This pathway leads to the formation of ketone bodies.

The amino acids will need to be derived from muscle tissue, leading to muscle wastage.

 

[vin01]

So from 36drew's above 2 posts..

Would it be safe to say one could take BCAAs in pill form and that would suffice, or would a scoop of whey be needed to avoid muscles being used as protien?

Would it matter if the AAs were EAAs or BCAAs or etc?

 

[Bigreds]

Cardio is cardio for me. It doesn't matter where I place it the results are the same so long as duration and intensity remain the same.

The only exception has been AM cardio which has shedded more fat, but took a great deal of muscle with it. That is why I recommend against it. If you must do AM cardio have a scoop of whey before hand. The body needs amino acids to burn fat anyway.

How soon we talking ? half a hour ??

 

[Juiced]

I have read many articles on this, and I have done both ways, and currently I too am doing half am cardio and half pm cardio, before each session I take 5 Amino Acid complexes and have found myself to hang onto all my muscle mass while still burning fat. I take my aminos about 20 min before my cardio, and cardio should not be super intense either, a nice walk at 3.4 mph at a 6% incline is all you need for fat burn, anything over that and you can count on tapping into muscle......Good post, this question will be dabated for years to come...