Next Question - Exercise!?!

[claireweenie]

Hi Guys! Hope your all well...

I've been doing the VLCD for 4 weeks now and last week I started going to the gym. Normally I go hell for leather for an hour and feel (and look!) really knackered afterwards.
This time I decided to make use of the programmes on the gym equipment. According to the chart, for fat burning I need to keep my heart rate at about 130 for optimum fat burning (higher heart rate leads to cardio training rather then fat burning). I have to go REALLY slow to keep my heart rate down and my body doesnt feel like I've done much when I've finished after an hour.

So, my question is, am I better sticking to the fat burning heart rate and trusting the equipment or should I do my usual and go hell for leather?!?

Cheers guys!!!

x

 

[Miss Demeanour]

TBH, this is more of a question for the gym instructors! If you're paying a monthly sub, get your money's worth out of the expertise!

However, you've got to remember, that at only 600cal a day, by overdoing it on the cardio you're seriously risking losing lean mass and not fat, as your body gets desperate to find the energy. In fact, you're much better off letting the diet do it's job, perhaps adding a bit of cardio for fitness purposes, but mainly concentrating on toning and strength exercises, to maintain or increase lean muscle mass.

The short answer is go with the machines.

As bodybuilders use ketogenic diets (although theirs are high protein and substantially higher cal) there's quite a lot of info on the net about it.

 

[Yambabe]

Yup, don't knock yourself out with cardio whilst you're doing VLCD.

Apart from anything else if you lose lean mass by overdoing the cardio you will also drop your metabolic rate and make it harder to keep losing weight.......

Another vote for the machines here.

 

[Maia]

If you do want to do a little cardio but not overdo it as people have wisely said, a bit of interval training can be good. You go flat out on whatever machine for about 30 seconds, recover for about 90 seconds and do 5 or so cycles. So it's all over in 20 minutes, including warming up and cooling down. It lifts up your metabolic rate for the rest of the day and helps to raise your resting oxygen consumption in the long term. Which makes it easier to continue losing weight as you get further into it.

 

[vortigern]

steady state cardio is garbage for weight-loss, you might do more harm than good if your cals are low as your body will burn up muscle tissue at this level of exertion. Leave the cardio whilst on a diet and do just 20 mins of heavy weights. This will help counter the catabolic nature of low cal diets and help keep your metabolism from dying a death.....all you need to do is 1. Bench press 2. Deadlifts 3. Squats. Aim for 6 reps of the heaviest weight you can manage. Three sets of each, takes 20 minutes but BOOOM, you're metabolism will be stoked for the day trying to repair your muscles (and making them bigger).

 

[amelia23]

i did loads of yoga last time i did a vlcd (cambridge) and that worked really well for toning up...not sure if i burned any fat tho...probably cos the calorie intake is so low...to sort cardio problem out just fit little things into your day...i usually have to run for the bus lol about all the cardio i can handle on this diet!!! xxx