Apps for exercising in fat burning zone?

caroline_mason42

Hi does anyone have an iwatch app that helps you stay in the fat burn zone when exercising as I seem to be mainly in the fitness building zone and it would be great to alter my exercise while I am doing rather than find out after.

Any ideas would be great

tinkerbellang83

https://www.shape.com/fitness/tips/should-i-be-working-out-fat-burning-zone

kommodevaran

Don't fret over zones. Everything that makes your muscles and lungs work harder, makes you burn more energy.

mmapags

Zones and fuel substrate during exercise are pretty meaningless. Just exercise in whatever way you like and will do consistently. Fat loss comes from calorie deficit not fat burning zones. You could work out for 2 hours in the fat burning zone but if you eat more than you burn in a day, you will have a net storage of fat. It's all about the energy balance equation.

Psychgrrl

Focus on working out hard enough to improve your fitness level over time, not necessarily about being in a "fat burning zone." There's no guarantee that keeping your heart rate in one particular "zone" or at a certain level will burn more fat. Any cardio will burn calories and contribute at least a little to your deficit. The deficit being the key element to fat loss.

cwolfman13

You don't need to be in the fat burning zone...a lot of fitness pros don't even call it that anymore because it's very misleading...a lot of people simply refer to it as the recovery zone. The more work you put in, the more energy (calories) you expend.

fitoverfortymom

There's a zone?

RoxieDawn

fitoverfortymom wrote: »

There's a zone?

lol my thoughts exactly.

NorthCascades

mmapags wrote: »

Zones and fuel substrate during exercise are pretty meaningless. Just exercise in whatever way you like and will do consistently. Fat loss comes from calorie deficit not fat burning zones. You could work out for 2 hours in the fat burning zone but if you eat more than you burn in a day, you will have a net storage of fat. It's all about the energy balance equation.

There's no way I could possibly finish a century or marathon on mostly glycogen, but on fat, it's ... easy isn't the right word, let's go with doable. Fuel substrate is absolutely not meaningless.

NorthCascades

fitoverfortymom wrote: »

There's a zone?

Yes. It works differently than people tend to hope for and assume, but if you ignore people's wishes and focus on reality, the far burning zone is a real thing and incredibly important in there right context (which is not dieting).

lemurcat12

The question is why you want to be in the fat burning zone.

I don't have an app, but my Garmin does that. (It has some training applications, although it's actually more complicated than that and I personally think going by feel and pace are sufficient for most people even for training.)

cwolfman13

NorthCascades wrote: »

mmapags wrote: »

Zones and fuel substrate during exercise are pretty meaningless. Just exercise in whatever way you like and will do consistently. Fat loss comes from calorie deficit not fat burning zones. You could work out for 2 hours in the fat burning zone but if you eat more than you burn in a day, you will have a net storage of fat. It's all about the energy balance equation.

There's no way I could possibly finish a century or marathon on mostly glycogen, but on fat, it's ... easy isn't the right word, let's go with doable. Fuel substrate is absolutely not meaningless.

Not meaningless in that context, but my guess would be that the OP is talking about weightloss/fat loss, not training...could be wrong, but a seasoned athlete probably wouldn't need to ask.

MelanieCN77

App called Zones.

Jthanmyfitnesspal

I agree with everything above. Training by heartrate has many benefits, but I have never worried about slowing down in order to burn more fat!

If you want to train by HR, one easy way is to get a bluetooth HRM chest band that pairs to your phone. I like my Wahoo Fitness TICKR, but there are several manufacturers. It's more accurate than a wristband, if you don't mind wearing it.

caroline_mason42

Thank you for all your comments, the reason I ask is my iwatch HeartWatch suggests I spend almost 85% of my 75 minute work out in the build fitness bpm and only 10% in fatburn which is what I really want to do

caroline_mason42

Just downloaded Zones and this says I am doing more fat burning so looking forward to using this app tomorrow:-)

cwolfman13

caroline_mason42 wrote: »

Thank you for all your comments, the reason I ask is my iwatch HeartWatch suggests I spend almost 85% of my 75 minute work out in the build fitness bpm and only 10% in fatburn which is what I really want to do

Keep in mind that working in the fat burn zone has no real bearing on actually burning more fat for weight loss...it's simply being utilized for that particular activity as fuel...your body constantly cycles between fat storage and fat oxidation...you burn more fat sleeping than any other activity, but I wouldn't recommend napping all day as a good weight loss strategy.

Tacklewasher

caroline_mason42 wrote: »

Just downloaded Zones and this says I am doing more fat burning so looking forward to using this app tomorrow:-)

Please re-read the above responses, including the article linked.

If you are just looking to lose weight, zones don't matter. As pointed out above, they matter for those doing longer runs/bike/swims etc., but for performance reasons and not weight loss reasons.

Please don't make it more difficult than weight loss already is.

AnnPT77

You will burn the most calories from exercise, during weight loss, by working out at the highest intensity you can sustain during the amount of time you have available for your workout.

By "the highest intensity you can sustain", I mean a pace you can continue steadily after your warm-up, for the whole workout time, without becoming so fatigued that it affects your other daily life activities **. If that's the "fitness zone", that's great. That will burn more calories than spending that time in the "fat burning zone".

If you're eating fewer calories than you burn (i.e., have a calorie deficit), unless something is severely medically wrong, your body will burn primarily fat to make up the difference. It may burn some of it during the exercise, it may be later - you don't need to care. It will burn mostly fat to make up the deficit even if you don't exercise at all.

If you want your calorie deficit to result in the highest possible percentage of weight loss coming from fat (and not from lean tissue such as muscle), then you want to exercise, eat nutritiously, and not lose weight too rapidly. On the nutrition side, eating enough protein is especially important. On the exercise side, including some strength building exercise is ideal.

Heart rate zone makes no difference for weight loss and fat loss. Heart rate zones matter for athletic training & goals, in certain scenarios.

** Footnote: You don't want to be so fatigued that you drag through the rest of your day, because that will make the rest of your day burn fewer calories than it otherwise would've, effectively cancelling out some of your exercise calories.

mmapags

NorthCascades wrote: »

mmapags wrote: »

Zones and fuel substrate during exercise are pretty meaningless. Just exercise in whatever way you like and will do consistently. Fat loss comes from calorie deficit not fat burning zones. You could work out for 2 hours in the fat burning zone but if you eat more than you burn in a day, you will have a net storage of fat. It's all about the energy balance equation.

There's no way I could possibly finish a century or marathon on mostly glycogen, but on fat, it's ... easy isn't the right word, let's go with doable. Fuel substrate is absolutely not meaningless.

Are you under the impression OP is asking for that reasonable or simple weight loss? I would think if there are training for a marathon, they would be knowledgeable about fuel substrates or would have specified. For weight loss zones and fuel substrates are meaningless.