Heartrate for fat burning

tinkeydooda

When I do the treadmill, I always push myself. I'm 36, 5'10", 201 lbs. when I started mfp I was only walking on the treadmill. At about 3.0 mph. I've been at it for 2 months now and I am up to a 4 mph walk with 4.5 jog 2 minute intervals at 2% incline. I do this for 40 a 50 minutes 5 days a week. When I use the handlebar heart rate monitor on the treadmill, on the jog part my Heartrate goes up to 165-170. I push myself, it feels good. But then I read in order to burn fat you need to keep your Heartrate at 60%-75% of max which is 110 - 138 for my age. Even when I'm walking at 4mph my Heartrate is higher than 138...am I not burning fat during my workouts? I have lost 21 pounds so far, so something is working, but am I just losing muscle, not fat since I'm not in my fat burning HR zone? Should I not push myself on the treadmill? I'm so confused with it all...

ATLMel

The "fat-burning zone" is misleading.

Think of it like this: You walk at a low intensity, and burn 100 calories. say 75 of these are fat calories. OR, you run at a higher intensity for the same amount of time and burn 200 calories. Let's say at this intensity, on 50% comes from fat rather than the 75% of the other. You still burned 100 fat calories....more than at low intensity.

Obviously, this is an incredibly simplistic example. But, the concept works. Go for the higher intensity. It is more fun and you get better muscle/cardio benefits. I would recommend adding in some strength training if you aren't already. That will preserve any lean mass you have while cutting fat.

rbjtech

So I can see two possible scenerio's here - a) The hear rate monitor on the treadmill is inaccurate or b) Your cardiovascular health is (unfortunately) below average and thus even with minimal exercise, your heart is having to work hard to keep up.

There is nothing wrong with going above the 'fat burning' zone - you will just burn more calories (from the food reserves) instead of 'fat' but as long as you are not out of breath then you ARE doing good by strengenthing your cardiovascular system.

I would do both - lots of walking in the fat burning zone for 30 mins, then a 10 minute burst at the end of jogging at the higher bpm, then a 5 min cooldown by walking again You should find that over time, it will be harder and harder to keep in the zones with the same exercise as your body adapts and becomes more efficient - this is good, it means you are getting fitter

philOHIO

am I just losing muscle, not fat since I'm not in my fat burning HR zone?

Think of yourself like a car burns gas (same situation)
Fuel sipping mode, driving efficiently = normal activity, what your body normally burns
hitting the gas to get around somebody, or to make a traffic light = fat burning mode
hitting the gas, flooring it = high cardio mode

You don't "burn muscle" when exercising. Your body consumes muscle when you starve yourself.

jklemme

The only thing I really know about really preventing from burning muscle is to incorporate strength training to any program you're doing. That way you are still burning fat, and even more so since you started strength training, while still getting good cardio in. You want to get your heart rate up, you need to get your heart rate up to build cardiac muscle. Oh the joys of trying to get everything in balance!

I also might add, I think the heart rate monitors on the treadmills are only an avg....and I think, just like everything else with our bodies, everyone's body is different. Women, generally speaking, tend to have higher heart rates anyway, so your "fat burning mode" might be different than someone else's. Just a thought, I may be wrong, but certainly another aspect to look at it from.

tinkeydooda

Thanks for the responses! I figure I am in pretty poor cardiovascular shape...I do get out of breath by the two minute mark...that is when I switch it down to a walk for 2 minutes...then back up again...it definitely makes to 45 m utes go by faster too! It seems to drag on and on if I'm just walking. Thanks for these answers...I have been doing strength training as week, but not hard core, just little 8 pound weights for arms, back, shoulders, chest and various squats for lower body...

I guess I need t stop worrying about it and just keep going and progressively it will get easier for me...I really want t work up to just running, with walking as a warm up and cool down...