Heart rate zone training/"fat burning zone "

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sheldonklein
sheldonklein Posts: 854 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've joined a new gym that advocates doing cardio in the fat burning zone. It makes no sense to me to exercise at such a low intensity. I've done some limited research on my own and it has confirmed my skepticism. However, I'm open to be persuaded, so what is the consensus here? Note-I'm not asking about HIIT vs steady state, just the level of intensity for steady state.

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  • Azdak
    Azdak Posts: 8,281 Member
    edited November 2014
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    The are reasons to do endurance type cardio as part of an overall balanced program--not for "fat burning", but for general conditioning.

    One problem with using heart rate to determine exercise "zone" training is the variability in max HR, and thus exercise intensity. If ones age-predicted HR max is 160, but actual max HR is 180 or 190, the calculated "fat burning" or endurance "zone" could turn out to be 35%-40% instead of 50%-55%.
  • DopeItUp
    DopeItUp Posts: 18,771 Member
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    It's not something I would worry about. Work at an intensity that is in-line with your performance goals.
  • sheldonklein
    sheldonklein Posts: 854 Member
    edited November 2014
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    DopeItUp wrote: »
    It's not something I would worry about. Work at an intensity that is in-line with your performance goals.

    I'm not sure that I have performance goals other than facilitating fast and weight loss.
  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
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    When I did my research on this I found that Polar in particular push this really hard.

    the essence was that they were correct that in the appealing sounding fat zone you did burn a greater % of fat, but in the higher intensity zones you burn a lesser % of fat, but because you are working harder then you actually burn more fat in numbers.

    I tend to just make sure I have a reasonable workout and continue to push for better times and more distance.

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