best time to do cardio?

[st1102]

Ive been workin out for a while now but I want to lose some weight while maintainging my size. I have been doing high reps low sets for the last few weeks and I like it alot.

My question is when should I be doing the cardio? I have been doing it after I workout but have heard that is bad. Doing it first thing in the morning isnt really an option. Any help is appreciated.

[Korch]

i've heard best is early morning no an empty stomach. if that won't work, then do it after you lift (or on off days). You probably want to do longer, low intensity cardio if you're concerned about losing your muscle. That or HIIT.

[Wolfram]

Caveat, i'm not an expert but this is how I understand the issue:

The benefit of doing cardio in the morning on an empty stomach is that the body has spent the night burning up it's carbs from the day before, so it should theoretically start burning fat sooner.

I've heard that if you do cardio after working out you get a similar effect because you'll have used up the carbs in your body. You do however have to be very careful that you don't start eating away at protein/muscle.

Never do cardio before lifting weights (except for warmup, which isn't really cardio).

I like doing cardio on off days because I think that's the safest way to promote recovery between weight-training sessions and insure that I'm not risking that I diminish my gains by eating away at muscle. I'm not too concerned with maximizing fat burning. I think that'll take care of itself with proper diet, regular cardio and increased muscle mass.

[bwana devil]

what wolfram said is correct. of all of what he said, the least to worry about is doing cardio in the morning. that will probably have the least impact. the most important is doing cardio on your days off away from the gym. and also very important, do high intensity training. check out HIIT in the faq.

[Wolfram]

bwana,

Most of my cardio comes from sports like basketball (full-court) and squash. Does that count as HIIT?

[bwana devil]

[ QUOTE ]
bwana,

Most of my cardio comes from sports like basketball (full-court) and squash. Does that count as HIIT?

[/ QUOTE ]

playing full court b-ball and squash will definitely get your heart rate up and have cool down periods which mimic the HIIT run.

b-ball isnt quite as intense as HIIT but more importantly, if it's entertaining to you and makes you go back the next day that's what counts.