Fitness question

roseyrose2000

I have a question for all you fitness profesionals . I recentlly bought another hrm(polar ft7). This watch shows calories burned, time, and there is a section for time in fat burn. Although my calories are always high(617 today), my fat burn was only 6 minutes. If i want my stomache jiggle to go away, dont i need to burn the fat? Could i be working out too hard? I dont feel like it., and if i do any less i will fell like i didint work out at all? Ex: I am 46, my hr mostly stayed between 148-155. Occastionaly it was up to 165. I am confused on where i should be burn my gut lol. I only have about 18lbs to lose, just wondering if someone could give me better clarification. Any input would be greatly appreciated . I have been working out for years and still cant figure this out,

rach40

im no expert but i do the treadmill for an hour on manual, and burn 650 cals i have it on a steep incline of 10 and speed of 5.5 i keep my hr at about 117 as im 40...it seems to be burning fat! im also on a high protein diet so i lose fat and not muscle, i also have 2 whey protein shakes a day... ive dropped 10lbs of fat in 3 weeks and 4 inches of my belly,... i also do 100 crunches a day included in my training, hope this helps

daj150

Not a fitness professional, but here are some things you should work on. In regards to fat burning, there are a lot of things to take into consideration. First off, how long are you working out. Your doesn't start burning until about 20 minutes into exercising. Also, are you doing cardio only, strength, or some sort of mix? Personally, and of course this is different for everyone, but I can be doing strength workout for 45 min and my heart rate be between 89-112, and my fat burn is around 55%.

Here are some other basics to think about. Before you exercise, are you carbing up or having protein only? If you carb up, your body will always burn that first. If you have protein, then you will burn fat, because there will be no carbs. Not sure what your diet is or if you are a cardio machine, but if you can get away with it, I recommend reducing carbs to a minimum and focusing on protein before and after exercising. Nothing excessive, since you aren't bulking up. This worked wonders for me and my wife when we had tried out some different exercise plans. I had used Men's Health TNT diet. But it can be modified for women easily and there are plenty of others like it. Good luck!

ProTFitness

Just worry about calories burned. My time is always higher in the fitness zone vs fat burning zone. Eat healthy and burn those calories. That is what will melt the belly fat. Your not working too hard :-). I always tell people aim for a minamim of 500 calories in an hour. That is about 8-10 calories a minute. Burning more is even better. Good luck and dont worry if it is where you hold your body fat it will take a little more work to get it off. Burn those calories

Tasha1476

I also am not an expert, however, based on what I read, in order to be burning fat, you should be between 65-85% of your heart rate. At least that is what they say when I google the topic. As long as you are in that % you theoretically should be burning mostly fat calories. at 155 heart rate, you are at 88% of your total heart rate, and at 84%, so my answer would be just to try and keep your heart rate a little lower and it should be fat calories. Hopefully that helps, and I am interested to see what other people say

geregam

Check out <a href="http://www.thewalkingsite.com/thr.html">The Walking Site.</a> They have a pretty good page with instructions on calculating your target heart rate and the different zones you can be in during exercise. Without knowing your resting hear rate, I'm just guessing, but it sounds like you're in the aerobic zone, as opposed to the fat burning zone.

I too, tend to exercise in that area, and would agree that being lower than that seems like your not doing anything, but, remember, it's a percentage.

For example: Say you burn 200 calories an hour in the aerobic zone, and 100 calories an hour in the "fat burning" zone. 50% of the calories burned in the aerobic zone are fat calories, so you burned 100 calories of fat. In the "fat burning zone", you burn 85% fat, or 85 fat calories in the same hour.

There are a few things to remember:
More Muscle = Better Basal Metabolic Rate : The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns just lying, standing, or sleeping.
Everything will turn to fat : no matter what you eat (protein, carbs, or fat), it will turn to fat if you don't use it. Eat your carbs early in the day, and proteins later, and try to stack your meals from largest at breakfast to smallest at dinner. It's counter to culture, I know, but it will help.
Try something different: Variety is the spice of life, and in the case of exercise, it helps a TON. I was stuck in a rut of running and standard weight lifting, and plateaued. Started <a href="http://www.crossfit.com">Crossfit</a&gt; and I've noticed really good results. Best of all, it's free!

katthomas

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/busting-the-great-myths-of-fat-burning.html

This link should help. This is the easiest to understand explanation I have found.

