Overdoing Cardio

[SoulDoubt]

As someone who loves to run and exercise, I do my workouts and then I like to run every night. I'm looking to cut some weight down and I am eating clean but wondering if too much cardio is bad for cutting boy fat...I know it sounds like a stupid question, but I'm concerned that instead of losing the fat I am possibly losing muscle mass(even though I eat right)

[Lady C]

Are you doing any sort of strength training in addition to that cardio? If not you had better add it. That will prevent any significant muscle loss.

[SoulDoubt]

Originally Posted by Lady C

Are you doing any sort of strength training in addition to that cardio? If not you had better add it. That will prevent any significant muscle loss.

Yes, heres my breakdown

Monday: Chest and Tri (Then cardio)
Tuesday: Cardio
Wednesday: Back and Bi (Then cardio)
Thursday: Cardio
Friday: Legs and Abs (Then cardio)

Sat/Sun: No workout

I'm trying to do a 50/30/20 split on caloric intake and I am nearly there +/- 3-5% on a day.

[Pelon]

Originally Posted by SoulDoubt

As someone who loves to run and exercise, I do my workouts and then I like to run every night. I'm looking to cut some weight down and I am eating clean but wondering if too much cardio is bad for cutting boy fat...I know it sounds like a stupid question, but I'm concerned that instead of losing the fat I am possibly losing muscle mass(even though I eat right)

Excessive cardio wouldn't cause you to lose muscle instead of fat, but it could cause you to lose both. If you are running hard 5 days in a row, you could be going too hard. If you are running at a moderate pace for less than an hour, you probably aren't experiencing much muscle loss from cardio. As your intensity and duration increase, the potential amount of muscle tissue loss is also increasing. This is especially true if you are going hard on successive days. You have to give your body some rest time in order to re-build what you've broken down during exercise.

[fitricise]

If you love to run, keep doing it. IMO its more important to exercise the heart than worry about miniscule muscle loss. But that's up to you.

[Bulwark]

THings look good to me. A good measure is your strength. If your weights start to go down, you could be losing muscle. IF they stay the same or increase then you've hit the mark I'm looking for

Peace

[Klinger]

Do what you enjoy. If you like running, rock out. Just realize that burning lots of calories will cut down on mass gaining unless you dramatically ramp up your food intake.

[.V.]

Along the lines of what klinger said. Feed the cardio like a weight workout. This will help keep you from using muscle for fuel. Hey, if you actually like to run - you should do it. It's good for the heart so just eat enough to save the muscle. Some runners who eat for it actually have huge muscular legs from it.