I've read in several threads on this board where people think that cardio is bad for muscle building. I've seen people write "Don't do too much cardio!! I'll burn muscle for energy!!" Sure, your body breaks down muscle proteins to use for energy, but it happens on such a small scale. And it happens if you workout or not. I've found a great article on this topic, and I hope it will encourage people to realize that cardio is good for you, and that it actually promotes muscle grwoth!!


Does Aerobics Make You Lose Muscle?


By Guest Author, Tom Venuto, Competitive Bodybuilder
See left border for more weight loss articles by Tom

Yes, it's true. It's a scientifically proven fact that muscle proteins are broken down and used for energy during aerobic exercise. But don't worry, you are constantly breaking down and re building muscle tissue anyway. This process is called "protein turnover." Your body is constantly alternating back and forth between anabolic (building) and catabolic (breaking down) cycles. That's just a normal part of life. Your goal is simply to tip the scales slightly in favor of increasing the anabolic side and reducing the catabolic side just enough so you stay on the anabolic side and you gain or at least maintain muscle.

This fact of human physiology has often been taken out of context and used to scare people into not doing cardiovascular exercise for fear of losing muscle. When you fast overnight as you sleep, you lose muscle too, but that doesn't mean you should stop sleeping!

Sure, it's possible for you to lose muscle from doing too much cardio, but it's highly unlikely. Shying away from cardio completely because you think you'll lose muscle is a huge mistake. Only excessive amounts of cardio would cause you to lose muscle because over-training tips the scale towards the catabolic side. It's difficult to generalize and pinpoint one specific amount as too much, but I think it's safe to assume that just about anyone could do up to 45 -60 minutes of cardio a day, 6 to 7 days a week without losing any muscle - as long as the proper nutritional support is provided.

Trainer John Parillo has always been an advocate of lots of aerobics, even for his bodybuilder clients who are trying to gain muscle mass.

"Aerobics can enhance your recovery from weight training by promoting blood flow and oxygen transport to your muscles," says Parillo. "Aerobics forces oxygen through your body, increasing the number and size of your blood vessels. Blood vessels are the 'supply routes' that transport oxygen and nutrients to body tissues, including muscles, and carry waste products away for muscular growth, repair and recovery. The expansion of this circulatory network is called 'cardiovascular density.'"

So, according to Parillo, aerobics can actually enhance recovery from weight training and increase muscular growth by developing the circulatory pathways that provide nourishment to the muscles. Cardiovascular training is important for fat burning, for good health and for muscle-building.

Losing muscle has more to do with inadequate diet than with excessive aerobics. If you suspect you are losing muscle there are four likely causes:

1. You are not eating enough protein. Protein is the only nutrient that is actually used to build muscle. To stay anabolic you must eat five to six protein containing meals. Each meal should be spaced out approximately three hours apart. Research has proven that if you are physically active, you need a minimum of .8 grams to 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight.

2. Your carbohydrates are too low. Low carb diets are often used for fat loss, but it is a mistake to cut your carbs too drastically. Carbohydrates are protein-sparing, so even if you are eating large amounts of protein, you can still lose muscle if you your carbs are too low.

3. You are not eating enough calories to support muscle growth. This is the most common cause of muscle loss. When your calories are too low, your body goes into "starvation mode." Your metabolism slows down and your body actually burns muscle tissue to conserve energy. Muscle is metabolically active tissue, requiring a great deal of caloric energy just to maintain it. That's why your body will shed muscle if it thinks you are starving.

4. You are not training with weights. It is a common misconception that if you want to lose weight, you should start with cardio only and add the weights later - another big mistake! It is the weight training that keeps you from losing muscle while you are dieting.


You are much more likely to lose muscle from not eating enough than you are from doing too much cardio. All too often, people are afraid to eat a lot and do a lot of cardio at the same time. It doesn't seem to make sense. Logically, it seems like the two would cancel each other out - but the opposite is true. Many people believe they must "starve" the fat by drastically lowering calories. Unfortunately, this approach can cause you to lose muscle along with the fat. The only way to maintain your lean mass while losing fat is to feed the muscles with plenty of nutritious calories and at the same time, burn the fat off with cardio.

Whether your goal is muscle development, fat loss or both, you should always include some form of cardiovascular activity as part of your training program. Unless you're doing some kind of ultra-endurance regimen, AEROBICS DOES NOT CAUSE MUSCLE LOSS, in fact it supports the pathways that help you build it!

About the author of this page
Tom Venuto is the author of the Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle program. Burn the Fat was ranked by Clickbank as the #1 Fitness eBook, and it has sold in over 69 countries making it one of the most popular and fastest-selling fat loss e-books in internet history!

Great post, thanks!

Thank you, very good reading... should be a sticky

Very good post - I lost many of my worries :)

Good article... :tucool:
J

Generally you only lose muscle mass due to cardio if you're doing stuff like marathon training and that sort of thing. Even that muscle loss is mostly because its difficult to physically eat as many calories as are needed when you are training that intensely. When muscle is cannibilized, a majority of that occurs from diet,or rather, a poor diet, rather then physical training.

The problem is that when your bulking up, cardio eats into your calorie surplus, so in that sense, it can take away from muscle growth.

The problem is that when your bulking up, cardio eats into your calorie surplus, so in that sense, it can take away from muscle growth.

If cardio is eating so far into your calorie surplus that it's taking away from muscle growth, then you're not taking in enough calories. (Refer to reason #3)

Great post. Now when I go into my bulking cycle, I can continue running!

I agree with most of this article, but have never really bought into the "low calories each day will automatically waste muscle away".

