Does cardio reduce muscle ?

Most of the people think cardio as a long, distance running , cycling or any physical activity that is done for longer duration.

But what is cardio ?

Any physical activity that increases our heart rate is cardio which means that weightlifting is also a type of cardio but the increase in heart rate due to lifting weight is for a shorter span. So cardio may be treated as any activity that increases the heart rate for a longer span. Activities that are considered under cardio are running,HIIT, Swimming,circuit training and rowing.

What does cardio do to your body?

Cardio is an exercise of the heart. Doing cardio increases the heart rate it also increase the amount of blood flow in our blood capillaries. It also has other benefits like lowering blood pressure, relieving stress ,weight loss ,healthy heart etc.

Does cardio reduce the muscle ?

No cardio does not reduce your muscle . Your muscle loss is due to your diet .If you are taking adequate calories along with sufficient protein intake ,you will not loose muscle. But if you are in a calorie deficit and lack in protein intake you will loose muscle whether or not you do cardio.
Our body needs protein to rebuild and repair muscles,if we are taking protein below our daily protein requirement ( Daily value of protein required may vary according to your amount of physical activity,age,sex and body goals ) our body will become deficit in amino acids. To deal with this our body starts using muscle as fuel as the muscle is build from protein and amino acids are the building blocks of protein.
The loss of muscle depends majorly on your diet. The only scenario that cardio will lead to muscle loss is during long distance running as the body may go into catabolic stare and start utilizing your muscle as fuel instead of fats.


Doing cardio does not reduce muscle, loss of muscle depends on your diet, If your diet is in calorie surplus with high protein intake there won't be any muscle loss, However lack of protein intake may lead body going into catabolic state which leads the body to cannibalize its own muscles.


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