reducing cardio?

[catskills]

I am thinking of reducing the amount of cardio but I need a little help/advice. First of all when do you know when it is time to reduce your cardio and by how much? In the past cardio has been great for maintaining my weight (when I had a bad diet) and also for speeding up the process of fat loss. But now it seems like the cardio is just allowing me to "eat more." I don't know whether it is doing me much good at this point from a training perspective.

What does reducing cardio do for you? Does it allow more storage of glycogen in the muscles. Ie. allowing for a fuller look, I don't really know what it will do for me from that regard.

Any advice or tips would be great. I am assuming I will have to re-calculate my maintenance to allow for a lower intake of calories. I am guessing that would be a starting point.

Thanks.

[BEEvon]

I am thinking of reducing the amount of cardio but I need a little help/advice. First of all when do you know when it is time to reduce your cardio and by how much? In the past cardio has been great for maintaining my weight (when I had a bad diet) and also for speeding up the process of fat loss. But now it seems like the cardio is just allowing me to "eat more." I don't know whether it is doing me much good at this point from a training

What does reducing cardio do for you? Does it allow more storage of glycogen in the muscles. Ie. allowing for a fuller look, I don't really know what it will do for me from that regard.

Any advice or tips would be great. I am assuming I will have to re-calculate my maintenance to allow for a lower intake of calories. I am guessing that would be a starting point.

Thanks.

The majority of your glycogen stores are burned off during your weight training session.
I just posted a similar topic in another forum. The consensus was cardio is important for endurance preservation and to help with DOMS but not crucial, particularly during a bulk.

[megdaig]

Are you eating in a surplus or deficit? Or just maintaining? To me it sounds like you were maintaining so not necessarily any need for cardio, other than if you like to do cardio, especially if all you are doing is eating back calories.

Really all it'll do is make you adjust your diet just a tad to continue to meet your goals. Aside from HIIT cardio, a good rule of thumb (for a 150# person) is 100 calories for every 1 mile of cardio (particularly walking/running...stair climbing and cycling may be a bit more).

I'm not sure that you would achieve a more fuller look since you're energy balance will be exactly the same (before you were depleting glycogen and then refilling with food, now you won't be depleting at all but also not eating as much as you were before).

[Miranda]

it depends on how much and what intensity you do, and what your diet is like.

if you run/cycle a lot for example, and don't get to refill glycogen and then rest and eat at maintenance (with plenty carb), your legs tend to 'fill out' and look a lot better. not instantly - it takes several days. how visible that is obviously depends on how much muscle you have.

if the cardio has been stressing you out, you may drop some water weight, too, and look 'leaner'.