High Heart Rate = Burn Muscle Instead of Fat

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Xiaoth

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A young "trainer" at a local gym (YMCA) was telling me that I shouldn't go beyond the recommended heart rate, or else I will start to lose muscle instead of fat.

I think he got his facts confused. It was my understanding that the notion of "burning muscle" comes simply from working out your muscles, causing them to tear, which is what any workout does, so that rebuilding the muscle goes beyond the starting point, but the muscle becomes "burned" when it is so severely torn that once rebuilt it will barely or not even reach the starting point. And if that's the case, it would take some serious extremity of training to reach that point.

I hardly think that running hard for thirty minutes, with a very high heart rate, is going to result in harm rather than good. I can only think it's going to push the body into shape much faster.

How else do Army boot camp trainees get pushed into shape so fast?
 
Burning muscle for energy is a reality, but it doesn't simply happen by running to hard. Running too hard, too long, and not eating enough food...that will cause muscle loss as the body will be in starvation mode and would rather burn muscle for energy than tap into fat stores.

Basically you don't need to go over 140bpm to burn fat. But you won't be getting a cardiovascular workout at 140bpm, hence why you'll wanna jack that up to 150-160bpm range.

(all bpm ranges are approximate for MY age/sex...yours will vary, but I wanted some real numbers for my explanation)

So yeah, your YMCA boy has his facts a little jumbled up.
 
Fiction- Intense cardio will burn muscle.

Fact- muscle can never be burned. You will always have muscle They size may decrease but never burn muscle. There is no such thing. Plenty of people especially athletes have a great amount of muscle and do intense cardio. Footballs players, basebal players, basketball players- it's just that not everyone works out to strictly bulk up. Most athletes will.
 
As long as you aren't starving yourself, you shouldn't be using protein (muscle) as a fuel source. Generally when your glycogen levels are depleted, you'll start into the fat burning.
 
Sure, it's possible for you to lose muscle from doing too much cardio, but it's highly unlikely.

So, according to Parillo, aerobics can actually enhance recovery from weight training and increase muscular growth by developing the circulatory pathways that provide nourishment to the muscles. Cardiovascular training is important for fat burning, for good health and for muscle-building.
 
To find the appropriate heart rate to burn fat use the equation (220) - (your age x percent of intensity) in this case 50 to 65%. Therefore if your 21. 220 - 21 x .65 = 129.35HR. This equation is used by personal trainers. If you exercise with high intense cardio it will burn muscle instead of fat because fat cannot be broken down fast enough for energy. That's why people who are trying to lose weight keep a low carbs but high protein diet. Carbs is used as energy and once carbs are depleted fat is used as energy. But if the exercise is too intense, protein is used as energy which is muscle. This is because fat is not being broken down fast enough. So just to make sure when your doing cardio, having a higher protein and lower carb diet will help prevent muscle loss. Having a too high of a protein diet will just lead to fat because once the body has enough protein it just converts to fat. So, the people out there who want to burn fat, i suggest weight training to burn off carbs and then jump onto long low intensity cardio to burn fat. Last thing, just remember that protein is the building block for muscle, and carbs is to fuel it. Reserved energy for muscle is fat and protein. This is Tony D, no pain no gain. lol
 
Army fitness

How else do Army boot camp trainees get pushed into shape so fast?

get up at 4 am every dat and get in an hour of PT, go to chow and eat all you can in under a minute- yay you had breakfast! go to your training and hope no one ****s up, cause if they do, you get "burned up". then lunch time rolls around and you get... well, a little under a minute to eat that. continue training and when you get back for dinner, you get a whole, ok well not quite, minute to eat. then go to the barracks and get burned up because someone ****ed up.

