Will I need to eat more when I start cardio?

S

SamuelL

New member
Currently around 360 lbs or so and am about to start daily cardio. Have in mind to start with at least 30 min a day on an elliptical. And work up to 1.5hrs a day.

I've lowered my calories to 2000 a day or lower and stayed with that for a short time. The last thing I want to do is burn muscle though. So as a person of my size, which estimates via online calculators put me at 3800 a day natural burn, should I start taking in more calories?

What do I need to know going into this?
 
Short answer - you shouldn't need to increase calories to cover an extra half hour a day cardio.

Longer answer - there are factors that influence your muscle loss, but the total calories aren't as important as how much protein you're getting and whether or not you're doing weight training.

Good news: the higher your bodyfat percentage, the less likely you are to lose muscle, regardless of your program. So if you want to wait until you're down to 275 or so before you worry about weight lifting, or even protein content (to a degree) that's perfectly fine.

When you do get leaner though, you'll want to strive for about 1g of protein per pound of your goal weight, and you'll want to 'move heavy things' about twice a week. The strength part tells your body that your muscles are important, and the protein provides the building blocks to keep your muscles intact.

Also, if you start to feel fatigued you may want to have a higher calorie day. You probably want to have one 'rest' day a week as well, where you only do light exercise at best (walking, slow elliptical, housework etc).

There are also some suggestions that once a week you have a higher calorie day just to keep your hormones sorted out - I don't know the technical details on this, and it sounds like it's a "just in case" kind of thing. Of course, that may actually have more to do with a low carb, low cal diet, but I'm just throwing it out there despite my hazy memory in case you wanted to look into that more ;)
 
Ok that's good to know. Would it be harmful if I set my daily calorie intake at 1500? And how would I go about figuring how much protein I should get? I will most likely pick up weight lifting when I'm somewhere in the mid 200s
 
SamuelL said:
Ok that's good to know. Would it be harmful if I set my daily calorie intake at 1500? And how would I go about figuring how much protein I should get? I will most likely pick up weight lifting when I'm somewhere in the mid 200s
Click to expand...
Heya

the advice above is great, so long as you get a decent amount of protein then you should be fine with 1500 calories, but just don't leave yourself with too much of a change, otherwise you may find it harder to stick too.
Try sticking with 2000 calories for now, and make them higher protein. around 100-150gms protein should be enough per day, but the more the merrier. Protein usually makes you feel more full for longer.
If you had a huge rice meal, chances are you might feel hungry an hour later, vs having protein based meals you will find it lasts a lot longer.

Having a couple of eggs on toast for me filled me longer than having normal cereals, and had the same, if not less calories. Tuna or low fat yoghurt for lunch, and some form of meat for dinner etc.
 
just eat reguler only certain foods will fuel your energy while working out, maybe take in a low calerie gatorade or somthin. i`m in england so i dont know what u drink over there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top