Hiking without losing muscle

[drevil8814]

Hello, I am finishing up a bulking cycle and I will begin cutting. I love to hike and plan to hike 4-6 miles a day 3-5 days a week. The hiking will be in addition to my usual workout routine. I want to burn fat but retain all of my hard earned muscle. Any advice on what to eat before, during, and after my hike that will allow me to burn as much fat as possible while preserving my muscle?? I usually drink a protein shake before and after weight lifting, as well as some fruit juice after to spike insulin.

Thank you

[OptikaNET]

Keep the protein high and you shouldn't burn muscle as long as you keep up the gym workouts.

Kind Regards
Dave

[drevil8814]

Keep the protein high and you shouldn't burn muscle as long as you keep up the gym workouts.

Kind Regards
Dave


Thank you :)

[jghight]

Keep you’re hiking activates relatively light. Anything over 65% of your VO2 Max will cause you to burn lean muscle instead of fat.

[tjwood]

jghight, that's a very misleading statement.

Firstly, the 65% figure is fairly inaccurate, the optimum fat-burning rate varies a lot from person to person.

Secondly, when you're not burning fat, you're burning glucose from the blood and a small amount of glycogen from muscles. Glycogen makes up only a very small percentage of the muscle. As long as you keep eating sufficient calories while you're exercising you can keep your blood glucose levels up, and sufficient calories in recovery will allow your glycogen levels to be replenished.

If your claim "anything over 65% of your VO2 Max will cause you to burn lean muscle instead of fat" were true then pretty much any kind of endurance athlete would waste away during an event. (OK so most athletes - like runners and triathletes - do have less muscle mass than bodybuilders - but that's because having a lower bodyweight is an advantage in their sport, not because they've destroyed all their muscle through training!)

Finally, I'd be surprised if you can hike at over 65% VO2 max anyway (fell running maybe).

[OptikaNET]

The biochemistry of anabolism/catabolism can be complex but it's worth considering that, in general terms, the body burns sugars by preference, fat when sugars become unavailable, and muscle only in extremis.

So keep your blood sugar up and protein intake high and there is little reason why the body should start burning muscle.

Kind Regards
Dave

[mrwright]

I think everyones far to worried nowadays, i'm sure you could quiet easily go hiking all day long and stop to have a normal everyday picnic and not lose any muscle unless youve got a single figure bf% maybe

[Deviation]

Not sure what kind of hiking you're doing, but it typically doesn't get your heart rate up high. The protein shake is good, but don't discount carbs either. Powerbar make a "Harvest Energy" bar that's full of grains, carbs, and 10g protein. There's other like that too. CLIF makes one as well.

[jghight]

By stating he had just finished a bulking cycle I can assume he has no interest in becoming an endurance athlete.

Needless to say, the diet and training strategies for endurance athletes varies greatly from that of a body builder. The same rules don’t apply for them. They train for a high Vo2 ceiling with little regard to lean muscle mass. They also eat large carbohydrate meals days prior to any events to take advantage of glycogen stores. He never stated he wanted to run a marathon, simply hike to help lose body fat while retaining as much lean muscle mass as possible.

VO2 max varies greatly from person to person as well. Your theory on endurance athletes is WAY more misleading then my simple statement. Keep his goals in mind. 65% percent of my VO2 max isn’t much more than a 4 mph at a 10% incline, which is very similar to any type of hiking I’m aware of.

To optimize your fat loss efforts the hiking activities should be done at a state when your body is depleted of glycogen. Directly after weight training or upon waking in the morning are times that are most efficient.

[drevil8814]

Wow, Thank you all for your input! I certainly have a lot to learn about losing fat and cutting.

[tjwood]

VO2 max varies greatly from person to person as well. Your theory on endurance athletes is WAY more misleading then my simple statement. Keep his goals in mind. 65% percent of my VO2 max isn’t much more than a 4 mph at a 10% incline, which is very similar to any type of hiking I’m aware of.

Well if your goals are to become a muscle mountain who can't do much more than walk up a slight hill without getting out of breath and worrying about wasting away, fair enough - forget about any kind of cardio exercise.

I'd imagine most people would quite like to be both well built and also have sufficient cardio-respiratory fitness to allow them take part in the occasional jog/swim/bike ride/ball game/run for the bus. In which case you should probably eat and train in such a manner that allows you to do these things occasionally while also gaining muscle/losing fat as appropriate.

[drevil8814]

Well if your goals are to become a muscle mountain who can't do much more than walk up a slight hill without getting out of breath and worrying about wasting away, fair enough - forget about any kind of cardio exercise.

I'd imagine most people would quite like to be both well built and also have sufficient cardio-respiratory fitness to allow them take part in the occasional jog/swim/bike ride/ball game/run for the bus. In which case you should probably eat and train in such a manner that allows you to do these things occasionally while also gaining muscle/losing fat as appropriate.

I want exactly that.... A happy medium, muscle size and enough stamina to hike 8 miles without feeling as though i'm going to pass out. :)

[jghight]

Haha. I like you tjwood.

Muscle mountain, I might have to steal that one from you. I simply stated the most effective way to ensure you lose the most amount of fat with minimal lean muscle loss. I'm no-where near a muscle mountain. I ensure you if you were to walk the treadmill as I stated before on a limited calorie diet day in and day out you would feel like you just climbed K2 every day. I will also have you know I am an avid bike rider and swimmer in the off season. Please don’t make assumptions.

drevil8814- No problem glad to help.

[tjwood]

I wasn't making any assumptions... and was exaggerating a bit for comic effect.

Seriously though, it seems people read something in a magazine article that in turn was taken from some tiny snippet in a scientific paper and report it wildly out of context and somehow it becomes a massive thing to worry about.

I was just trying to make the point that most people don't need to worry too much about exactly what cardio they do or what their VO2 max is or whatever. Just lift weights some days, and do cardio some days, and eat healthily (and eat more to gain mostly muscle, and less to lose mostly fat), and most importantly enjoy it.

[maibock]

Protein synthesis (recycling protein in muscle mass) happens 24/7. The goal is to always have enough protein in your system to replace what is removed. The tricky part on a cut comes when you lower carbs. If you lower them too much the protein in your system can be converted to sugars and used as carbs instead of going to your muscles. Everybody is different, so it will take some experimenting on your part to get it right for you.

Hiking should be pretty low impact cardio, which entails using mainly using type 1 (areobic) muscle fibers which only run on fatty acids which is perfect for most people when cutting. That's not to say no glycogen will be used, because it will however. The danger in doing too much is the muscle can adapt it's type 2a fibers to become more like type 1 fibers to adjust to all the low level cardio so it's important to lift just as hard as you were while bulking when cutting to keep those type 2a fibers big and anareobic as possible. Aerobic fibers use fat but are small and have high endurance. Type 2b are large, anareobic, tire quickly and use ATP. Type 2a the body can modify to be more like the aerobic or anareobic depending on the type of stress you put on the body.