Cardio Recommendation

[fhg43]

I'm lifting fairly heavily right now for about 1.25 hours per day, 4 days a week. I also do cardio for about 30 minutes a day. I'm trying to lose a bit more body fat than I have, but I want to lose it quicker. I figure I've got another 15-20 lbs of fat to lose till I'm happy.
What would be my best course of action to accomplish this? Should I add more time to my cardio workouts, or another cardio workout? If I should add another workout, would it be better to do 25 or 30 minutes before weights and then 30 minutes after? Or just 1 hour after/before?

Thanks for any advice!

I, champion of cardio, think you could cut back. It's great you're doing cardio, but what's your priority-bulking up or losing weight? If you want to continue to gain muscle mass you should probably limit cardio to 4 days a week maximum. Are you really doing cardio everyday? Priority one is to have a super clean and well timed diet. And then maybe add a little more cardio. It sounds like you're in the gym plenty. Actually try mixing up the intensity in your cardio workouts. Do a few workouts were you maintain a high level of intensity for the full workout. Try doing interval workouts too-do 3-5 hard intervals of 3minutes during your cardio workouts. You can cut calories and workout more, but you have to be really good about refueling with the proper food at the right time to prevent catabolism.

FHG

 

[Belial]

Hey Belial, how come you advise against doing cardio on an empty stomach???

Run a search.

 

[DanG]

Where should my heart rate be? I've seen conflicting stories of it has to be between 50-80% for optimum fat burning. I'm 23 years old right now, so that would put my mhr at 197bpm. My cardio sessions usually include the eliptical trainer, stair climber and stationary bike. In the summer I add in rollerblading and road/mountain biking.

 

[tzan]

Belial-I've read for the most part, if your goal is to burn fat, doing cardio on an empty stomach is the most beneficial. Bill Philips (EAS) says that if you run on an empty stomach for 20 min. it's more productive than doing an hour of running after you have eaten. What makes you believe in the opposite??

 

[sysopt]

Bill Philips is god

 

[Belial]

Run a search. I've discussed this topic many times in the past, as have others here.

That is a truly asinine statement by old Billy, I must say.

 

[fhg43]

Where should my heart rate be? I've seen conflicting stories of it has to be between 50-80% for optimum fat burning. I'm 23 years old right now, so that would put my mhr at 197bpm. My cardio sessions usually include the eliptical trainer, stair climber and stationary bike. In the summer I add in rollerblading and road/mountain biking.

The zone you're quoting is too low-try keeping HR between 150-175 for the entire time of cardio. This will seem hard to maintain the first time you do it, but this workload is appropriate for good caloric expenditure and fat burning. If you do a :20-:30min workout try to stay in that zone most of the time and try to hit the high side a few times too. If exercising outside do longer workouts. If you are doing a longer workout, for example 1hr, try to stay in that zone:30-:45 min. Make sure to warm up good too. If you've never done cardio this hard make sure to do a few sessions before attempting to hit the high side of this zone. You will find this zone will be difficult to maintain while exercising especially while doing rd/mtn biking or rollerblading. It will be easier to hit that zone indoors on the treadmill or stationery bike or elliptical machine. Most people don't go long enough or hard enough when doing cardio.

FHG