Steady state cardio in the am for fat loss, yay or nay ?

I am trying to lose a fair few pounds of fat and I'm thinking of going to the gym say 2-3 mornings a week and doing a lightish weights circuit for say 40 mins then doing another 40 mins or so in the supposed " fat burning " zone hoping this will help shed a few extra pounds of fat over the next 9 weeks.

I am doing a lot of other stuff during the week, intervals etc so Is there much point in me doing both ? I know it has been proven that hiit is just as good if not more effective for burning fat than steady state alone, but I guess doing both won't hurt right ?

Also for fat loss is it best to do on an empty stomach or not ? I am aware of the risks of burning prescious muscle tissue but if the weights are light and the hr% low then surely I aint gonna waste musch lean muscle tissue !?

Expert advise please Alex

First question is what is the actual goal, fat loss or performance?

I can probably dig out an Alwyn Cosgrove rant for the rest of it!

FASTED CARDIO

Are you fucking kidding me? Seriously, are you fucking kidding me? Why are we even talking about this?
Let's take two twins, both 200lbs, both doing the same training program, taking the same supplements, and following the same nutrition plan in the hopes of getting lean.

One difference, though: one of them eats 2 eggs and does 30 minutes of cardio three days per week. The other does 30 minutes of cardio, three days per week and THEN eats 2 eggs.

So what's the magical difference in terms of fat loss after six months? Drum roll please...

I'll tell you — no fucking difference.

However, whenever you bring up this question we get a ton of responses saying, "This is exactly the information I needed!". Oh fuck off. The reason you are still fat is because you couldn't decide to do cardio on an empty stomach or not?

30 minutes of steady state cardio will burn about 300 calories. Three times per week – 900 calories. Add that up for 26 weeks and we get a whopping: 23,400 calories.

Or 6.6 lbs of fat.

In six months.

If doing it fasted, burned 30% more (which it doesn't), you're looking at another 2lbs of fat in that same six month period.

Or an additional 0.07 pounds per week.

And for those of you who say – I do fasted cardio but I have a small scoop of protein first, then you're NOT DOING IT FASTED THEN, ARE YOU?

Fat people finish marathons all the time. Aerobic training doesn't do a hell of a lot for real world fat loss. Even if you're hungry.

Actual goal from the am sessions would of course be fat loss. I do a lot of other stuff such as thai, wrestling, speed / power training, sprints, hiit sessions etc so I was wanting to do this for extra fat burning on a morning.

I was going off the research that says the body predominantly burns glycogen for the first 30-40 mins or so then switches to fat. So that way I can have a fairly easy cardio session with fat burning benefits without eating into my recovery from all the other stuff I'm doing as hiit is quite taxing on the cns.

Of couse what Alwyn's saying is simple maths calories in vs calories out and claiming that doing it on an empty stomach wont make any difference. I guess thinking about it your body will still be burning glycogen for the first 40 mins or so anyway thats been stored in the muscles from the previous day ? Makes sense.

So basically its either do more hard stuff and risk overdoing it or take it easier and do what I had planned but burn less calories than could be burned if working at higher intensities. I guess for my specific goal it seems a decent idea. If it was for your average person wanting to lose weight sure you'd say " work harder fatty, steady state is nowhere near as effective as hiit " or whatever. But with me doing all that other stuff anyway surely the extra light cardio after 40 mins of weight will help rid more fat.

What do you reckon pal ? I hope that made sense lol

I would do it at an easy pace around 140-150 BPM heart rate, would probably bang down a whey shake 10 minutes beforehand.

Yeah thats exactly what I have been doing. Cheers mate.