Good luck!

rml_16

I have a question for all you fitness profesionals . I recentlly bought another hrm(polar ft7). This watch shows calories burned, time, and there is a section for time in fat burn. Although my calories are always high(617 today), my fat burn was only 6 minutes. If i want my stomache jiggle to go away, dont i need to burn the fat? Could i be working out too hard? I dont feel like it., and if i do any less i will fell like i didint work out at all? Ex: I am 46, my hr mostly stayed between 148-155. Occastionaly it was up to 165. I am confused on where i should be burn my gut lol. I only have about 18lbs to lose, just wondering if someone could give me better clarification. Any input would be greatly appreciated . I have been working out for years and still cant figure this out,

According to everything I have ever read on this subject, the "fat burn zone" is a myth. The key is to burn the calories.

bjerkins

I recently started eating cleaner and the change has been amazing. There is a book The Eat Clean Diet or check out Michi's ladder on line. Eating cleaner along with your amazing workouts could help you see some different results.

championnfl

All above are excellent advice! Remember its NOT how long you work out, BUT the intensity of the workout! Ever try "Quick Burn"??

GOES LIKE THIS...takes 15 to 30 mins....may want to start with 10 mins & build yourself up! High intensity!!!!

Pick your cardio....[bike,tredmill,glide, even running in place,,,,but must be done with max effort.
30 secs. fast [1-10---10] 30secs. slow[ 1-10--2 level]

start with 30secs. 2 level NEVER SLOWEST LEVEL EVER! kEEPS HEART RATE UP!
30secs. 10 level


switch back and forth for 10 mins. and will burn fat and matabolism will be higher for the next 24 hrs! Do this everyday building lup to 30 mins. Watch lbs melt away!!!

Let us know how it goes.....Will work!!!!!

TrainingWithTonya

Okay, I'm going to try to answer this and hope I don't confuse you more. There are three energy systems that you use to provide ATP (which is like the gasoline our muscle engines run on). You can make ATP from the Creatine Phosphate system for about 90 seconds. Thats the initial energy you use when you do a very short, very high intensity exercise, like a 40 yard dash. The next system is Anaerobic Gycolysis. This is for longer activities then CP, but still pretty high intensity. Think weight lifting, or activities that are considered cardio but a high heart rates. This system burns carbohydrates. You can't burn fat with either of those systems. The third system is Aerobic Glycolysis, which does burn fat. It is the system you use when you are at low intensity and long duration. This is the system that is there for jogging for an hour or other exercise that you can maintain for long time periods, like traditional aerobics, very light weightlifting with lots of reps and no rest between sets, etc. A lot of people consider these systems as exclusive. In my personal training certifications, that is how they were taught to try and make them more understandable. However, in my bachelors program for exercise physiology, I've learned that they aren't exclusive. You actually use all three systems at the same time. The Pyruvate produced in Anaerobic Glycolysis actually moves over to Aerobic Glycolysis to be used in the chemical reaction that burns fat. You can't get to Aerobic Glycolysis without Anaerobic Glycolysis, but if you don't have enough oxygen or the oxygen isn't able to be pulled from the blood stream by the muscle cells, then you can convert the Pyruvate into Lactate (aka Lactic Acid) and not go into Aerobic Glycolysis with that particular gram of carbohydrate that is being burned in Anaerobic Glycolysis. If you get enough oxygen, you might with the next one. Like I said, it's much easier to see it as exclusive systems because it is a very gray area as to exactly when you are burning what because they are all working at once.

There have actually been studies that show a percentage of fat, carbs, and even protein that are being used at various times and intensity levels. Technically, you are primarily burning fat when you are sitting still doing nothing and you start to mix carbs and fat when you are active. Some heart rate monitors estimate the number of calories burned from fat based on the estimated mix ratios at various levels. Others go by the simplified method of "if you are at this intensity it is fat and if you are at that intensity it is carbs" or what is widely known in the fitness industry as the "Fat Burning Zone" which is the lower end of a Target Heart Rate Zone. I don't know the specifics on the manufacture of that particular HRM to know which method it uses, but I'm betting it is the latter because it is easier to program into a small computer. If that is the case, then you were only in the low end of your Target Heart Rate Zone for 6 minutes. That doesn't mean that you weren't burning fat during the rest of your workout, just that the substrate that was being used more was carbs. From figuring your Target Heart Rate Range (220 minus your age, times 60% and 85%) I get a range of 104 to 148. Going above your range would mean that you are probably burning 70-80% carbs, 10% fat, and 10-20% protein. (That's just an estimate that I've been taught in class. You can't actually know for each individual without clinical testing.) Whereas, when you were at say 60% of your Max Heart Rate (220 minus your age, times 60%, or 104 bpm), you were burning more like 60% fat, 30% carbs, and 10% protein. The latter would be that 6 minutes.

