Help understanding Fat Burn vs. Fitness on HRM

Stephendw9

hey ya'll,

I bought a polar heart rate monitor with chest strap about a month ago. In the month I've had it I've used it a ton and it helps me know my calorie burn more specifically than before. I was looking at past data and noticed the HUGE difference in time I had between Fat Burn and Fitness time. In a month I've basically maintained my weight, yes I've slimmed down a little adding muscle, but I was looking for A LOT more fat burn than achieved.

My question I need help with is:

Is it better to have a less strenuous workout to achieve a heart rate level that is in the Fat Burn level OR workout like normal and fall under Fitness, always having a huge gap between desired and achieved.

An example is I had a Fat Burn time of 3:42 out of a 60 min workout, the rest fell under Fitness.

So I need help knowing which direction to head.

meshashesha2012

it's all fitness. i dont even pay attention to that stupid fat burning zone because quite honestly that's the heart rate i get when i do relaxing yoga and stretching and i dont know about you, but i want to see results. doing hours of yoga and stretching will not get me the body i want.. well maybe if i did it 20 hours a day, but i only have 90 minutes at most a day to devote to working out.

saying it another way, here's a math question ..which is more 50% of 600 or 40% of 750? that's basically what it boils down to. you probably burn as many fat calories during the strenuous exercises as you would the steady state stuff BUT you also burn more total calories and you've also cut your workout time