Building Muscle and Cardio

[rbarrett68]

Im a male, 158 pounds, 5'9 and 20 years old. I wanna know if I should be working out 3 times a week and doing 15-25 mins of cardio on my days off. I want to lose fat percentage while still gaining muscle, so how many calories should I be eating a day so I wont lose muscle from the cardio?

 

[dmaipa]

how much bodyfat do you have?

 

[gtbmed]

Cardio is great for cardiovascular health and conditioning. It's not so ideal for fat loss (at least for most people).

Unless you're completely new to training it's going to be nearly impossible for you to gain muscle mass while losing bodyfat. Pick one and devote some time to it, then work on the other.

 

[stevo123]

should always mix in cardio for a warmup/finishing a workout a couple times a week regardless of fat loss just good for the ol ticker

 

[returnofthdragon]

Cardio is great for cardiovascular health and conditioning. It's not so ideal for fat loss (at least for most people).

Unless you're completely new to training it's going to be nearly impossible for you to gain muscle mass while losing bodyfat. Pick one and devote some time to it, then work on the other.

Walking or very slow jogging burns a higher percentage of fat. Running burns a higher percentage of carbs. If you burn the same amount of calories for each, then walking is better for fat loss. If you do each of them for 25 minutes you will burn many more calories running before and after exercising. This type of exercising also increase the mitochondrial density in your skeletal muscle which will help raise your BMR. Running is great for fat loss.....

It works better if you focus on weight loss and muscle gain during different periods of your macrocycle. But doing both at the same it very possible. I've seen it happen in 100's of athletes over the years. I've been training for 19 years. Due to injuries I got out of shape last year. I still worked out, but was limited and I ate poorly. In the last 3 months I've lost over 30lbs of fat and gained 20lbs of muscle. This is somewhat easier in my case because I was just returning my body to a previous state. It's usually faster getting back what you have lost than gaining what you have never had.

 

[MDR]

Cardio is great for cardiovascular health and conditioning. It's not so ideal for fat loss (at least for most people).

Unless you're completely new to training it's going to be nearly impossible for you to gain muscle mass while losing bodyfat. Pick one and devote some time to it, then work on the other.

Ain't it the truth. Guy sounds pretty lean already, so it seems like he could focus on diet, and then shift into bulking clean, so he does not gain a ton of unwanted fat.