Fat Burn vs Aerobic

steve_in_ny

Below are some recordings from my HRM.

Eliptical with "fat burn" program
http://www.sportstracklive.com/track/detail/steveinny/Elliptical/home/eliptical/1224162

Treadmill, with "target heart rate" program
http://www.sportstracklive.com/track/detail/steveinny/Walking-treadmill/home/1223196

Should I be concerned about the amount of time spent in "aerobic" vs "fat burn" for the elliptical?

FrnkLft

No actually. This sort of thing is misguided in a big way. If I remember correctly from what I've read on this, while the "fat burning zone" is a real thing... just doing more intense cardio burns more calories minute for minute anyways, and working in the "fat burning zone" is ultimately a waste of time and kind of wishful thinking.

Basically the fat burning zone burns a higher percentage of fat v. other source of energy, but just doing more intense cardio, while it burns less fat as a percentage, burns more over all anyways.

Just go at your ideal pace, figure out how many calories that burns, and use that. You'll be fine. It's great to use exercise to burn calories, but to that end, just do the exercise how you like it and count the calories as they're burned.

ninerbuff

It's bunk when it comes to weight loss. Just burn more overall calories.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

msf74

If your goal is weight loss: no.

If you are training for a specific adaptation then it maybe.

Mr_Knight

If you're doing any kind of meaningful cardio exercise, you'll be burning more fat than your body can metabolize from fat stores anyway, so I wouldn't worry to much about hitting an exact heart rate or heart rate zone, if the goal is burning fat.

That changes if you're sucking down gels and whatnot, of course. And it also changes if you're after specific physiological adaptions.