Whats more catabolic? Too little calories or too much cardio?

[dece870717]

Say you have maintenance calories of 3000. You have scenario 1, you're eating only 1000 calories a day and doing basically no cardio just normal workouts. Scenario 2 you're eating 2500 calories a day, doing normal workouts and also burning off 1,500 calories a day with excessive amounts of cardio. Which scenario is going to be more catabolic and why or would they be the same since you are having the same amount of deficit or does it not work that way?

 

[Lenny]

Say you have maintenance calories of 3000. You have scenario 1, you're eating only 1000 calories a day and doing basically no cardio just normal workouts. Scenario 2 you're eating 2500 calories a day, doing normal workouts and also burning off 1,500 calories a day with excessive amounts of cardio. Which scenario is going to be more catabolic and why or would they be the same since you are having the same amount of deficit or does it not work that way?

Both seem somewhat catabolic to me, food is anabolic and 1000 calories would not even keep my eyes open. Burning 1,500 calories from cardio is something a cross country running does and needless to say I ran cross country years, years ago and could never put any muscle on, usually would lose muscle!

I like scenario 2 with the right kind of cardio - balance it out and do not let cardio hinder your strength training, nothing excessive, let your lean muscle, controlled nutrition plan, and resistance training make you leaner! The goal should be FAT LOSS/MUSCLE MAINTENANCE OR GAIN, not WEIGHT LOSS/MUSCLE LOSS...unless you are just losing weight to lose weight without caring too much about holding muscle!

Remember your maintenance calories can change day to day, depending on many factors! Remember, so many ways to do things, but over dieting/under eating OR overdoing cardio all can work against you till you figure out to spread it across the board...you can always make adjustments along the way with calories or cardio if fat loss is not happening or you hit a wall!

 

[cev79]

I used to do tae kwan do for 2 hours a day, super anaerobic, as well as spin class, long distance running, etc. And I never gained. Now I do slow walking on the treadmill at an incline and the fat comes off but the muscle stays on. Once you do something anaerobic you're gonna start going catabolic.

 

[Ulamalop]

balance it out and do not let cardio hinder your strength training, nothing excessive, let your lean muscle, controlled nutrition plan, and resistance training make you leaner! The goal should be FAT LOSS/MUSCLE MAINTENANCE OR GAIN, not WEIGHT LOSS/MUSCLE LOSS...unless you are just losing weight to lose weight without caring too much about holding muscle!

The fat loss/muscle maintenance line is a tight walk for me, as I'm sure it is for most bro's. I have found if I do cardio for 20 minutes, post workout, I can burn the fu-fu without cloberring strength and size.