Heavy increase in cardio - how to stop muscle reduction

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psytaco

Bluelighter
Joined
Nov 20, 2005
Messages
1,673
Location
Melbourne, Aus
Hi guys.
First time posting in the steroids discussion (normally post in drug discussion;).

I've been doing kickboxing now for almost two months. I'm training 3 times a week (1.5 hour sessions) and for those of you who have never done kickboxing, the training sessions are INTENSE and you burn alot of calories.
Anyway, I want to lose fat, and I can tell that this is happening. but what I'm worried about is losing my muscle mass. I'm a pretty big guy (187cm and 95kg), so I'd like to keep the strength but trim down a little. I currently take one protein shake a day, 5g creatine & 4g glutamine. Is this enough?
Also, I am only weight training, 2 to 3 times a week atm. Do you think this is enough (I'm currently doing alot of supersets, heavy weights with a 10, 8, 6, 6 split)?
Any other advice would be much appreciated.

P.S - My diet isn't too bad - 5 meals a day generally aim for them to between 400 and 500 calories (what would be the recommended daily caloric intake for someone my age wanting lose weight) - but due to living on campus at university, main meals are regularly kind of unhealthy.
 
You need to find out for yourself when your eating too much or too little- it a pretty unique thing and relates too closely to your diet/exercise/natural metabolism for us to judge based on one (or even several) posts. 2500cals is a pretty good start point- keep an eye on the scales and the mirror and try and work out how your doing. Take some measurments.
 
up your protein drastically, and supplement with amino acids(preferably BCAAs) throughout the day to prevent catabolism...the key here is consistency and listening to your body..

Try to take in upwards to 300grams of protein a day from clean protein sources and meal replacement shakes..
 
You want to maintain your muscle mass while doing extreme cardio and you want to put yourself into a caloric deficit as well?

Get on some juice, that would help :P

Haha, ok but seriously, but without knowing other details about you.. well its hard to give exact advice if you don't have exact parameters.

You're doing kickboxing which is prolly closer to HIIT than regular cardio, so that's good.

The fact that you're eating dorm food is a major MAJOR disadvantage.
Unless your university goes out of their way to provide healthy whole foods... I mean you can make it work I guess..
If they serve boneless skinless chicken breasts (I doubt they do) load up on those.
But try and eat as healthy as you can if you must eat the dorm food.
How knowledgeable are you about healthy diet/eating?
Lean proteins?
Veggies?
Fruits?
Slow burning carbs?
Don't drink soda?
Etc?

Also, you're trying to estimate the amount of calories you're getting in each meal, and I'm guessing you're just taking a stab at it? But you have no way of knowing the caloric value of that dorm food, its prolly abysmal.

In terms of calories you should be getting, a good starting point is to take your BW in lbs, multiply by 14, and subtract 20% off of that.
Shoot for that amount everyday.

And no one can really tell you if you're lifting weights often enough at least not without knowing your routine.
Are you doing a full body workout each time?
Or just hitting one muscle group?
Currently I do HIIT 3 times a week and I lift weights 3 times a week, I'm also cutting.
 
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