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Cardio is key for burning calories and working the heart. But it is important to know that doing too much cardio can be counterproductive. Performing cardio for more than one hour will work against you, as you will dip into your lean muscle and start to burn this instead of fat. Unfortunately, women can fall into the trap of doing too much cardio. While it burns fat, cardio is like everything else: do it in MODERATION.

To burn fat, you must rely on more than just cardio. It’s a collective process of cardio, healthy eating and a balanced weight-training regimen. One great rule of thumb is that low intensity cardiovascular exercise burns more percentage of stored fat than high intensity exercise. If your goal is to burn body fat, stay at a lower heart rate. You can burn more fat performing 45 minutes of cardio at 50%-60% of maximum heart rate (based on your age), than you would doing 20 minutes of cardio at 85%.

Overtraining of cardio generally takes you to the catabolic side. Look at the physiques of some of the marathon runners, distance runners and triathletes to see evidence of this. The safe maximum rule of cardio would be 45 to 60 minutes about 6 days a week. Anything more than that will cause a chance of injury, overtraining and significant muscle loss.