Running 1 hr/day = Muscle loss?

[BigDick]

I've become addicted to running 1st thing in the morning for an hour. If I do this every day, yet keep cals/protein relatively high (I'm 190 lbs... 2600 cals/day), will this lead to muscle loss? I plan on doing this about 5-6x a week.

 

[motiv8er]

BD

Realize these two things 1) Your pre workout nutrition needs to be great. 2) If you are willing to learn how to eat you should be a hardgainer but in good health. What does your pre run meal look like?

 

[BigDick]

Going the route of running on an empty stomach after reading some of Bobo's posts about oxidizing free fat in your body w/ low glycogen stores from overnight fasting... so to answer your question, no pre-cardio meal. Would you advise against this?

I guess what I really want to do is body recomp, so lose fat and gain muscle very slowly through keeping cals high and doing cardio.

 

[3clipseGT]

Its really hard to burn fat at a good rate and actually build muscle unless ur very genetically gifted or your using exogenous hormones.

That being said, i do low intensity cardio for about 30-50 or so mins on an empty stomach, wait about 30-45 mins and drink a whey protein shake with olive oil or a good fat. Then continue at about 3 hours or so later eating a regular meal.

Running is basically like working out, your freeing up Fatty acids but ur not burning them. You also might be tapping into your glycogen and muscle instead of your fat storage.

If it was me id do slow intensity cardio.

 

[3clipseGT]

Its really hard to burn fat at a good rate and actually build muscle unless ur very genetically gifted or your using exogenous hormones.

That being said, i do low intensity cardio for about 30-50 or so mins on an empty stomach, wait about 30-45 mins and drink a whey protein shake with olive oil or a good fat. Then continue at about 3 hours or so later eating a regular meal.

Running is basically like working out, your freeing up Fatty acids but ur not burning them. You also might be tapping into your glycogen and muscle instead of your fat storage.

If it was me id do low intensity cardio on an empty stomach.

 

[jonny21]

Going the route of running on an empty stomach after reading some of Bobo's posts about oxidizing free fat in your body w/ low glycogen stores from overnight fasting... so to answer your question, no pre-cardio meal. Would you advise against this?

I guess what I really want to do is body recomp, so lose fat and gain muscle very slowly through keeping cals high and doing cardio.

Do a little research on lean extreme or another cortisol suppressant. IMO if you are looking to preserve muscle mass while burning calories on an empty stomach, I would include Lean Extreme or another suitable substitute. Also consider a protein (preferably isolate with BCAA)only shake 1 hour prior, if that is feasable.

A few variables are involved. Your intensity, condition, caloric intake:actual needs to name a few.

 

[BigDick]

muscle gain/fat loss

I dunno, my genetics aren't great... they're pretty horrible in fact, but I feel that I can gain muscle and burn fat easily at the same time. DEFINITELY not muscle gain at the rate of bulking, but if I keep carbs high and keep fat loss slow and consistent, I gain strength all around. dumbbell bench press went from 60 lbs to 80 lbs on Bobo's CUTTING program. i vastly think the whole "it's physically impossible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time" is greatly overdone. it's possible... just very much slower.

 

[3clipseGT]

I dunno, my genetics aren't great... they're pretty horrible in fact, but I feel that I can gain muscle and burn fat easily at the same time. DEFINITELY not muscle gain at the rate of bulking, but if I keep carbs high and keep fat loss slow and consistent, I gain strength all around. dumbbell bench press went from 60 lbs to 80 lbs on Bobo's CUTTING program. i vastly think the whole "it's physically impossible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time" is greatly overdone. it's possible... just very much slower.

Its extremely slow if any honestly. Strength can go up but just because your getting stronger does mean ur getting bigger. This is the way i look at it. How are you supposed to build muscle on sub-par calories unless your on an anabolic. How are you supposed to burn fat if your on more calories. Now this one may be easier if your using say HGH or something like oratropin or hexatropin or PGH or something like that. Even if ur using a compound like var , but overall its just harder to do on ur own. So why not just cut, or why not just bulk?

 

[Burner]

Seems like this should have been addressed while you were on bobos program.
I havent used him yet, but it seems as though for fasted cardio he advocates staying around 60% MHR, which for me is like a 4MPH pace on the tread mill. Lately I have been running 2 hours after a meal (for like 20minutes) and it seems to be ok for me, but i wouldnt run (>65% MHR) upon awakening.

 

[nodgodbod]

If you are intent on running in the morning - I suggest eating a preworkout meal 45 mins before you run and then limit the run to 20-30 mins - if you run flat out for 20 mins you will still have all the benefits for your cardiovascular system without hurting your muscle gains .. too much... as long as you don't do it more than 3-4 days a week. Then follow up with a standard post workout meal.
The other way would be to do a fast paced walk for 1 hr on an empty stomach keeping the hr below 65% max heart rate and follow up with a post workout meal.

Personally I only do cardio for endurance purposes -not for the sake of burning calories - its far easier to limit fat gain by eating the right amount of clean foods. Just my .02

 

[jonny21]

I dunno, my genetics aren't great... they're pretty horrible in fact, but I feel that I can gain muscle and burn fat easily at the same time. DEFINITELY not muscle gain at the rate of bulking, but if I keep carbs high and keep fat loss slow and consistent, I gain strength all around. dumbbell bench press went from 60 lbs to 80 lbs on Bobo's CUTTING program. i vastly think the whole "it's physically impossible to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time" is greatly overdone. it's possible... just very much slower.

Not impossible, just more difficult. If you are looking to preserve/gain muscle, adequate CHO and protein must be in diet. I definitely would not do any cardio in a CHO depleted state, just asking for muscle catabolism imo.