calories burned question

nursekirsty

so at the gym I use my polar FT4, which is all primed with my statistics and in 55 mins at the gym I burned 508 cals but I know from previous classes I can burn 800 cals for zumba

now what I want to know is if are all calories burned equal? at the gym I my heart rate ranged from 130-175 but when I do zumba its maxed out at 185!!!

I am better aiming for the lower heart rate and the 508 cals for max fat burn or does it matter?

thanks - I hope this makes sense

AllanMisner

If your heart rate is in the 65% range, you'll burn more fat and rely less on carbs, As your intesity goes up, your body moves to more of a carb burner than a fat burner. That said, there is a school of though that says, it is better to work harder because a percentage of a larger number still leads to more fat loss.

I limit my cardio work to walking (65% range) for sessions of 1 - 2 hours or High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) for sessions of 15 minutes not counting warm up and cool down.

Mr_Knight

so at the gym I use my polar FT4, which is all primed with my statistics and in 55 mins at the gym I burned 508 cals but I know from previous classes I can burn 800 cals for zumba

Cut those numbers in half, at least.

As has been discussed at nauseum here at MFP, HRMs grossly over-estimate burns for those types of activities. That is not what they are intended for, and they are being used incorrectly.