Quote Originally Posted by tonight
I'm thinking that you may be overdoing it with the cardio. I mean, 70% max. heart rate for 45 minutes is too high. The goal of doing cardio first thing in the morning is to burn fat, not muscle. If you work out at too high an intensity, which it seems you may be doing, you will be burning more muscle than fat. A common rule of thumb is that if you can't hold a conversation during your cardio, you're over-doing it. So my suggestions would be to lower the intensity to that level and also keep the time to 45 minutes at the most just in the morning. It seems like taking a jog in the evening would DEFINATELY be over-kill since your job moving furniture is a cardiovascular work-out in and of itself.
Well for optimal fat burning, you are supposed to be at 65-75% MHR. And yes, not only can I talk while at this heartrate, but I can drink my water and change the channel from sportscenter to music videos while walkin on the treadmill all at the same time, lol. (this is not a cut, im just jokin around bro)

As for the jog, I guess I do not know exacty what my heart rate is, but im pretty positive it also falls in the optimal zone. My friend runs marathons and has a pretty high quality heart rate monitor. Maybe ill borrow it for just one day though, and analyze my heartrate to how fast I run a mile in to better judge.

You are right with the lifting and cardio same day thing. This is why I eat a pro/compled carb meal when I finish working: to help replenish anything I may have lost during work. I guess ill just collect more opinions on this and make my decision from there.


Quote Originally Posted by tonight
also, I would skip the alcohol, especially the hard alcohol all together. It is common knowledge taht alcohol has a very negative effect on the fat-burning process, and that may certainly be one of the villans in your efforts to rid yourself of your excess stomach fat:

"For several hours after drinking the vodka, whole body lipid oxidation (a measure of how much fat your body is burning) dropped by 73%."
( http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/md19.htm )
I am very aware of the consequences of alcohol and how it takes the liver longer to digest leading to eventual fat gain. I plan on keeping this to a bare minimum, however, When i first started this serious cutting where I took dieting, cardio, and lifting all into consideration back in late january, my original goal was to look good while I get drunk in the summer.

Well, summer is now here and ive already lost 30lbs, granted now that ive been so serious, i view myself as more of a bodybuilder so my goals change, but I am not going to be hard on myself with a couple brandy and diet cokes. Most likely what ill do is save it up. For instance, me and all my guys are plannin a mini weekend vacation late july. I will probably stop drinking all together for a couple weeks up till then, then let loose, have fun and do whatever i want while on this vacation.

I appreciate the feedback bro and lookin forward to more tips from everyone else,

-ost