Cardio help?

ok i am gonna do cardio about times a week.........i will be doing the bike,,,,,how long should i do it if my goal is to get ripped as possible......should i do it in te moring before i eat anything?......i did that today and i could not do it as log as i would if i had eaten.....what benefts doyou get if you do it wh en you wake up on a empty stomach?.....how many mins of biking should i do ? does anyone got a good number of calories that i should aim at.........im about 215 pounds trying to get to about 180 or 170

Noone can help me out??????? :confused:

hey bro, cardio on an empty stomach is not for me either.

I generally though do it after my breakfast and 2nd meal, around noon after my workout.

I would start at 25 minutes a day at 65% of your target heartrate, and boost that by 2 ½ minutes every other day until I got up to 40 minutes a cardio session.

Ok sorry I couldn't reply earlier, I was working.

Put simply, if you exercise on an empty stomach your body has no alternative but to burn body fat as a source of energy. This is best done in the AM when your body has depleted all it's energy sources. If you can't hit cardio in the AM do it after 2-3 hours without food. The only thing you can take during this time span is water, tea or coffee is fine once you don't use milk or sweetners. Then follow this by another hour without food, this takes advantage of your speeding metabolism. Then your next meal should have a good ratio of carbs/proteins and minimal fats.
Cardio 3 times per week is ok, however aim for cardio at least 5 days. Your cardio sessions should be built slowly up to 30 minutes per days for maximum fat loss. If your interested in increasing stamina only increase your cardio by 10% per week. While this may seem slow (it is) it's been shown to improve and maintain stamina more than anyother.
Last, but not least 'DIET'. A proper diet is so important to all aspects of your training, not matter if your training to lose BF or bulking, natural or juicing. During your fat loss period your going to really have to give your diet 110% concentration. Start small by cutting down slowly on your carb intake, DON'T CRASH DIET. Try simply things like cutting out bread in the AM and late in the evening, cut back on your helping of rice and potato's. It takes about 2 weeks for your body to get into the habit of dieting, when you feel it's time start cutting back some more. Without going into complicated protein/carb/fat ratio's what your aiming for is eating small and often and remaining hungry between meals. You should never feel full after a meal. Try having your meals on smalls plates etc..
Drinking water before food to fill your stmach is hard and boring, so I suggest doing what I do. I drink a full 15oz Protein shake (no carbs) 20 minutes before a meal. Why 20 minutes ?, because believe it or not it takes 20 minutes for your brain to register a full stomach !, so you'll eat less when you have your meal.
I hope I've answered some of your questions without being complicated about it buddy.

Take care.

Bouncer

Hey gang,

I am not 100% that this is the truith but since i've heard it you have to hear it hehe

A trainer at the gym was saying that you should keep your cardio for fat loss (target heart rate) at a max of 30-35 mins a day. The reason he said was because after 30-35 mins your body starts burning muscle to keep going.


They stated that is why runners usually (not always) are more lean and less ripped.

Like i said, it sounds good but i dont know if its true. maybe a couple vets have an idea about this.

I personally am getting great results by doing my resistance training then going upstairs for 20 mins of cardio at my target heart rate.

i do that every other day, mon weds fri and i do 30 mins cardio at target heart rate on my off days thursday and saturday.

I have been taking two rest days on tuesday and sunday. What are the thoughts on this? Too much rest?


Hope something helps.

Buddha depending on the disipline of the runner, most are not training like body builders and have completely different diets.

makes sense thanks

the more i learn from this board the less i trust my trainer.. they are great at exercise exicution but reek at anything not in the trainer handbook it seems.

thanks Bros

First key to getting ripped is diet. As Bouncer said try slowly lowering you carb intake thus forcing your body to get energy from stored fat. I do cardio in the morning because glycogen levels are low, you start burning fat faster and you benefit from the raised metabolism thought the rest of the day.

I've think that 30min is a good rule of thumb but the key is to get in your target heart range and go as long as you can. If you heart rate goes over your target then you will start to burn more muscle. My cardio sessions last about 40min but that is due to time restraints.

Basically Bouncer hit it on the head I'm just backing him up.

whis my aget heart rate ...i m 17 287 pounds and o cardio for about 30 is every day