question on cardio and diet

[Timbaland]

I read the FAQ and did a search and was unable to find an answer so I am asking it here.

I am currently on a cutting cycle and had a couple of questions. I am being very strict with my diet right now but I injured my ankle and haven't been able to train for a couple weeks and counting so I can't do any cardio. I'm lifting (with the exception of any exercise that requires me to use my injured ankle) during this time.

I know weight is a matter of calories consumed - calories burned and you need a certain number of calories to maintain your current weight. But my question is how people always mention that cardio (HIIT) burns fat whereas I always figured it curned calories. Am I less likely to burn fat since I am unable to do cardio with my injury? Is cardio more prone to burn fat than muscle as opposed to just a cutting diet? Hopefully ifting will help me preserve my muscle mass. Thanks for any help.

[Monger]

Speaking very generally…

If you're doing less activity because of the injury you'll have to reduce calories again in order to maintain the same deficit.

Whether your body burns predominantly fat or not for energy during certain activities depends mostly on intensity. In the big picture, it doesn't really matter though. If you're in a deficit your body will oxidize more fat than it stores.

[Timbaland]

Thanks monger. I didn't realize that the intensity made a difference in whether fat or other stuff (glycogen, muscle mass, etc) was used as energy. So higher intensity means more fat burned if you're in a calorie deficit diet.

Any tips on how to try to preserve as much muscle mass as possible while in a deficit besides lifting and HIIT which I can't do right now?

[Monger]

Originally Posted by Timbaland

Thanks monger. I didn't realize that the intensity made a difference in whether fat or other stuff (glycogen, muscle mass, etc) was used as energy. So higher intensity means more fat burned if you're in a calorie deficit diet.

No. It's the other way around during activity. The higher the intensity the more glucose is used and the lower the intensity the more fat is used. This has to do with rates at which those can be converted to energy and needs of the activity. But this is all somewhat meaningless to what you're trying to do and like I said before, I'm being general because I don't want to type out a novel here and I don't feel that it's necessary to help you out. Bottom-line is that the caloric expenditure caused by the exercise it's self will have far more to do with fat loss than whether fat or glucose are actually being used during the exercise.

You store and oxidize fat all day long. As long as you have a caloric deficit, more fat will be oxidized than stored. Even if you burn 100% glucose with exercise, those calories will still have to be replaced and additional fat is still oxidized during recovery anyway.

Any tips on how to try to preserve as much muscle mass as possible while in a deficit besides lifting and HIIT which I can't do right now?

There are two main keys to preserving muscle mass while in a deficit.

1. Get adequate protein
2. Do resistance exercise (lift weights)

If you’re injured I would just do whatever weight lifting that you can and keep protein levels up.

[Timbaland]

Thanks for the great response Monger. I will have to change the cardio I do when I heal up.

[Xtremist]

UBE machine is good for cardio otherwise rely on reduced calories and ull be fine.