On treadmill too long leads to muscle loss ?!

I was on my stationary bike this morning reading a Fitness Magazine for lack of anything more interesting.

Article on this guy who does a 6 days a week work out routine at the gym, 3 days weights and 3 days cardio.

He made the following statement:  Doing any aerobic exercise too long will lead to muscle loss. Fast, vigorous and intense HIIT type of exercise for 20mins is more beneficial to loose fat mass in the body.

So by that he means he runs on the treadmill for 20mins total upping the speed until he runs as fast as he can and is completely exhausted by the end of it.

While I'd love to believe that I don't have to spend my current 40min on the treadmill I'm a little sceptical. What do you think?

it's true. search the forum for other HIIT threads and i bet you'll find links to more articles spelling it out.

(btw, that isn't an obnoxious "this has been posted before" comment, just i don't have links right now to other articles w/ more HIIT support info!)

♥hb

Well its essentaily true, the bigger your muscles the harder they are to lug around so your body trys to streamline them and reduce them if there being forced on long haul runs, but i think 40mins should be ok, marathon runners are a good example of this, they dont have big muscles. but your not running a marathon in 40mins.

Heres the deal...you are reading a fitness magazine.  If you are like me, these people make working out their lives...so, I would stick to the 40 mins.  It is my understanding you have to do cardio for at least 18 mins before you begin to burn fat.  Don't convince yourself to do less...stay on track with 40 mins.

There are reports that say it?s true but it is greatly exaggerated.  You don?t need to look far to find plenty of examples of well-muscled endurance athletes but they do keep their calorie intake up so that they are not in a deficit.  Generally speaking the body well use fat for fuel when it is available.

Thanks for all your responses. I need to clarify I don't run 40 mins but I walk briskly creating HIIT with change of incline.

It sounds to me also that that guy is buliding dumb muscle as I call It. Looks great but isn't really strong and full of endurance.

I know its true of long distance runners.  My husband is trainging for a half marathon, he is running 6 miles + almost every night and he is thinner than ever.  However he has not upped his caloried intake high enough to stop the weight loss either. 

I don't think walking for 40 minutes is going to do anthing.  I think we are talking 60+ minutes of running or something more intense than walking. 

really? how about walking on the treadmill on 4.0 for 100 minutes? ugh i always eat too much and i wanna burn some off.

did you ever realize its so easy to eat alot of calories but so hard to burn them?!

not at all dumb muscle.

I am a personal trainer and bodybuilder...i live by this during competition time.  NOw, each person is cardiovascular in shape at different levels...but rule of thumb, cardio at 75% of your maximum heart rate, will burn strictly fat.  It isnt that your bodyo is trying to streamline your muscles, as posted previously.  Your body will be more likely to burn your fat for energy when you stay at this level.  If you up it to a cardiovascular level...higher than 75%...it starts to tap at your muscles and thus "eat them up/break them down" to get energy to complete the workout.

and 40 minutes at 75%  of your max heart rate is more than efficient.  I would play around with how many days a week you do it rather than the time in one session first...

Hi scubelli,

I appreciate your post, glad to get the background info to that statement I read. I'll do a fit test the week after next to check the correct heart rate I should be training at.

there's calculators online that can give you a rough estimate to this. 

honestly, i find the best workout for me is treadmill at the highest incline and i increase my speed to the highest i can go wthout holding on (and falling off :-) and this usually is close to wehre my HR needs to be.  but everyone will be different....some folks i know have to run to get to the right HR because they're just very cardiovascularly efficient due to highschool athletic conditioning and such....

I'll try to find one of those calculators. I do incline 1.5-2 and up it to 5-6 for about 15 out of my fourty mins on the treadmill. I have no problem getting my heart rate up so far, I am carrying around a lot of extra weight.

then you'll be surprised at how you will harden up and tone if you are following a clean diet. 

FYI...have you ever seen girls that go to the gym and run and run and run?  they actually get softer!  and look fattier...more dimples, more jiggling, etc.  that is why!

Ah I see, interesting stuff. I can't see my muscles yet but I definitely feel them, so I think I'm doing fine that way going in the right direction.

awesome!  Keep it up and keep me posted.

Will do I got 100lbs to go and I know I have it in me to do It.

Thanks for all the advice Scubelli.

i must say though, diet is THE most important.  In fact you can lose all the weight you want and never stop food in the gym!  Then cardio is second best.  Those two together are 90% of weight loss...

so, that being said...are you on some type of meal plan?

Scubelli I PMd you... check your inbox.

wow scubelli- if your still on this message board I could use some advice about my workout plan!

Read the Starred thread on the top of this forum on helpful links -- tons of information in there on HIIT and cardio for fat loss yadda yadda yadda-