They don't seem bulky because of not doing as intense cardio, but because they eat a rediculously huge amount of food in order to gain muscle mass. I'd try and dig up some pics but I don't think most of the folks on this board want to see what a professional body builder with a belly looks like =). Imagine arnie in peak form. Now stick a watermelon in his stomach. It's really quite the sight.
Like i said i can't speak for all body builders but the ones i know, plus Jeff Willets from AST is on of the top bodybuilders in the world, always keeps a very strict diet. Even if body builders do just eat as much as they can, they are being ignorant and still following ancient bodybuilding myths. You missed my whole point in my post, calories from fat are not the same as calories from protein.
I suppose you may be right in terms of fat loss and muscle gain...I'm speaking in terms of size, incase that makes a difference. I'm fully aware that you can gain strength and lose fat, but the consensus over at abcbodybuilding seemed to be that you just weren't going to do both size and fat loss at the same time.
Bodybuilders are not concerned with just size, but muscle size. If they don't always try to eat right, its due to time limitations, not a biological limitation.
Also, in terms of a high protein diet, wouldn't you also need to have a relatively large amount of carbs to put on muscle in proportion to the protein you're eating? You need something there to fuel protein synthesis. A high carb diet would most certainly lead to some fat being put on unless you burn every little bit between excersize and hypertrophy and daily body stuff(watch it now...terms are getting technical ). In which case it seems you would be able to acheive no better than equilibrium, as if you drop the carbs, there are less and less carbs to be spent for building your muscles up. Is this wrong?
No you don't have a to have a large amount of carbs if your bodybuilding. I said high protein diet because he is just trying to get cut. Bruce lee needed to balance his carbs and protein, but for body builders they need not have high carb diets, just high protein diets. Also lets not get to complicated here, carbs will gain you fat but there are so many other factors like GI level of carbs.
Yes, 30 - 45 minutes of cardio is the minimum threshold to achieve weight loss. If you can't put that much time into exercise 5 days a week, then you suck.
Its not min for weight loss, doing cardio for that long will make you lose muscle as well as fat, which is not good. Doing shorter higher intensity cardio will help you lose fat and maintain muscle. In short, 15 mins of high intensity interval training cardio > 40 + minute low intensity cardio as far as fat loss is compared.
Get cut like bruce lee quickly? 2 months of trianing, that's it? If it was that easy then everyone would be cut like Bruce Lee.
I'm not saying its going to be easy but people are thinking he wants to be bruce lee, in terms of speed, strenght, agility. Thats the reason why Bruce Lee's training was so intense. Getting "cut up" is not nearly that hard, its not even in the same ball park. Someone can get cut up like bruce lee fairly easily (well i guess it really depends on what u considering easy
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I suppose that the "OMG YOU CAN'T LOSE WAIT W/O PUTING IN MORE THEN THAT" answer is acceptable, but I'm not looking for something that's going to have me in championship shape within 6 months. I'm looking for something that will provide slow, steady results and that fits with my motivation and schedule. If that's impossible, I can accept that, and will have to wait until things calm down in my schedule. I don't think it's too much to ask, though.
Its not that hard, infact you'll find it to be quite easy if u have long term goals. If its simply weight you wish to lose, all you need to do is eat sensibly and do cardio for 5 days week. The cardio i mentioned above is what i'm talking about. I'll explain it in a bit more detail here. All u need to do is 15 minutes of cardio everyday, best would be on a stationary bike but if ur like me, and don't have acess to it, you can just run. This cardio however is not that easy. Its 15 minutes of very high intensity cardio, done in intervals. So for like 1 minute, you run really fast, and one minute, you jog (or walk, i would recommend it for beginners). Do this for 15 minutes and push yourself as far as to always be completly exhausted by the end of the 15 minutes. Right after that, you eat 3 small clean meals consisting of carbs and protein. This is to ensure that your body starts to recover right away and start rebuilding. Most people dont' realize it but cardio also builds muscle. Out of the 7 types of muscle fibers, only 1 is worked out when weight lifting, the other six are worked out in cardiovasular workouts.
Should I just stick with about 45 mins of cardio a day and work on my muscles once I've lost some of my rather prodigious gut or have some more time? Is a 3-day lifting, 2-day(or 3-day) cardio program better than straight cardio? Can one even implement such a program given only about an hour a day?
Never do above 20-25 minutes of cardio because you will start to lose muscle mass and its not as effect as short, high intensity cardio in terms of lossing "fat". If your goal is just to lose fat, than just stick to the cardio but if u also want to increase muscle size, i would suggest lifting 3 times a week, 2 major body parts a day and doing cardio twice a week. Lifting weights will also help towards ur goal of losing fat becuase the more muscles you have, the more your metabolism speeds up, causing you to lose fat. Plus, the bigger muscles you have, the more "cut up" you look. Anyways, i can go into more detail if u tell me u do want to gain some muscle but if ur only goal is to lose fat, than stick to the cardio 5 times a week, 15 mins a day.
