Diet or Cardio better for cutting?

I posted this in the anabolc forum by mistake, so here's my question again.
I'm 10 weeks out from my first contest and working on getting ripped while holding as much muscle as possible. What's the consensus on which is the best way to accomplish this goal?
Should I keep my calories reasonable while drastically increasing my energy expenditure (cardio) or cut calories dramatically and do a minimum of cardio? So far I've lost about 7 to 9 pounds in three weeks. I've cut calories by about 800 per day and I'm currently doing 40 minutes of cardio 3 times per week. I haven't lost any muscle yet that I can tell and my strength during my workouts is about the same or slightly better. My carbs have gone from about 46% of calories to around 20%. Protein has increased from 37% of calories to about 60%. Percent of calories from fat (omega 3 & 6's) has remained constant in the low teens. The biggest change that I've noticed from this is that I'm always hungry and don't have as much energy anymore. I'm also taking Hydroxycut, 3 capsules 2x daily.

Both....


You have to find the right balance for yourself. It's calories in vs. calories out as far as losing fat goes. You alter the left side of the formula with diet and the right side with training and/or chemicals like AAS, T3, clen, etc...

more fats

increase your fats a little. Even if its adding in some natural p/b.. this should HELP in the cravings. One the cardio you didnt state when you did it!........... I recomend doing the cardio like you have it, but eventually bumping it up to 6 days min!!

dpsquat
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I do the cardio first thing in the morning after I wake up and before eating. This week I'm doing 4 days of 40 minutes and next week (9 weeks out) I'll do 5 at 40. The following week I'll increase the duration by 5 or 10 minutes.

I'll be a middle weight. I started out at 192 on January 4th, I'm now (Feb 1) at 181. I'm hoping to be ready a week or two early so I can make a practice run at carb loading.

I prefer, myself and for my clients, to only use cardio as a tool to kick the metabolism up when your numbers (bodyweight) stagnate. The use of cardio, in my experience, causes alot of leg mass to be lost and the very real potential to overtrain the legs in most individuals - even at lower intensity - in a very short period of time. For me, my legs can be overtrained in as little as 2 weeks while doing consistent cardio.

Use the diet as much as you can. When it seems that your numbers are slowing or have stopped, add the cardio only long enough to get the numbers moving again.

Skip

I PREFER to do cardio along with diet. I agree with Skip in that people can get overtrained quickly and lose mass. Just find a good balance. remember that with doing cardio you will ultimately need more calories then if your cardio was minimal.