Should I do the cardio if I'm slim?

[Happy B]

Hello all

I've been excercising for a long time but there's something I'm not sure about. I'm a female in my late twenties and I'm slim (not skinny but rather toned). My personal trainers that I've had in the past told me not to do too much cardio, no more than 10 minutes before the weights training as I don't need to burn the fat. So I was doing so. But I have recently realised that I really would like to be leaner and 'lighter' and generally more fit (and I think it's really good for the heart and metabolism) so I would like to do more cardio. Now, my question is - how to do it so I don't lose weight from muscles - which is likely to happen as I don't have much fat (hight - 175cm and 55kg).

Would eating the protein bars/powder before and/or(?) after the training help?

Thank you for all your advice!

[spike]

EAT MORE!!

Er, someone else will prob be along shortly with something less simplistic to say!

Oh, and welcome to the forum

[JP]

EAT MORE FOOD!!!

Would that do?

[bloodchoke]

your body can only burn fat so fast, if your demands for energy are greater than your fat store can supply at any given moment, then you will begin to metabolize lean mass (assuming you've tapped your glycogen stores). good news - you won't burn much and with sufficient caloric intake, you'll replace it. you'll never know it was gone.

empty calories are never a great idea, but calories are more important here than protein. protein needs are met a lot easier than we're taught. i'm certainly not vilifying protein, but if you overload on protein and slack on calories, you won't get the results that you want.

do your cardio. your heart's conditioning is more important than your other muscles.

calories.

[^toby^]

play some sport, chasing your friends. in stead of treadmill

[jakob]

have you tried avocados? I recently discovered my love for them and they have such high fat ( like 15% ) . They are so creamy and mhmm i feel like having 5-8 of em´ .
And hey if you feel like having cardio, do it! it´s so great for the mind to do cardio, it has some effect of cleaning for the body AND the mind.