How Many Times Should You Do Cardio to Lose Weight & Build Muscle?

Losing weight and building muscle is a tough workout combination to master.

It Is Tough to Lose Weight and Build Muscle

Losing weight and building muscle are typically competing goals. Cardio is an effective approach to lose weight by creating a calorie deficit. A main rule of thumb for building muscle is to create a calorie surplus that can be turned into muscle mass.

Moderate Cardio and Weight Training Helps Fitness

You can improve your overall fitness and possibly your physique by balancing moderate cardio with strength training. By exercising moderately, you increase endurance and keep your metabolism up to burn fat. You can still maintain and even grow a little muscle mass by feeding your muscles and not creating a calorie deficit.

Bottom Line

Muscle mass inherently increases body weight. You can trim fat and increase muscle by balancing moderate cardio (2 to 3 aerobic exercises a week for 20 minutes each) with strength training. However, trying to lose weight with aggressive cardio contradicts the benefits of weight training for muscle building. Frequent and lengthy cardio also leads to energy loss, making effective weight training difficult.

References

• Men's Fitness: 10 Ways to Lose Muscle
• The Lose Weight Diet: Lose Weight and Build Muscle?