How much cardio do you ladies do when leaning up?

fitlover · 07-01-2009, 06:15 PM

I thought it'd be interesting to know what you other ladies do when you're leaning up. Do you take the less food, more cardio approach? Or the more food, less cardio?

And when you're leaning up, what kind and how much cardio do you do?

freebirdmac · 07-01-2009, 06:27 PM

I estimate my maintenance at 1800. This last leaning out period I did two sessions of interval/HIIT type cardio in addition to my 4 days a week lifting. Five minute warmup/15 minutes intervals/5 minute cool down. I took my cals to 1500, 40/30/30. I estimated beforehand a 0.6 pound a week fat loss and reality matched my estimates.

Now I'm going to bulk for 9-12 months

fitlover · 07-01-2009, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freebirdmac

I estimate my maintenance at 1800. This last leaning out period I did two sessions of interval/HIIT type cardio in addition to my 4 days a week lifting. Five minute warmup/15 minutes intervals/5 minute cool down. I took my cals to 1500, 40/30/30. I estimated beforehand a 0.6 pound a week fat loss and reality matched my estimates.

Now I'm going to bulk for 9-12 months

How did you get your estimate at 1,800?

onnadafit · 07-01-2009, 09:56 PM

Do you use the BMR tool to work out maintenance?

Female 655 + (4.3 x weight in lbs) + (4.3 x height in inches) - (4.7x your age) = your BMR or Basic Metabolic Rate

Quote:

Originally Posted by fitlover

How did you get your estimate at 1,800?

freebirdmac · 07-02-2009, 03:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fitlover

How did you get your estimate at 1,800?

I use this http://www.fitwatch.com/qkcalc/tdcn.html. I pretty much confirmed it during my last bulk. Honestly though, I don't think it's a static number. I think the average can vary a bit from week to week. Not by a lot, maybe 50 cals.

deawalsh · 07-02-2009, 04:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fitlover

I thought it'd be interesting to know what you other ladies do when you're leaning up. Do you take the less food, more cardio approach? Or the more food, less cardio?

And when you're leaning up, what kind and how much cardio do you do?

Nutrition takes a big place in the fat loss process. I lift 4 days a week, and do only 1 session of HIIT cardio a week(yeah i pretty much hate cardio, but it is necessary!), for about 20-25 intense minutes and i'm still leaning up a lot!(and all that with a big cheat meals on sunday night!) I eat a LITTLE less than maintenance (about 75-100 less). I do my HIIT in the morning and i do never have carbs before (a whey shake, and sometimes my NO Shotgun!), to keep my glycogen low (so when i get to the treadmill,it starts faster to burn fat!), I also take some scoops of Xtend during my cardio.

nextsuperhero · 07-02-2009, 06:46 AM

3-4 usually, occasionally as much as 6. I swim, bike, run & dance.

Swimming is kind of HIIT for me, 1 swim each length pretty fast & then rest for a couple minutes before doing the next.
The rest are SS, ocassionally I'll sprint, very occassionally. I prefer jogging to sprinting.

I also eat close to maintainence. I'd die or start binging if I cut my calories too much.

Louiseuk · 07-02-2009, 07:30 AM

When competing I do around 20 mins cardio before breakfast, and another 20 minutes after my weight training in the evening.

I prefer running to most forms of cardio, although in the last phase of my dieting I struggle with my energy so I switch to the cross trainer/stepper. At this point I will also start power walking in the mornings.

IronCitGrl · 07-02-2009, 03:37 PM

I just started my first "cut" and the first week I upped my cardio to three sessions instead of two (one steady state and two HIIT sessions) and decreased my calories by 400. I decreased my lifting days from 4 days to three. But I HATED doing that much cardio and less lifting so I'm just sticking with four days lifting and two HIIT sessions. Hopefully the calorie decrease will work its wonders. So far I think is has a little bit.

dollface33 · 07-02-2009, 04:40 PM

I just wanted to say that it's really awesome to hear that most of you do more lifting than cardio. I've heard the reverse of that all of my life...cardio, cardio, cardio... and while I don't mind it much, I'd rather lift any day of the week.

Along with that feeling of relief though, is one that I have no idea how to start out on my training to get to where I want to be. I want to be strong, cut and lean but I don't want to get as buff as a lot of you are.... I've been eating very clean, I guess I have a lot more research to do as far as my training will go...

fitlover · 07-03-2009, 10:40 AM

Awesome to see you ladies don't overdo cardio

. I myself have upped my cardio a little to 2-4 times per week (4 being the MAX, but I usually don't get that much in!) and it's a mix of HIIT, and jump rope. I really hate cardio, but I know it's good for me, so I do it, lol.

push_it · 07-03-2009, 01:42 PM

I am contest prepping right now (8 DAYS OUT

) and have done 2 hours of cardio / 4 days a week with 2 days of HIIT that totalled a warm up and cool down, 28 intervals and 30 min steady state, along with 1.5 hours weight training 5 days a week. My calorie intake has been around 1650cal/day
When not prepping though (bulking) I was doing way less cardio and my claories were higher. More like 20-30 min steady state cardio 5 days a week and calories around 2000/day