Try it, it works! youll lose that extra 10 lbs
 
yea the extra 10 lbs of muscle.. in the army they supply protein shakes if u didn't know that. o an also how would you know the army is like that unless you have been in the army. trust me im sure they wouldn't let their men have no energy to start the day. but it is their responsibilty to eat their food as much they can without wasting time. TD
 
anthony.m.d
yea the extra 10 lbs of muscle.. in the army they supply protein shakes if u didn't know that. o an also how would you know the army is like that unless you have been in the army. trust me im sure they wouldn't let their men have no energy to start the day. but it is their responsibilty to eat their food as much they can without wasting time. TD

Im not sure what Army Your in. Bu since IM in the United States Army for 3 years running... Trust me, i can tell you. NO PROTEIN SHAKES, YOU LEARN TO RESPOND AND FUNCTION ON LITTLE TO NO SLEEP, AND ITS MY RESPONSIBILITY TO SERVE AND PROTECT YOUr DUMB ASS SO YOU CAN STILL POST ON THIS SITE. Not eat as much food as i can- no training on how to be obese
 
Im not sure what Army Your in. Bu since IM in the United States Army for 3 years running... Trust me, i can tell you. NO PROTEIN SHAKES, YOU LEARN TO RESPOND AND FUNCTION ON LITTLE TO NO SLEEP, AND ITS MY RESPONSIBILITY TO SERVE AND PROTECT YOUr DUMB ASS SO YOU CAN STILL POST ON THIS SITE. Not eat as much food as i can- no training on how to be obese
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ppl like u r y personal trainers like me don't go on sites like this cause you don't listen to what useful information we provide.
 
High Heart Rate = Burn Muscle Instead of Fat

For anyone that wants to know if this is true, it is true ONLY if you have already burnt up your stored energy. Then you will start eating into your muscles if your heart rate is still high. Low heart rate will burn fat after you deplete your stored energy. Tony D
 
rebuilding the muscle

Hi agree with you xiaoth
I too think he got his facts confused.
The burning feeling in the muscle comes from, causing them to tear, which is what any workout does, so that rebuilding the muscle goes beyond the starting point.
 
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The burning feeling comes from lactic acid build up after your body breaks down glycogen for energy. You don't feel your muscles tear its the next day when you find out.
 
The Fat Burning Zone is a myth purported by the Fitness Industry and supported by a number of BS research articles that have been mis-quoted over and over again. It's just plain bad advice.

The idea that your body is going to start eating its own muscle just because you ran for too long is ridiculous. Tony D - you're a PT?
 
Well if you run for a long time you could indeed start eating your own muscle. If you run out of glycogen protein's contribution to your energy supply will increase and some of that protein could come from muscle protein. But that has more to do with duration than intensity. There's nothing wrong with doing high intensity training. It's actually way better if you want to improve your fitness.
 
I can appreciate that Karky but we're talking about a really long time here. Add that to the fact that your glycogen stores are always being replenished.

I just think people place far too much emphasis on fat loss, training zones and the like. Training should be about increasing performance over time - all the other results come naturally. And I agree, high intensity training (with appropriate exercise selection) is great.

Matt
 
There is research saying that high intense cardio will burn muscle if your glycogen stores are already depleted. Now, if you are trying to lose fat (cutting phase) all bodybuilders know that they are going to lose some muscle regardless. This is because cardio can break down glycogen, fat and protein for energy. Fat is broken down during light intensity workouts. As intensity increases your body jumps into glycogen stores. The thing is fat also is being broken down for energy as well, just not as much. This is why they came up with "fat burning zones". Protein isn't the last resort for energy because it can be broken down faster then fat. So the thing that most people don't understand is when a PT says don't go over the heart rate because you will burn muscle. It is because it's at the end of the session and they have depleted there glycogen stores from a very intense strength workout. If cardio was the first thing the pt got you to do in the gym, he would make you run without caring for your heart rate etc.
If you are going to do cardiovascular training, do it on the days when you don't weight train. In this way you know you have sufficient glycogen stores to do your cardio workout and have the intensity as high as you want. Tony D
 
I would say that athletes such as for example an Olympic Sprinter would train at very high heart rates indeed. And those guys usually have great lean, muscular physiques.

On the other hand a distance runner or marathon runner who would train for endurance at a lower heart rate tend to be very lean but not muscular.
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low intensity training gathers slow twitch muscle fibers. High intense training gathers fast twitch muscle fibers. slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibres appear different. bodybuilders and sprinters have fast twitch muscle fibres. Marathon runners have slow twitch. This is why the two runners muscles appear different. Tony D
 
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