Does Muscle and Cardio Like Each Other?
The answer is yes and no depending on what phase you are in during your weightloss journey. At PNP we have girls in every phase so let me break down my philosophy on it and what I find works well for the average person.
Pure Weightloss Mode - I got over 25lbs to lose
You need to get in your cardio and your strength training. The cardio is what burns up calories to help you make the deficit you need in order to lose weight (combined with your good, clean eating habits of course). The strength training (and you will do circuit style) is what maintains your current muscle tissue and allows you to build a little muscle along the way. Optimally, you are strength training three days a week and performing cardio anywhere from three to six days a week. The more the better.
In this mode you have so much room for improvement it is like being in a honeymoon period. Your body will allow you to torch loads of calories in less amount of time than your thinner counterpart, you will slightly build muscle even though you are in calorie deficit, and you will hold muscle easily if you aren't starving yourself. This is why I like to keep the cals up and depend on you to work hard. You will lose more inches AND, most importantly, you will LOOK so much better the closer you get to goal. There's a big difference between losing some weight and transforming your body. I'm more about you making a transformation EVERYONE can see.
Maintenance/Diet Break Mode - I've been at it for over six months and I'm stuck.
This is a good time to shift everything around. Your body is essentially "tired" and not going to give you good results. At this point the cardio is not serving the fat burning purpose it should and most of us don't have the time to just keep adding more and more to our day.
This is a great time to go into a maintenance mode for four to eight weeks. You up your calories with clean foods, experiment with some newer foods, and cut your exercise to two strength days and three cardio sessions a week. You may even gain 2-3lbs over this time but what we are doing is really just recharging your system and prepping it for another hard phase. Lots of girls will use this as a time to train for an endurance event like a half marathon, etc. It's very difficult to take on the long runs and training and keep up with dieting and strenuous strength training. They move more into maintenance phase and focus on a goal outside of weightloss until they are ready to hit it again.
This is such a beneficial thing for you to do, also. Most of us are brought up non-athletic and this gives you a chance to pursue dreams you didn't think were possible. The journey just can't always be about what the scale says back to you.
Build Phase - I'm very close to my goal or at goal and want to start reshaping my physique.
This is a tough, tough phase because you mentally have to be ready. I haven't been in my last couple of attempts. The scale is supposed to go up in order to build muscle, you will look "puffy" as your body fills with fluids, muslce, and a little bit of fat, and you will drop cardio considerably. Muscle at this stage doesn't like a lot of cardio. Muscle only builds in this phase when it can take in a surplus of calories and cardio is burning up that surplus. You want to only do enough to keep healthy which is about three days a week for 30 minutes. The majority of your training now comes from the strength portion where you lift heavy, with purpose, and with good rests.
The reason this phase is tough is that we don't realize how important it is until we cut (go back into weightloss mode) and then see that our shape really didn't change. To look smoking in a bikini in the summer you need to be fluffy under the sweater in winter. That's not to say you should turn into a waking blob, but you are going to gain a little weight and not look as defined if you want to add some definition for your next cycle. And, it can take two to three good build cycles to start making big changes in how your arms, shoulders, butt, and legs look. Especially your legs and butt as they typically carry more fat in that area anyway, so it takes a lot of muscle to bring them out.
Cut Phase - I'm within 20lbs of my goal weight and ready to really cut/I've been building and need to shed my winter coat.
My friend Lisa calls this Kapow time. You have that layer of fat that needs to go and when it does, KAPOW, you look the bomb walking into the gym.
Cut phase is where you see a lot of strength and a lot of cardio; more so than in pure weightloss mode because now you are fit, your heart has to work harder, your body is in better shape, and it simply takes you digging deep to get the body you are looking for. Of all phases it can be the one that will drive you nuts calculating numbers because it takes careful examination to get things moving in the right direction. You want to cut your calories, but not your protein. You want to get in the cardio and it needs to be intense for 30-40 min. daily. You still have to strength train three to five days a week. And, you need to monitor your progress to make sure it's the fat you are losing and not the muscle. In this phase it can be easy to blast through your muscle versus your fat.