Counter Productive? Too much Cardio?

[marmaduke79]

hi, I used to weigh over 14st and not in a good way, so last year i got a bike and started cycling.

i now weigh less than 12 st, i have cut all processed foods, no junk all natural. I have lost a lot of body fat, a bit left over on my stomach which is proving difficult to shift.

I commute to work which is 10 miles over hilly terrain that i can now do fairly quickly. But i was getting too skinny so decided to start lifting to increase strength and gain size, maybe kick my body into losing the last annoying bit of fat that doesn't want to shift.

I have put off the gym untill now as i ride 20 miles a day so was too tired. I'm approaching this from the viewpoint that as i am at the point where riding 20 miles a day isn't an effort as its just my normal days calorie burn, then i should be able to lift on top. I know that if i stop cycling i have far too much energy and have to do a shed load of body weight exercises to burn off the excess energy.

I am trying to up my calorie intake for trhe additional weights lifting, but am i being counter productive? is it possible to burn this much calories through exercise through cycling and just add more calories to my diet to have fuel for building muscle? Or is the cycling just burning up muscle for fuel?

I ride singlespeed so hills are hard, pretty much counts as HIIT as flat and downhill is little effort but uphill is hard. so easy effort followed by hard then easy, hard etc.

My current meal plan can be found at the bottom, basically i eat 2830 calories a day [ish] and should be burning 750 calories by cycling, and i eat an extra 1530 cals [ish] on gym days.

Can i do this? just treat the cycling as a 'normal' day as my body is fairly used to it now and just eat extra on gym days. or will all the extra cardio affect the strength training?

If anyone else does a lot of cardio and weights and gets gains this would be good to know. Issue is i don't drive so need to cycle to get to work.

I eat:

breakfast
whey protein shake [has fine oats mixed in] before cycling - 350 cal
bowl of bran flakes with milk and two carrots when i arrive at work - 150 cal

lunch
lunch is 2 large chicken breast, 300g pasta, two handfuls of spinach. split into two meals 2-3 hours apart - 1340 cal

After Work
arrive home and another shake - 350 cal

tea
1 chicken breast with salad - 170 cal

dinner
oily fish and vegetables - 320 cal

snack
1 tin tuna on whole grain bread or pitta - 150 cal
1 tin mandarins in juice

So on non-gym days i eat 2830 calories

On gym days i add another shake [350 cal] and 150g pasta [500 cal] to main meal plus 100g nuts [680] as snack for a total of 4360 calories on gym days.

i burn about 750 calories a day cycling, and i have an extra 1500 calories on gym days.

[SupraFast]

Clycling will only be burning up muscle for fuel if you do not have enough carbohydrates in your system at the time. So, it may be in your best interest to drink some carbs as you're cycling. Check out the link in my signature for more information on Carbohydrates and their role.

[arehb]

I'm thinking the intensity of the biking matters alot. Strength training, when the weights start get heavy, is very stressful on the body. High intensity cardio training the same. For me I'm thinking of adding low-intensity volume cardio rather than HIIT, since I've noticed that HIIT can have the same impact as a really heavy deadlift workout on the body.

If you are just starting with weights it will be a few months till the weights starts getting heavy, and if the biking and the lifting is too much for you you will stall and generally feel exhausted. You then need to rest and eat more and take it easy on the cycling to progress further. Or maybe go over to more advanced programming earlier than you otherwise could have done.

[marmaduke79]

Cheers for the replies..

Been having a look at what i'm eating. I've managed to blag a lift in to work on tuesdays and thursdays [gym days]. so eat carbs on mon/tues/fri for burning off during cycling, no carbs when i get home though. And no carbs on gym days untill after session. then a moderate amount on the weekend. This is based on info from this site about reducing carb intake [recommends only after session], eating carbs for energy on days of cycling and protecting muscle.

Would carb cycling work? have high days on cycle days, low days on gym days and no carbs on sunday when i don't gym or cycle, it would be:

mon - high
tues - low
wed - high
thurs - low
fri - high
sat - low
sun - none

Cheers again for the help, i'll see how i am in a few weeks when i start getting to heavier weights than am on now and really start feeling it.