Eating & Supplements for cardio

[RileyMartin]

Hi,

I wanted to check with you all to see if I was on target with my nutrition & supplements for doing cardio. Tonight I jogged on the treadmill for 1.5 hrs. @ 4mph for a total of 6 miles, not counting the 1/4 mile warmup and 1/4 mile cooldown walk. An hour and a half before jogging I ate the following dinner:

10oz. Aliki vegetable lasagna
8oz. Plain skinless/boneless chicken breast
1/2 cup plain raw oatmeal
Vitamins

While jogging I had a 1.5 liter drink consisting of the following:
1.25 liters water
1/2 cup all natural grape juice
1/8th cup dextrose
1/8th cup maltodextrin
20g whey protein
10g BCAAs
2.5g Taurine
5g Glutamine
100mg Rhodiola Rosea
6g Citrulline Malate

After jogging I had a post workout drink consisting of the following:
1 liter water
60g Whey protein isolate
10g BCAAs
6g Taurine

I didn't have any dextrose or maltodextrin in my post workout drink beause it was late at night and I figured I had enough sugar in me already.

[Ross86]

If you're trying to lose weight, then quit eating before you do cardio. And no carbs while you're doing cardio. What is your goal?

[Cradler]

a) you shouldn't be doing slow cardio for an hour and a half if you're trying to lose weight. You'd be better off keeping your running to around 25-30 min.* and upping the intensity. LSD runs (long slow distance, guys :-D) build endurance for sports but can and will cause catabolism, and you can lose your hard-earned muscle.

b) I'm not even saying good or bad (because I don't know), but that is a TON of supplements... congratulations on whatever job is paying for all that, man.

*Or sprint-based workouts for another option.

[Cradler]

doublepost sorry

[RileyMartin]

Thank you for the help.

My goal is to lose weight. I guess I should jog faster but keep it to no more than 30 minutes at a time?

I shouldn't consume any pre-workout drink when doing cardio for losing weight? How about afterwards? Should I have the same post workout drink after cardio that I have after lifting?

Thanks.

[IronKitten]

Originally Posted by Ross86

If you're trying to lose weight, then quit eating before you do cardio. And no carbs while you're doing cardio. What is your goal?

Actually, food before cardio isn't a bad thing. The difference in the amount of cals burned between eating and not eating before hand is fairly negligable. It's just when looking for fat loss/cal burning, leave out the carbs pre and during. Proteins are fine to have pre-cardio.

[Darkhorse]

a) you shouldn't be doing slow cardio for an hour and a half if you're trying to lose weight. You'd be better off keeping your running to around 25-30 min.* and upping the intensity. LSD runs (long slow distance, guys :-D) build endurance for sports but can and will cause catabolism, and you can lose your hard-earned muscle.

Actually, I prefer low intensity long duration myself and am having very good success with it. You guys need to stop worrying about losing muscle mass with this or that.. Just like lifting weights, if you have good preworkout nutrition, or what I prefer a good 40 gram BCAA drink, then you're fine. If anything, running for 30-40 minutes is a lot worse for losing mass.. Not to mention the fact that if you're squatting/deadlifting heavy, you're knees are already getting pounded.. Now try running on those joints for a half hour.

For me, there's two choices. Either starting slow and building myself up to a MAX of 20 minutes HIIT on something like the recumbant bike of elliptical machine, or 45-60 minutes of low intensity cardio to start the day off. Doing low intensity cardio enables you to continue training hard and heavy in the gym w/out burning yourself out with running. Now, does walking burn the same amount of cals running? Obviously not.. But what you are trying to accomplish isn't burning x amount of cals w/in a time frame vs. trying to increase your metabolism for the rest of the day.

Now, would I recommend an hour and a half walking, probably not.. Usually a max of 60 minutes for myself, with 45 minutes about right. The key for the heavies is LOW IMPACT as per machines or walking.

[Cradler]

^alright, my mistake. I saw a ton of muscle loss during the wrestling season and I'd read before (on here) that long runs could have that effect (I usually ran 4-8 miles a night to stay on weight). So, yeah, my misunderstanding.

Neeeeeeeverrrmind my post, RM.

[RileyMartin]

I increased my speed from 4mph to 5mph and managed to jog for 45min without dying. Wow, what a difference 1mph makes. That was so much more difficult than jogging at 4mph. I didn't burn as many calories but I felt more winded and my leg muscles felt like they got more of a workout. The 45min might be too much for me right now so I think I might just do 30min next time.

After jogging I had a protein drink, without the dextrose and maltodextrin, since I'm using cardio to lose fat. Am I on the right track with that thinking or would I actually be better off consuming the carbs from the dextrose/maltodextrin in order to metabolize the protein faster like I read I should after lifting? Thanks.

[ricks]

I'm usually in the gym for weight training sessions 3 times a week. I always do 10 minutes on the elliptical for warm up and then 20 - 30 minutes of cardio after my 30 minute weight session. I try to keep my heart rate at 125 - 140 during the cardio after training.
Seems to work for me but then I'm 59 years old and have two main goals: keep the muscle mass and get rid of the fat!