Fat Burning zone vs Cardio Zone

shaj316

Just got an FT7 HRM and decided to try it out on a quick lunchtime walk. It was just less than 30 min. I know I'm out of shape, but when I checked the data, I was surprised to see that I was only in Fat Burning zone for 3.5 min and rest was in Cardio zone. I was probably only doing about 3 mph and didn't feel like I was working strenuously. My average bpm was 132 and my max was 142 (walking uphill).

I know the purpose of MFP is track calories so I guess I'm curious if I should even care what zone I'm in and just focus on the calories burned? What do you guys do?

DiabeticAlien

I have the same HRM, and I'm not sure what the difference is. As I've actually looked while walking/jogging and seen the cut off point from "fat burn" to "fitness" change. It starts out at around 113 for me, but as I go along it will move to 120, then sometimes even 130 so I have to work harder to get my heart rate into the fitness range.

philOHIO

Do the best you can do without feeling shortness of breath.... that is what doc tells me.

emd0019

It bases the Fat Burning and Cardio on your age, weight, gender, etc. Therefore my numbers are completely different from yours if we were to compare.
I don't know your stats as far as weight but I know your ticker says your goal weight is a good bit of weight loss therefore for right now I would just worry about the calories you burned.

neurochamp

I ignore the zones and focus on total calories burned, since I'm more interested in balancing calories in/calories out anyway.

Just remember to get an estimate of what your resting calorie burn is so you can subtract that if you're doing exercises that last longer than half an hour or so at a time (for instance, if I burn 250Cal in 30 minutes working out, I only log 210-220Cal...because I burn about 30-40Cal in 30 minutes when I'm vegging on the couch).

piquilter

I try to do some of my cardio in both zones, it's what my trainer has suggested. It doesn't always happen though. Sometimes when I'm on the elliptical or stairmaster it's hard to slow down (course some days it's hard to speed up :happy: ) I concentrate on the calories & I personally, always eat some of my exercise calories and try not to go over on carbs. I also am vigilant about watching sodium. Don't know if this helps you any :noway:

shaj316

Thanks all. I think I feel better about it. I was worried, I'd have to slow down to paces that I'm not comfortable at. I don't mind a little sweat and soreness and I'd rather burn the calories in fewer minutes than spend twice or three times more on a treadmill or bike going slow just to stay in that fat burn zone.

I might try some interval training though to mix it up. Also thanks for the reminder on accounting for resting cals burned. I don't bother calculating it, but I do only eat 60 to 75% of the exercise cals back just for that reason.