Too Much Cardio?

[CNovaJason]

How much is too much when just trying to lean out? I am not trying to lost muscle of course, but just fat. I typically run/walk on the treadmill for 30 to 40 mins 4 days a week. Diet is clean except here and there but I'm making good progress. Anyway, thanks to who respond.

 

[FreakMonster]

No more than 30 min. You want to keep your heart rate at that fat burning mod. If your heart rate increases too much you may be sacrificing muscle.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

It depends on how many calories you're intaking. Longer duration cardio isn't as effecient. I'd shoot for something like HIIT. Interval training will work best in a number of ways. Compensate for the loss of calories through eating more. You're actually better off eating more and burning it off through exercise, than just simply eating less.

 

[jdevlin1985]

4-5 times at week....an hour/day, 30 min in morning, 30 min in evening is the best bet. You will not, i repeat will not, lose muscle as long as your protein intake is up and you will risk losing muscle if you hit the cardio hard. Longer periods at moderate heart rate is the best way to burn fat

No more than 30 min. You want to keep your heart rate at that fat burning mod. If your heart rate increases too much you may be sacrificing muscle.

I have never heard anything like this before - Longer duration periods of cardio are more effective than shorter i.e. 60 min is more effective for fat loss than 30

 

[blut wump]

My basic rule of thumb for cardio has always been 5-10 minutes to warm up and 5-10 minutes to warm down. These taper into and out of 20-40 minutes in the middle of higher intensity. Lots of stretching to finish off.

I've never looked into HIIT but I always prefer to keep myself working a lot harder than some people I see reading a newspaper while idling on the bike. As I get fitter I do tend to get little surges of spare energy which I burn off by going all out for 30 to 40 seconds. I guess this is similar in design to HIIT. If I'm at a gym with a decent selection of machines, I'll switch machines every ten minutes or so. This might be a carry-over from one gym I used to frequent which insisted that no-one hog any machine for more than six minutes but it adds variety and serves to break up the session.

 

[rbtrout]

I've heard both sides of the cardio fence and have a tendency to stick with hardcore for no more than 30 minutes. It works better for me than long duration. I also think you should do some weight training, if you're not. Weight training helps not only burning fat, but building muscle. Muscle helps burn fat, as well. Doing cardio is good, but it won't get you to reshape your body - just make it the same shape, but smaller. It usually takes longer doing only cardio. If you have time, you might switch up your routine to have 30-40 minutes of weight training followed by (or preceeded by) 30 minutes or so of cardio (whichever works best for you).

 

[blut wump]

Always different sessions for me for cardio and weights.

If I were to do them in the same session then I'd always do the weights first and burn excess energy with the cardio than vice versa.

 

[BOOEY]

Cardio is a big headache - everyone's got an opinion on how much is best at what intensity, etc etc etc. I find the best way is to use cardio as a calorie burning exercise, and that's it. Don't think of it as a fat-burning exercise. Figure out your maintenance calories, then you'll know how much cardio you'll need to do (burn cals below maint and you'll lose weight). You can also eat below maintainence AND do cardio, but make sure the protein intake is high so you don't lose any muscle.

 

[Tom Treutlein]

If you find your maintenance level of calories, try eating above them and being more active in order to create a defecit. This, similar to weight training, will aid in nutrient partitioning.