lots of running good?

[eurorides]

if somone is trying to maintain muscle is there any pros to running, or is high speed walking the best way to maintain muscle while cutting. does running burn alot of muscle? a buddy of mine wants to lose 10lbs, and of course keep as much muscle as possible. he had a bf test done and hes 14% and hes looking to get to 7-8% i told him its going to take 8-10 weeks is this accurate? thanks

 

[Atomic Punk]

I c & p'ed this post of mine from the AAS Board bro.

Cardio is a rather small and insignifigant part of fat loss bro. I'll give you an example: Let's say you do a rather semi-intense 20 minute session of cardio on the stair-climber and burn 300 cals. To get that many burned in that amount of time, you would have to be borderline high-impact, which in itself is counterproductive to muscle growth. Not to mention that that 300 cals is so SMALL an amount, considering it is about the equivelent of a large chicken breast(plain), and an 8oz. glass of O.J. Why not just eliminate that amount of calories from your DIET, and save yourself 1. The work, and 2. The chance of over-training by being borderline high-impact on the cardio. Let's say that you don't do any high-impact(or even close) cardio. You go low impact strictly in other words. Well then, the amount of calories burned is obviously even lower. That makes it even more insignifigant in my opinion. See what I'm getting at?

Now, if you want to talk overall health benefits to the heart & lungs, then you have a valid arguement for cardio being beneficial brother. As far as muscle growth/fat loss though, it is useless.

Bottom line is diet is key. Too much, or too intense of high-impact cardio, can be a detractor of muscle growth & strength. In my opinion.

 

[revexrevex]

Atomic PUnk let me ask you something. People put a lot of emphasis on diet during steroid cycles, because it seems like all processes are accelerated. How about a natural person, do you really think that it is possible to change body composition without any cardio and with just diet in just a few weeks? Will body actually respond to that? Myself and few people I know would go 1 meal or 2 meals a day for weeks, and we would not loose any significant strength, and our body composition would not change (visibly). So do you think by just eating clean foods, reducing overall calorie intake it is possible to slowly drop fat by simply working out 4 days a week without any extra activity? There are many discussions on this, but I just want to hear your opinion on it.

 

[casualbb]

That is true. You can even superset your weight training... feels like HIIT and you get done faster.

 

[Atomic Punk]

Atomic PUnk let me ask you something. People put a lot of emphasis on diet during steroid cycles, because it seems like all processes are accelerated. How about a natural person, do you really think that it is possible to change body composition without any cardio and with just diet in just a few weeks? Will body actually respond to that? Myself and few people I know would go 1 meal or 2 meals a day for weeks, and we would not loose any significant strength, and our body composition would not change (visibly). So do you think by just eating clean foods, reducing overall calorie intake it is possible to slowly drop fat by simply working out 4 days a week without any extra activity? There are many discussions on this, but I just want to hear your opinion on it.

The answer is yes, I do thing losing weight with just diet is possible bro even if you aren't saucing. I would venture to guess that the reason your body compositon didn't change on the diet you mentioned, is because you chose to eat only the 1 or 2 meals per day. It is tough if you have a job that keeps you from doing as much, but 5 smaller meals per day is way more feasible. You actually raise your metabolism by eating more often in smaller quantities than you would by taking in less calories(believe it or not) with only 1 or 2 meals.

Here's a personal example. Up until about 1997, I never had to worry at all about my diet. I was able to eat anything at any time, and would never gain weight. I had to be put on an anti-depressant medication around that time, that caused me to balloon up with more fat in like 2 months, that I would have ever thought it possible for me to gain in a lifetime up until the administering of those meds. So I compensated by doing TONS of extra cardio, being that diet never had been a part of my regimines before that--cardio was, at times. I would do a 20 minute session per day, with lifting, and still wouldn't lose an ounce. These were some seriously intense session too. I was in PRIMO shape cardiovascularly, but noone would've believed it with the tube around my waist. So after reading an article about it, I switched to the 5 meals per day, in 3 hour intervals, at around 5-600 calories per meal. I didn't cut back on carbs or anything. Simply the 5 meals at the alloted times, in the allotted caloric incriments. Now, it took longer than just a couple weeks, but I was able to go from #230 back down to #195(where I was before the Zoloft) without any cardio whatsoever. No juice either. So if you were me, and that was your experience with dieting vs. cardio, I would venture to guess that you would have the same opinion on cardio in general as myself eh bro? It's all about the diet.

 

[Cuthbert]

Besides, I would take a couple hard sprinting/interval workouts over a half hour on the treadmill any day... just as effective and a LOT more fun.

 

[eurorides]

I agree wiht you that diet is more important for weight loss then running or other forms of cardio, i just wanted to know if there was any point in doing lots of running (my friend runs about 4 miles 5 days a week, but of course is very lean and dosent have much size)

 

[Legion Kreinak2]

I feel that due to the fact cardio will help keep your heart in better shape than if you did none, it's a good idea to throw in a little bit of extra work. You should have a compromise between cardio and diet. They both work, so just have a balance between the both of them and you should be fine.

I agree with the eating 5-6 smaller meals. That's a much better idea in order to lose weight due to the raised metabolism.

Drinking alot of water can usually help as well.

Eurorides, as for your friends running so much, they could very well be bigger, it's probably just their choice to be smaller. Just because one runs 5 times a week for 4 miles, doesn't mean they can't be big.

Oh, and Atomic, overtraining seems to be overrated. Doing that extra cardio isn't going to push someone into overtraining. That's just ridiculous.

 

[casualbb]

I agree with legion... I'm pretty sure that cardio doesn't contribute to overtraining persay, it just makes you tired.