Question about cardio and fat burning

[Sukhoi]

I like to go for extended bike rides. Usually around two hours at a fast pace, which is supposed to burn between 1500 and 2000 calories. If I would only drink water (intake no calories) while doing the biking where would the 1500-2000 calories come from? Mostly fat or mostly muscle (leg I assume)? Right now I'm trying to gain lean mass, and don't have very much fat to lose. But I do want to lose the fat I have, without losing muscle.

My other option is drinking Kool-Aid and essentially having no change in calories over the two hours.

 

[purbeast0]

if you are trying to gain lean muscle and lose fat, thats not going to happen. you can't gain weight + lose weight at the same time. cycle it so that you go on bulking programs for a month or 2, then go on a cut cycle for a month or 2.

EDIT: when you lose fat, you WILL LOSE MUSCLE! its just a fact of life! now how much muscle you lose depends on the way you train. if you do HIIT (high intensity interval training) that is the way you will lose MINIMAL muscle but more fat. but that workout is NOT for people who are untrained, it takes a while to get conditioned for that type of working out. google HIIT for more info on it.

 

[TheLonelyPhoenix]

You burn calories from the sugar in your blood and fat cells. Your body does need that sugar to keep burning fat, though, so you can't cut carbs out of your diet and think that you're only burning fat while exercising.

You don't start "burning muscle" until your body goes into complete lockdown (no caloric intake over a long period of activity) and starts metabolizing the protein in your muscles. Just eat a reasonable diet and that won't happen.

 

[leftyman]

from the carbs in your blood sugar for about the first 40 minutes then after that is depleted it goes after your fat stores. if you are NEW to weight training you can diet and gain muscle mass

 

[Rudee]

Your exercising heart rate will determine if you are burning primarily glucose as opposed to fat. Research shows that fat doesn't metabolize properly at high heart rates (above 79% of your max capacity), thus the fat burning zone is roughly 55-60% of your max capacity. I see people all the time going far too quickly on the treadmill. All they are doing is burning sugars, not bodyfat. If you are burning off 2000 calories doing cardiovascular training and you are not taking in enough calories to offset this - especially in the form of protein - you are going to eventually have a very emaciated looking body. Have a close look at Lance Armstrongs body. He's got very little muscle on his frame due to sacrificing muscle tissue. His spindly looking arms are about 12" in circumference. I would hate to look like that. All endurance and very little muscle.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

So if I wanted to lose weight, could I do it by using an exercise bike? Do I just need to keep my heart rate at some % of the max capacity? Trying to decide if I should buy an exercise bike.

Right now, I do:

1 mile (treadmill @ 4 mph)
about 20-30 squats
bench press 100lbs (15 reps)
25-35 crunches
15 curls (biceps)

I do this at least 4 times a week. Should I see some benefit to this kind of workout?

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: Sukhoi
I like to go for extended bike rides. Usually around two hours at a fast pace, which is supposed to burn between 1500 and 2000 calories. If I would only drink water (intake no calories) while doing the biking where would the 1500-2000 calories come from? Mostly fat or mostly muscle (leg I assume)? Right now I'm trying to gain lean mass, and don't have very much fat to lose. But I do want to lose the fat I have, without losing muscle.

My other option is drinking Kool-Aid and essentially having no change in calories over the two hours.

Your best bet is to drink Gatorade or something while you're on the bike. Providing your body with a nice convenient source of sugar while riding should spare your muscles tissue for the most part. Since there's basically no way in hell you can consume enough per hour on the bike to offset the work you're doing, you're still going to have a caloric deficit when you're done (and lose weight).

If you really want to make sure you maintain muscle mass, you're going to have to do some gym time each week as well. As others have said, it's pretty hard to lose fat and gain lean mass all at once with any great degree of efficiency.

 

[Sukhoi]

Good stuff guys, thanks for the info. I'm going to forget trying to lose any fat right now and see how much weight I can gain over the next six months or so.

CalvinHobbes, is your goal only to lose weight? If so you need to do way way more cardio than that (treadmill, eliptical, biking). The lifting part is ok, but if you're trying to drop weight you want lots of reps at lower weights. Probably do 3x10 or 3x15. Certainly not less than 10 reps per set. Also your number of crunches is really low if you're doing them correctly.

 

[CalvinHobbes]

CalvinHobbes, is your goal only to lose weight? If so you need to do way way more cardio than that (treadmill, eliptical, biking). The lifting part is ok, but if you're trying to drop weight you want lots of reps at lower weights. Probably do 3x10 or 3x15. Certainly not less than 10 reps per set. Also your number of crunches is really low if you're doing them correctly.

I'm trying to lose a little extra weight but I need to build muscle as well. I guess I'm just trying to get in shape. I'm not heavy but before I started to exercise, I was really doing no exercise at all. If I got a bike I would plan on doing 30 - 45 min a day. I just get too bored on the treadmill to do more than a mile.