Howdy all. I'm a 29 year old mother who became pregnant in highschool. I'll never really know what my body was supposed to look like. Today I'm a 5'8", muscular type weighing in at 170. I do 30 minutes of cardio three days a week (uphill/4.0) and am trying to break into jogging. I feel like a lead weight when I try to run, whether on TM or outside. I lift dumbells and do floor leg and ab exercises for 30 along with the cardio. Two days a week I am in Aerobics. I've had this routine for over three months. My diet is mostly veges, then fruit and whole grain cereal products/nuts, beans daily, three a day of nonfat dairy, no sugar at all and minimal meat but very lean when I do. No diet pop or other crap.

I'm not losing anything but breasts and determination and I'm gaining muscle everywhere. But it's under fat that I can't lose, so I'm getting bigger. I'm going to be Hulk Heather soon. Any ideas on how a dense gal can succeed at aerobic workouts, and have that slender, fatlessness of a runner? Or should I forefit to genetics? (I'm willing to suffer at this point)

Thanks in advance!
T.

Here's what I call "Filipe's Basic Running Primer"!

Step 1. Dedicate yourself to 45 minutes of cardio
Step 2. Run as long as you can
Step 3. When you can't run anymore, walk
Step 4. As soon as you have the tiniest amount of energy to do so, begin running again
Step 5. Repeat from step 3 until 45 minutes are up
Step 6. Repeat daily

Day by day your conditioning will improve. Things you can expect at first:
1. Shin pains - caused by microscopic bending in your shin. This is not a bad thing - it is an important precursor to bone growth and densifying
2. Lactic acid buildup - common and to be expected. Learn to love it, or suppress it with a perfectly safe product like SportLegs (I opt for the latter )
3. Foot pain - pain along the arch of your foot or numbness in your toes is normal after a long bout of running. Make sure you have a really good pair of running shoes -- not taking this precaution can lead to foot, leg, and back problems.
4. Tired breathing - this is the primary limiting factor in aerobic workouts and is to be expected until you get conditioned
5. A weighty feeling - again, conditioning and form. Until you have these down, you'll feel a little clunky bouncing around like that

Day to day, improvements you can expect include:
1. Reaching those 45 minutes isn't quite so bad
2. You're not breathing as hard, and after the workout, you don't breathe heavily as long (your body builds up, quite literally, "oxygen debt" during cardio workout when your oxygen demands outpace your ability to take it in - this will improve)
3. The pain becomes a badge of honor
4. Your fat is melting away

Of course, one unfortunate side effect of endurance cardio is that you will begin to burn muscle as soon as your carbohydrate substrates are depleted (so, usually after the first 20 minutes of endurance exercise).

Alternatively, you can try HIIT - but that doesn't make so much of a "runner" as a "sprinter", which in my mind are to different sides of a coin.

Fil, you have some good points but...

After 40 minutes of aerobic activity, glucose uptake increases 7 to 20 times the uptake at rest, depending on exercise intensity. After 20 minutes, liver and muscle glycogen provide about 40 to 50% of the energy requirement, with the remaining requirement from fat breakdown plus some blood glucose utilization.

Sooo...if she's going to be doing aerobic activity every day, I'd suggest that her diet consist of 60% carbs, 25% fat, and 15% protein.

However, I might go for a middle ground-3 days of aerobic activity (45 minutes) and 2 days of HIIT (20-25 minutes) to increase EPOC which will provide a greater fat burning environment.

Interesting. I was always under the impression that using ratios of carbs that high was more of an athlete's diet than a weight loss diet.

How long does liver and muscle glycogen last? My understanding is that muscular glycogen stores are relatively low (compared to those in the gut, for example) and that muscular catabolism was a result of reliance on slow-to-free triglyceride stores in fat cells. If glycogen stores in the liver and muscle were sufficient to meet that requirement, I don't see why the body would need to liberate proteins -

Unless you're saying that the other 50% - 60% is liberated from adipose tissue AND muscular protein, which I suppose would make sense. However, in a fat loss scenario, wouldn't you want to ensure the body's reliance upon stored fatty acids (limiting carbohydrate intake to about 30% - 40%)?

Fil,

I took this to a couple of my professors because I wanted to make sure I had a correct answer. The concesus was that if you start to burn protein or muscle that you are doing something wrong--you're more than likely in starvation mode. Interestingly, apparently even after two hours of heavy training you still shouldn't be burning protein. Both brought up Lance Armstrong that until his last couple days of continuous riding was he burning muscle.

They also said unless you have yourself hooked up at the university, there's not really a breakdown because so much depends on how much fat you're carrying, how high of glycogen stores you have, etc. However, they did say if you wanted to go with a semi-quantifiable number, after 20 minutes of aerobic activity, you'd be burning both carbs and fat. And then after 40 minutes you're more into fat burning than you are carb burning.

There was the comment that when you engage in continuous training you will need a higher consumption of carbs and that to properly kick start fat metabolism you do need a higher level of carbs.

Hope this helps.

Very interesting stuff!

So from this information are long cardio sessions better than short HIIT for burning fat and retaining muscle? Or does HIIT still hold the advantage?
(I know about the benefits like lung capacity that HIIT gives you).

I believe that long cardio sessions are training for a different sort of body than HIIT. Long cardio is more for distance running and slimming down whereas HIIT is, as Fil said, more for a sprinter. Sprinters tend to be more muscular than distance runners. Have you ever seen a bulky distance runner?

Hey, thanks everyone for your information. Fil, I plan on trying AND completing my first 45 minute stint tonight. I'll monitor daily carb intake and keep you guys posted on my progress. Thanks again for the outside info and hope I can contribute in return soon!

Well, I did my very best. I jog for 30 minutes, stopping only to stretch but by the end I was literally jogging for one minute, panting for one minute. Tomorrow I will shoot for 30 again but with less interruption. Next week I will move up to 45. I don't want to burn out by doing too much too fast. I feel really worn out and I think I'll be sore tomorrow. Yay!

I have a quick question that's basically just for my curiosity - are you jogging on a treadmill or outdoors? Both are perfectly fine, but as I said, I'm just curious.

Treadmill right now. I know outdoors will be a different experience. It's an average of 80 degrees here and humid, so I don't feel safe running outside until my body is used to the stress. My goal is to run outdoors.