Now, what does all that mean for your fat burning. Lets say that 617 calories was all high intensity and a lower percentage of fat burning. 617 x 10% = 61.7 calories from fat. If you had gone at a lower intensity and burned 617 calories (which I want to point out would take longer to achieve at a lower intensity), then 617 x 60% = 370.2 calories from fat burned. Now, I don't know how much time you have to workout, so I don't know how feasible it would be to burn 600 calories at a lower intensity for you, so that may not be an option. If you were to burn say 100 calories in the same amount of time at a lower intensity, though, you'd still burn 60 of them from fat, but then only 30 would be from carbs and 10 would be from protein, whereas at the higher intensity you are getting 432 calories from carbs and 123 from protein. Since you have all 3 substrates (carbs, protein, and fat) in your daily intake, you might just want to focus on burning as many calories as possible so that the calories you consume from those substrates are used and not converted to fat in the body. No, you may not burn as much stored body fat as you do from other substrates at high intensity, but you will keep from having more stored.

Also, just FYI, your estimated Maximum Heart Rate is 174. I wouldn't go too close to that for safety reasons, but at 165 you still have a 5% window. If you are consistently that high and don't feel winded, you might want to be clinically tested to see what your actual maximum heart rate is since this is just an estimate. If you feel like you are hitting a wall though, when your heart rate is that high, you might want to slow down a bit.

SHBoss1673

All great info, I'll try to make it easy for you.

The post above me explained it all, in great detail, but if that's a bit to technical for you, here's the breakdown that you need to understand.

It takes fat longer to be mobilized from storage than it does carbohydrates in the body. Because it takes fat longer, the body will always try to use existing energy (carbs and glycogen) first. Once the majority of the carbs and glycogen is burned up, the body will make a best effort to replace that energy with fat.

So working at really high levels burns up all that fast energy, and because it takes fat a long time to convert to energy (relatively speaking) you can't continue at those high levels for a long time.

If you work out at a lower level for a longer time, you still use that glycogen (and carbs), but you also give the body time to convert body fat to glucose and replenish those glycogen stores. Thus lower level exercise for longer periods will burn a higher percentage of fat than higher level short duration exercises (level = intensity).

BUT

The thing is, the TOTAL fat burned is still usually higher (or the same) if you keep up that higher level for any extended period. Even though you can only work out at say (as an example) 35 to 45 minutes at 85% Max HR, you probably still burned more fat than if you worked out for 75 or 90 minutes at 65% to 70% (I'm guessing here, I didn't look at the exact numbers, plus everyone is a little different).

In other words, the fat burning zone is technically NOT a myth, but it's ok to work harder for shorter periods too, you still burn plenty of fat doing so. Plus going anaerobic (High intensity) can develop muscles that aerobic (cardio) does not (for the most part), which means long term you are raising your metabolic rate, which will allow you to burn more energy at all times, and essentially make you a healthier person.

Hope this helps close the loop.

nick1109

There are a few things to remember:
More Muscle = Better Basal Metabolic Rate : The more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns just lying, standing, or sleeping.
Everything will turn to fat : no matter what you eat (protein, carbs, or fat), it will turn to fat if you don't use it.

Agree with the above. I'm also a so called ‘professional’ with professional qualifications not that it means much to be honest. Anybody can gain a qualification it’s just a piece of paper.

Weight training will give you more muscle which will give you a higher BMR.

Diet is the key to fat lose not doing prolonged hours on treadmill. It’s much easier to not put food in your mouth than it is to run for 60 minutes. You’re likely to eat more after 60 mins on the treadmill too.

As above mentioned keep protein high to ensure muscular recovery can occur and keep an eye on your carb levels especially refined sugary food that are going to provide an insulin spike. This along with a calorie deficit and you can’t really go wrong. As you go along the way monitor weight and adjust diet accordingly. IF fat loss slows take a further 200 or so calories out.

Ultimately you can’t spot reduce fat on the stomach. It will slowly be lost all over the body at the same time but genetics can play a part in this. It has been suggested by science that the stomach is the most stubborn because it holds onto the fat to protect the vital organs.

rml_16

Ultimately you can’t spot reduce fat on the stomach. It will slowly be lost all over the body at the same time but genetics can play a part in this. It has been suggested by science that the stomach is the most stubborn because it holds onto the fat to protect the vital organs.

What I've found to be the case is that the first place you gain weight is the last place you'll lose it. :-)

Studies have shown that healthy fats (canola oil, nuts, legumes, flax oil, olive oil, etc.) and complex carbs (whole grains, fruits, etc.) and even vitamin C and dark chocolate specifically target visceral fat, so those are good things to have in your diet for that purpose.

If you're apple-shaped, you're probably going to hold on to the belly fat longer than someone who is a pear or hourglass.

roseyrose2000

OMG this is all great info!! Thank you , i am going to absorb everyones comment, then go hit the nearest bar(LOL).. Really this is great. I do a variety of things.. I do a Weight class 2 to 3 days a week and on those days i do 30 mins of cardio. I am injured at the moment, so no running for me. On the days i do not do class , i do either a 45 min spin class and 2o mins on ellipical, so ab out an hour and 15mins.

Thank you all for you input, it really helsp... I am deteremined to get to the bottom of this!!!:happy: