I’m looking to incorporate cardio into my daily workout program as I want to minimize some of the anxiety which I have to live with and I want to boost up my metabolism and burn some fat. What should I be eating after my cardio sessions and how long should they be? I want to avoid as much catabolism as possible and minimize the negatives of cardio on muscle mass. Thanks…
See the “Essential Berardi” articles at T-mag.
Based on your goals, I would follow the recommendations outlined in Berardi’s articles on post-workout nutrition. Tone the total amount of calories consumed up or down depending on length of workout and intensity of workout.
I did an assload of cardio this weekend with junior A tryouts(ice hockey) and all I lost was water weight, and my diet was less than perfect. I don’t think you have to worry about catabolism from the cardio you will be doing. But I may be wrong, just my 2 cents.
It really depends on what kind of cardiovascular activity you are doing. Post workout supplementation for an HIIT/sprinting session would be much different than 20-30 minutes at 70% VO2max. What type of intensity are you going to be working at? What is the duration of your workouts going to look like? With this info. I’d be able to give you a more informed opinion.
With the short duration (15 min) HIIT, are you still of the mind that you should wait an hour to eat, or should you have a shake (surge) right away?
There has been some recent research to support the notion that RER (respitory exchange ratio- the amount of fat and/or carbs being utilized as energy substrates) remains unchanged when a protein/glucose beverage is cosumed immediatly post workout. So yes, go ahead and have the beverage immediatly after the cessation of your exercise bout.