Cardio Frustration and Confusion

[falco21]

Currently I am doing Cardio every day. I go on the eliptical for 20 minutes and then I jog on the treadmill at 6.0 mph for another 20 minutes to finish it off. I get an awesome workout out of this and it feels great. I have not noticed any real effects yet, as I have just begun doing this cardio, before I was doing Insanity. I do my cardio at around 6 o'clock at night due to many reasons. I am also on a low carb, keto, diet. I have been reading through this board and everywhere on the internet and have came up with constant arguments with different ideas. Some say morning cardio on an empty stomach is best for fat loss, some say just as long as you do the cardio, then that's what counts. I am not here to start another discussion on what is true and not true. I'm here more as a person who needs a little help. Losing this extra fat can be very frustrating as many know, and I feel as if it is becoming overwhelming now. I will continue this workout I am currently doing, but I was curious as to your thoughts on it. I basically need help from the people with experience in losing that extra fat. It's very hard getting to where I want to get to, and I just want to make sure that my workout is correct and if there are any suggestions, I am open for any improvements necessary.

I greatly appreciate everyone's help.

[gthom47]

ive done a lot of cutting. dropped about 90lbs total while increasing my lbm drastically. getting rid of fat is not fun. i have found that if you are able to get through the first two weeks of a new diet/routine, especially when it comes to cardio, it gets less mentally frustrating. if u have only just begun this new cardio set up, i would suggest wait the 2 weeks and you should see a drop of fat which will only make u more concentrated on continuing this program you have set up.

[falco21]

Well when you dropped all that weight, what did your cardio sessions look like? If I may ask

[gthom47]

i was eating 1800cal a day and running 6 days a week along with light full body lifting 3 days a week. when i ran i would do about 45minutes straight on one machine but i liked switching up the machine. sometimes elliptical, sometimes bike, sometimes treadmill. my routine looked like this:

monday- lift and run
tuesday- run
wednesday- lift and run
thursday- run
friday- lift and run
saturday- run
sunday- off

[falco21]

Well right now I changed it up a little and I'm doing the elliptical first then finishing off running. I just finished running about 10 minutes ago and I ran this time for 1 hour at 6.5 mph. I think I'm becoming addicted to cardio lol When I'm running, I don't want to stop. I just keep going at it. I think I'm happy with my routine right now as it is, the only thing bothering me is the whole morning on an empty stomach exercise, people say is better. The one thing stopping me from that is that my college has a small gym and every morning the entire football team is in there. Don't really have space to workout lol

[gthom47]

i like running first thing in the morning, i feel like it does actually help get right at fat. but if you really cant do it in the morning then just make sure it gets done. When i lost that 90lbs i didnt run in the morning cause i didnt have the time for it. now im doing the 5/3/1 program which has running days and i do that in the morning but its not a necessity.

[falco21]

Yea that's what I thought. Doesn't really matter when you do it, just as long as you do it!

O and congrats on the loss man! 90lbs is unbelievable! I'm currently at 46 lbs gone. Catching up

[gthom47]

yea as long as it gets done is whats important. thanks and congrats to urself. 46 is a big loss too.

[tbody66]

So you are not lifting at all?

[falco21]

Well I'm lifting legs, but I am not allowed to lift upper body at all. I'm still in therapy strengthening the shoulder. It's still not 100% yet.

[gthom47]

when will you be able to lift again?

[falco21]

Not sure. Shoulder still feels very fragile. I hope soon. I can't wait to get back in the weight room.

[gthom47]

well not being able to lift will create issues with maintaining any muscle mass on your upper body. it could be useful though if you are really trying to lose a good amount of weight cause then you dont have to worry about maintaining muscle and can just cut as hard as you can mentally and physically take it then just start up clean bulking once u can lift again.

[falco21]

Well that's what my goal is. There's no way around it. I can't lift, not allowed to. So I figured I would just drop all the fat possible, and then put all the weight on after with muscle when I am cleared to lift. I mean, I'm sure I would have lost more and looked ten times better if I was able to lift this whole time, but there's only so much I can do

[gthom47]

yea its not the best way to go about it, but its ur only option. and honestly is not too bad because u can always pack the muscle back on. bulking is always less mentally exhausting than cutting and more fun.

[auslifta]

What bf% are you at now? The lower your bF% the harder to drop fat. Just keep at it and don't worry too much what the scale is doing.

[falco21]

I started at around 28%. Now I'm around 16%. Something of that nature. Not exactly sure.

[tbody66]

Good for you.

[auslifta]

I started at around 28%. Now I'm around 16%. Something of that nature. Not exactly sure.

Good work, the fat won't move as fast now but keep at it, if you keep it up (diet and cardio)you'll improve every week.

[falco21]

I just ran 4 miles on empty stomach. Felt great! Might start doing this now. Found a good time the football team isn't in my way