Here is some info I recently posted on the steroid forum:
If you do enough 40 minute of cardio sessions after a one hour workout at least 5 times a week, you will be cut in no time. As far as the diet goes, protein intake is very important. The general rule I follow when leaning is this: Have a serving of protien at least every 2-3 hours while awake and one right before going to bed - (usually something that contains calcium cassinate which is a slower absorbed protein).
As far as workouts go, increasing the reps is not going burn fat, Keep your reps lower and continue doing whatever it is you were doing but keep in mind that it is good to change it up from time to time so your body doesn’t adapt.
Have a pure whey protein shake right before the gym. I do this to raise the amount of amino acids in my system to prevent becoming catabolic during cardio.
Always do weights first. You want burn as much of the sugar off in your body by pumping the iron so when you begin cardio, your body will be forced to look other places for energy.
Also if you did cardio first and weights second, you are more likely to run out of energy and become catabolic during your workout
I have learned that after a weight workout there is about 40 minutes to an hour of time to get food in before your muscles begin to break themselves down for energy
This is the perfect window to do your cardio in
It takes about 20 minutes of doing cardio at you target heart rate before you begin to actually burn body fat. Energy used before this is from fatty acids in your blood
This means if you do 40 minutes of cardio, only 20 minutes is spent burning actual bodyfat.
Make sure you stay within your target heart rate. If you go too fast you will begin to burn sugars, and catabolize muscle - plus you will be stimulating your muscles to remodel themselves to suit long distance running
If you go too slow you just won’t burn nearly as much calories.
Your target heart rate can be calculated using the tables on most cardio equipment, or do a google search as there are many calculators on the net.
I have found personally a good range to stay in is between 120-130 bpm.
Immediately after you are finished your cardio have a protien/carbohydrate shake. You need to replace the muscle glyclogen you have depleated as well as give your body some protein to repair itself with. This energy will not be stored as fat but will be instead sucked up by your muscles.
You will be in a heightened metabolic state for several hours following your workout and if you don’t pig out on carbs will continue to burn body fat.
The rest of your meals for the day from suppertime on should be low carb- high protien -high vegetable - high in dietary fats.
The best and worst cardio equipment to use for fat burning:
The goal here is not to kill yourself, you want to maintain a nice even pace, throughout. You should be able to still hold a conversation. If you find you are out of breath and can’t, this is your cue to slow down a little. It isn’t important if you break a sweat or not, what is important is that you are able to finish the entire 40 minutes of cardio without having to stop before hand because of lack of endurance, or muscle cramps or whatever other reason.
Worst:
The bike
it just does not burn enough calories for the amount of time you use it, and if you increase the tension, you will fatigue your muscles long before you finish your 40 minute cardio sesion.
Stair Climber
Same as the bike it’s really hard on the legs but burns way more sugars then fat because it forces you to use explosive energy - and your fast twitch muscles aren’t well equiped to burn oxygen and fat. So for the amount of work you put in to it the amount of fat you burn is not worth the time spent.
The rowing machine
This is supprisingly pretty good and not very catabolic for your muscles, and you get a great ab workout. I have used this in combination with the different cardio machines when I am board of just doing one. I personally
would not do this for the entire 40 minutes though.
The tread mill
Its O.k to walk quickly on this with the machine set at an angle, but never run because running is extremely hard on your joints and very catabolic to your muscle mass.
The Best:
The elyptical trainer - EFX machine.
These are hands down the absolute best machines for burning fat. There is almost absolutely no strain on your joints, it is a very smooth machine, and for the amount of time you are on the machine you burn the most amount of calories then any other cardio machine period. It is also the least catabolic.