I am 55 years old, have been working out for 3 years and I am trying to lose weight. I've been doing an hour of cardio per day about 6 days a week. Today a trainer told me that I should only be doing 30 minutes of cardio a day because anything over 30 minutes and I'm burning muscle and not fat. Any other opinions as to his advice?

Seems like a very oversimplified and garbled version of the idea that if you do only cardio, your weight loss will include both fat and muscle, perhaps more muscle than you really want to lose (particularly muscles not used in the cardio exercise).

Now, a marathon runner may not object to having little upper body muscle (after all, it is just more weight to carry around), but if you are not trying to optimize your body for a specific sport or activity, you may want to include general strength training in order to maintain (or even gain) as much muscle as possible while losing fat under calorie deficit and exercise conditions.

wha?

If your goal is to lose weight, and your caloric deficit is right, then no, it isn't too much. If your caloric deficit is too low, yeah you maybe losing muscle too.

I do believe like tjl you may want to balance it with strength training.....

Hmmm... 60 minutes is too much cardio, huh? wtf.

Do you have any medical condition that stops you from doing 60+ minutes. If not, then go for 2 hours. According to the show "The Doctors," the most dangerous thing in the gym is underqualifed Staff. It takes the body like 15 minutes of cardio before you enter into fat burning stage (for most people) so doing 30 minutes is only 15 minutes in fat burning... Personally, I try to go for as long as I can but then again I am in my mid-30's.

Good luck and keep up the effort to get into shape.

Stay healthy,
--Tic

if it is fueled correctly it isnt a problem,if it isnt fueled correctly,after approx 45mins the body releases cortisol this can cause you to lose muscle as well as fat,hence most marathon runners dont carry much muscle" which is good because they dont need it".

So 45 minutes would be reccomended for each session when cutting?

Ps.I go to the gym 4x a week

again it depends,on pre and post fuel,and intensity of cardio,also on your conditioning ie a conditioned athletes body might not release cortisol for an hour or more,an unconditioned athlete less time.

i forgot what I was gunna say.....

but--- i will say this....

enjoy what you do

do not seek too many opinions

laugh often

ahhahaha

okee dokeeee,,, guess I should log off now

FF

The opinion part is definitley true. I get confused sometimes expecially with the cardio or weights first as so many people say different.

Do what you can and what makes you feel like you are getting a workout, eat healthy and all will be well.

You're trainer was not on his A game when he said that.

thanks for all the input. i think i'll keep up the 60 minutes of cardio.

I routinely do 60+ minutes on the swimming, biking, or running or sometimes all three. My bench press has increased over the last year as has my lean body weight.

So, in my observations, you don't have to lose muscle via cardio.

Puff puff, PASS... pass it alreaday man!!!

You didn't say if you were doing any strength training/lifting weights. Adding muscle will increase the number of calories you burn even when resting. So if your goal is weight loss and you are only doing cardio, then you are missing out on a great way to boost your metabolism and lose weight. You may want to re-balance how much cardio you do as compared to strength training. Also, as the others have said, make sure you are properly fueled or you will start to burn muscle after too much cardio.

Hi Jim,
If your trainer made the statement as absolutely as you stated it, he/she is without support. It just ain't so.

There are many athletes and fitness buffs who train in cardio modes LONGER than 60 minutes with no loss of muscle mass. As already stated by our knowledgable family here, the cardio training mode, nutrition and strength training are certainly factors but there is no reason to categorically limit your cardio training to 30 minutes per day.

Rick DeLorme M.A., M.S.
Author of Fitness and Fallacies
fitnessandfallacies.com