AM vs. PM cardio

[bigsd67]

http://dietandbody.com/morning_exercises.html

This article does a good job at presenting both sides to the story of when to do cardio. i'd be willing to bet that it was posted before, but still should be read by all that dont know when to do their cardio and at what intensity. Also, it's written by a bodybuilder with no real reason to prove his point so i dont think any info. is skewed. take a look and feel free to speak up about it.

[OSTIE]

Great article, I always mentally frustrate myself when it comes to fat burning cardio. Always worried about burning muscle instead of the fat, but i never think that keeping your heart rate at 70% of max, which i personally feel is to low, does anything (more of a mental thing i need to overcome). One thing I found interesting, however, was the comparison of moderate cardio like alot of people seem to promote here, keeping the heart rate at 70% of max, to the high intensity interval training(HIIT), which they showed burns more calories. I understand that a person can burn more calories if they just did high intensity cardio all the time, but this can lead to burning muscle. This part in the article seemed to state that the HIIT burned more calories, but also kept ur body in a fat burning state. Kind of curious, what are some of everyone elses opinions on this comparison?

Either way, I thought it was a very informative article for a person who still has ALOT of knowledge to gain, like myself.

Thanks
-ost

[underhill]

Definatly a great article Big, thanks for the post, but man that really throws some definate questions in the mix for me.

I would have to agree that doing cardio in the morning is probably best and I know thats what the post is. But that article hits so many other things for example:

"Third, keep training with heavy weights, even during a fat loss phase. Using light weights and higher reps thinking that it will help you get more "cut" is a mistake:"

This statement I have yet to get a solid answer from anywhere, Im trying to build strength this statement would suggest I need to be lifting heavy and I would get the benefit of the fat loss I want. Others have told me less weight more reps is only way to burn fat. Yet others have said build muscle and it will burn the fat. Another on that subject from the article:

The lesson is simple: Anyone interested in losing body fat who is not lifting weights should first take up a regimen of bodybuilding, then – and only then – start thinking about the morning cardio!

This too would suggest that my goal of utimatly losing weight is better gained by strength training then hitting the cardio. Not to mention he says "then and only then should they start thinking of cardio" As if the strength training is much more important in losing body fat, Im uneducated on this stuff but most info says cardio cardio cardio for fat burning

And how about this statement:

Then there’s meal frequency too: From real world results we know you put down more muscle mass from 5 or 6 meals a day than from 3 meals a day.

What does it mean here by put down more muscle? Ive been trying to eat 6 meals a day - three of which I am just taking in protein shakes to cut calories.

Not trying to jack your post bro or nothing but Ive been reading alot of your post and you seem like you know what your talking about so thought Id throw them questions your way.

[Ammar]

Good article...myself personally when I am cutting up I do my cardio first thing in the morning and it worked great. When I bulk I do it at the end of my workout just 2 days a week for 30 minutes to keep my heart in good shape.

[bigsd67]

to address your questions....when it comes to strength training while cuttin i do agree because i personally lift heavy while cutting to improve muscle density. now i dont have the evidence of why it's better off the top of my head, but there's a great article on www.t-mag.com by Christian Thibbideau which shows him transformed from fat to ripped in 4 months...it explains why strength training is better for cutting. the statement about meal frequency is just saying that 6 meals is better than 3 to keep metabolism going and to keep feeding muscle while in a caloric deficit (something we all know about). finally we all know that lifting is key to a cutting workout. when you lift and get proper PWO and PPWO nutrition you can manage to keep all or even build a little bit of muscle and improve density and tone up. i think he's just saying that lifting is key and you cant just succeed on getting SHREDDED on cardio alone....lifting keeps you dense and vascular while cardio keeps the fat coming off.

[daman1]

Hmm...

[underhill]

Cool, sounds good Big thanks for the input.