Are you… Cardio Crazy?

Written by Dan Young

IS THIS YOU?

You take working out seriously. You are in the gym at least 3 days a week, and when you do Cardio, you do it with a vengeance until you are swimming in sweat.

You leave the gym and grab an Aquafina before heading for work or home. You believe that giving your body anything but water right now would defeat all your hard work and that any calorie that you put in your body right now would land right back on your hips.

Your body hasn’t seen any significant progress in quite some time. Unfortunately, though you workout hard, you are standing still. Don’t be alarmed. You just need to get nutrition right and watch the fat burn away!

WHAT WENT WRONG?

You have used most, if not all, of your stored glycogen during your cardio workout. The result is that your body is in a Catabolic or “Muscle Wasting” state.

Since you did not replace the calories that you burned within 45 minutes of your hard work, your metabolic rate took a nose dive and now your body has accelerated the process of burning muscle for energy.

THIS IS BAD! Every time you force your body to go into a Catabolic state your body begins turning muscle into glucose; the sugar that feeds your brain and provides the energy you need to maintain your metabolic rate. It is far easier for your body to do this than to turn a fat lipid into glucose, so your body will ALWAYS choose muscle first over fat.

SOLUTIONS

The secret to burning fat is keeping your muscle. The only way to keep muscle is to never allow your body to starve. When your body starves it goes into a Catabolic state which then burns muscle instead of fat, NOT IDEAL!

Your body goes into this Catabolic state 3 times a day:

Sleep — Solution: Eat a breakfast containing fruit within 30 minutes of rising.

Missed Meals — Solution: Eat every 2.5 hours after rising, don’t wait until you are hungry.

Working Out — Solution: A nutrient dense Recovery Shake immediately following your workout.

Enjoy a recovery smoothie at the Champions Pub & Restaurant. Make your ideal smoothie at our Smoothie Bar!

So you want to lose fat? Keep the muscle on your body. Do weight resistant training exercises and never allow your body to go into a Catabolic state. Fuel your body at the right times and watch lean muscle melt the fat away!