I'm sure going TOO low will do just that, but look at John Stone himself for an example...

He was eating at or below 1200 calories a day when he started. He started out at about 215 pounds, so conventional "you're gonna lose muscle if you don't eat..." wisdom says he should've eaten 2150 - 2580 calories per day instead. Obviously, he was eating far lower than that, and well into the "Beware! You're losing muscle" territory.

But look at his bodyfat percentages and his weight loss. He lost about 18 pounds in his first month, and did not lose any lean body mass along the way. He continued like this for the whole time - NOT losing the lean body mass that everybody claims he should have.

You may say that he didn't GAIN any either, and you'd be right - but maybe John Stone has just shown that if you're weight training and eating correctly you will build as much muscle as you "lose", and cancel the effects out. So his high calorie deficit WAS burning all fat. People say that you can't lose more than two pounds a week of fat without going into muscle - but again, John Stone's statistic simply don't back that up.

For somebody trying to bodybuild and train for a competition, I can certainly understand all the formulas - but for somebody just wanting to lose weight, especially a significant amount of it, the message seems to be - eat correctly and weight train and do cardio, and you can still go very low in your calories and lose fat faster while retaining your lean body mass. Don't John Stone's stats confirm this?

And if somebody is 100 pounds overweight, then they're already carrying around much more lean body mass than they would have if they'd weighed in the "normal" range before starting their program - because they've been carrying around all that extra weight. Why not go low in calories and workout correctly with weight and cardio in that case? It seems you'd lose the fat faster and retain all that lean body mass, which should be plenty to start with.

I agree with most of this article, but have never really bought into the "low calories each day will automatically waste muscle away".

I'm sure going TOO low will do just that, but look at John Stone himself for an example...

He was eating at or below 1200 calories a day when he started. He started out at about 215 pounds, so conventional "you're gonna lose muscle if you don't eat..." wisdom says he should've eaten 2150 - 2580 calories per day instead. Obviously, he was eating far lower than that, and well into the "Beware! You're losing muscle" territory.

An excerpt from John's FAQ:


Q: I was looking at your earlier food logs and you were only eating around 1200 calories per day, sometimes even less! That was not enough food for your weight at the time, was it?

Absolutely correct. I did not eat enough when I started my program, and it probably hurt my progress somewhat. I have since learned better and have adjusted my daily caloric intake accordingly.

Anyone who wants to lose fat should start by eating about 10 times their body weight in calories each day. For most people losing 1-2 pounds of fat per week is about right. Keep in mind that those calories can't come from just any foods--they must come from wholesome foods, and you must get a good balance of macronutrients. All your hard work in the gym won't amount to much without a good diet to fuel your body.

http://www.johnstonefitness.com/html/faq.html

I have read John's FAQ, and realize that's what he says.

However, his results, at least for the first few months that I've checked, don't seem to support that conclusion.

The guy ate way less calories than the popular idea says he should, and he lost a whole lot of weight, more than 2 pounds per week - but he did NOT lose any lean body mass(according to his body fat percentages).

So how can these two things square? The data doesn't support the assertion.

I just want to figure out what's the right way. :D

I have read John's FAQ, and realize that's what he says.

However, his results, at least for the first few months that I've checked, don't seem to support that conclusion.

The guy ate way less calories than the popular idea says he should, and he lost a whole lot of weight, more than 2 pounds per week - but he did NOT lose any lean body mass(according to his body fat percentages).

So how can these two things square? The data doesn't support the assertion.

I just want to figure out what's the right way. :DI almost hate to jump into this one, but I really should comment... :p

When I first started my program, the 30% body fat figure was given to me by a BIA scale. We all know how imprecise BIA scales can be, but when I started my program I was a complete beginner and I didn't understand that they tend to be inaccurate. So, I saw that figure the scale spit out at me and believed what I was seeing. While the percentage was in all likelihood incorrect, at least it served as a tangible figure from which to start and gauge my relative gains and losses. Now that I've been around the block a few times, I do feel that the 30% figure is almost certainly high, but I'm reluctant to go back and "re-write" history and change all my records to what would amount to nothing more than a guess (a better educated guess, but still a guess.)

So, yes--based on the data I have recorded it does seem that I didn't lose any muscle mass; however, based on my own experience and what I've learned over the past year, I do believe that I lost some lean mass during my initial fat-loss phase. I did the best I could to document everything I did in great detail, but there is no question that errors were made due to my own ignorance and lack of experience at the time.

I hope this helps clear thing up a bit!

I almost hate to jump into this one, but I really should comment... :p

When I first started my program, the 30% body fat figure was given to me by a BIA scale. We all know how imprecise BIA scales can be, but when I started my program I was a complete beginner and I didn't understand that they tend to be inaccurate. So, I saw that figure the scale spit out at me and believed what I was seeing. While the percentage was in all likelihood incorrect, at least it served as a tangible figure from which to start and gauge my relative gains and losses. Now that I've been around the block a few times, I do feel that the 30% figure is almost certainly high, but I'm reluctant to go back and "re-write" history and change all my records to what would amount to nothing more than a guess (a better educated guess, but still a guess.)

So, yes--based on the data I have recorded it does seem that I didn't lose any muscle mass; however, based on my own experience and what I've learned over the past year, I do believe that I lost some lean mass during my initial fat-loss phase. I did the best I could to document everything I did in great detail, but there is no question that errors were made due to my own ignorance and lack of experience at the time.

I hope this helps clear thing up a bit!


It does, John. Thanks!

I think this should be a sticky-one. :tu: