Optimum Cardio Cycles ?

Supercell

Been doing a lot of cardio recently (last 4 weeks) to start cutting into the shamefull amount of blubber built up over the years (coupled with cutting out the crap from my diet..~1200 cal per day until target reached).

Last week did five days in a row of intense cardio ..45 mins of pretty much max heart rate (15 cross trainer, 15 stairmaster, 15 rowing machine) ..and by day three was noticing that it was actually getting harder to complete the sets..and by day five i barely made it through and got nowhere near the distance covered in the relative routines...

This week have been doing one day one one off and too my suprise have been steadily improving and today even felt i go go a lot longer at the same intensity..which as a big difference to day 5 last week when i felt wasted and almost like puking after the workout.

I know the day on day off approach is avocated by many on the likes of T-Nation etc for bodybuilding, but thought that cardio being whole body rather than target in the main wouldnt need such a gap.

So , point of this post..what is the hardest I can push for gain maybe 2on one off etc ..or one on one off ..etc etc..whats your opinion ?

Goals are twofold..increase fitness.. -->> increase metabilism -->> burn calories - >> Lower BF%

I am tracking my diet on fitday and am keeping a 40:40:20 protein:carb:fat balance per day and averaging about 1200 calories per day..nearer 1300 on gym days, and taking multivitimans also ,so reckon am eating safely enough , and of course drinking about 4 - 6 liters of water per day also.

Captain Trips

Longfield wrote:

Been doing a lot of cardio recently (last 4 weeks) to start cutting into the shamefull amount of blubber built up over the years (coupled with cutting out the crap from my diet..~1200 cal per day until target reached).

All I know is running stuff from reading websites and so on, but the general advice seems to be that running every day won't increase your fitness and doesn't give you enough time to relax. The muscle intensity is just as relevant but it's over a longer time unlike say reps and muscle building.

I read that you won't really get benefit from more than 4-5 times a week cardio ( i do 30min runs) and I did notice when I ran every day that by around day 5 it was harder to do it but by having a rest day it was much easier and I felt fitter more gradually.

Also, you are having minimal calories and while your 1200 is optimal for weight loss, you have to remember that that is a *minimum*. You need to stick to the recommended calories and RDAs and so on especially so for training if it is intense, maybe even increase it. If you are working out hard and only giving your body minimal calories to work with then you will not get the benefit you deserve from all the work.

E.g., it's like putting in 87 octane fuel in a WRX impreza. No matter how hard you work, your body needs fuel.

Stick with a healthy daily calorie amount and your muscles and metabolism will take care of the weight loss IMHO. It's a modern fallacy that cutting calories loses weight optimally - it's only useful if you are doing minimal exercise and are eating too much to begin with.

Work out how much you should be doing to eat at a healthy weight for your height/weight.

Supercell

Captain Trips wrote:

You need to stick to the recommended calories and RDAs and so on especially so for training if it is intense, maybe even increase it. If you are working out hard and only giving your body minimal calories to work with then you will not get the benefit you deserve from all the work.

According to fitday and the cardio machines in Westwood , i'm using about 500 - 600 cals per workout. I allow up to 100 cals extra per workout day (usually eat lots of veggies to give bulk on these days to make my stomach feel that its getting a treat - the constant stomach bitching that it wants food is a pain in the ass atm but not to hard to ignore compared to quitting smoking for example which was pure torture)..anyhow i digress..

Does it realy matter how many calories are consumed on workout days? (assuming a safe amout is beiang eaten ..eg 1200 ..rda on pretty much all vitimans and minerals being met and 40:40:40 prot:carb:fat ratio) ... currently on working on the basis that i can increase a little the amount i eat on workout days but the overall benefit is about 400- 500 cals extra..plus of course increased fitness.