What should I do to burn fat without burning muscle?

[Whacked]

There has to be something to this "sprinting" advice.

Ever compare the body of an Olympic Sprinter (or any lever for that matter) to a Long Distance Runner?

Sprinter - ripped/thick/muscular/solid
LD Runner = weak/skinny.....aka....."catabolic poster child" !

I agree with that statements about low intensity and moderate duration = fat loss but there IS something about a Sprinter's physique that cannot be denied and substantiates questions!

 

[RDJ]

That's because the sprinting builds up muscle. They probably never had any fat to begin with, being athletes and all. So the long distance runners have no fat and no muscle, the sprinters have no fat but more muscle.

It really is bad advice if you want to lose fat. If you want muscular legs it's better advice.

 

[Synpax]

There has to be something to this "sprinting" advice.

Ever compare the body of an Olympic Sprinter (or any lever for that matter) to a Long Distance Runner?

Sprinter - ripped/thick/muscular/solid
LD Runner = weak/skinny.....aka....."catabolic poster child" !

I agree with that statements about low intensity and moderate duration = fat loss but there IS something about a Sprinter's physique that cannot be denied and substantiates questions!

First, I am an endurance runner and I know a lot of endurance runners who are pretty ripped/strong.

RDJ is right - sprinting and endurance running are two entirely different things. One uses oxygen and fat for fuel (endurance), the other uses glycogen from the muscles (fat).

The reason you don't see any fat sprinters is because fat people don't sprint. You also don't see too many fat endurance runners either.

It's simple science. You can attach a device to your mouth while you run to see what kind of fuel you are using based on the contents of your breath. Sprinting is glycogen (just like bench pressing) - endurance training is fat.

 

[mrhoon]

I was under the impression that the purpose of extreme intensity (sprints, or hiit) was to rev metabolism for the rest of the day. Not being so concerned with what fuel is being used "during" the exercise, but how much more will be used after, and for the rest of the day.

 

[psychedout]

Jesus fucking christ. So what if you do sprints and burn glycogen. That means the carbs you eat will replenish your depleted glycogen stores and not be stored as fat!!!!!

 

[Synpax]

Jesus fucking christ. So what if you do sprints and burn glycogen. That means the carbs you eat will replenish your depleted glycogen stores and not be stored as fat!!!!!

Take a time out and relax.

You are correct - except you didn't loose any fat. Which is exactly what the title of the thread is.

And I don't know what sprinters you've been looking at, but they ain't got too much on the marathoners muscle-wise, particularly above the waist.

 

[bob1234]

ok by no means am i an expert on this however i have been involved in a number of different sports football boxing martial arts powerlifting olympic lifting etc. bottom line is low intensity cardio will burn fat, high intensity cardio will burn glycogen its hard science. however if are a sprinter or a long distance runner and your volume aerobic/ or anaerobic activity is high you will burn a ton of calories and yes you will loose body fat, however high intensity cardio is not the most effecient means of loosing bodyfat, and you will have to do alot of lifting eating etc. to avoid loosing lots of muscle, so if maximum muscle gain is your goal(and you want to loose bodyfat) you will want to limit your high intesity cardio. however if you end up doing 7-14 hrs. of low intensity cardio a week and you are still not loosing bodyfat(you plateau) only thing left to do is to work in a day of high intensity cardio, which will get you in better cardio vascular shape, and alow you to do more work on low intensity cardio days but still have the same heart rate

 

[Synpax]

however if you end up doing 7-14 hrs. of low intensity cardio a week and you are still not loosing bodyfat(you plateau) only thing left to do is to work in a day of high intensity cardio, which will get you in better cardio vascular shape, and alow you to do more work on low intensity cardio days but still have the same heart rate

Actualy, if you still aren't losing fat, it's diet. Diet is a huge factor in this - more so than cardio. You can get into single digits on diet alone pretty quickly. That last little bit is tricky, and many who are in it are using drugs like clen or T3 rather than cardio.

 

[bob1234]

ya your right anybody doing that much cardio and not loosing fat is eating bad, i put the what to do when you have reached maximum amount of low intensity cardio and you are stuck as a point of referance, but ya you have a point

 

[danaf1]

As far as the low intensity-long duration vs. high intensity shorter duration goes, studies have been done and shown that low intensity does indeed burn fat for fuel compared to sprints and such burning glycogen for fuel. However, the studies also show that the metabolism is raised to a far higher degree for a far longer time period after the high intensity and therefore continous to burn more calories after the workout compared to the low intensity aerobics. IMO, high intensity is better but low intensity may work well for others. Regardless of which you do, as long as your diet is good, you are going to lose fat.