Exercise harder or exercise longer?

Steve_Runs

I think some days steady state cardio for longer durations will do (especially if you lift on these days) and other days, you feel like you just want to kick a little *kitten*! These are the days that you need to kick it up a notch. Add some HIIT into the cardio. If done correctly, you will be spent within a short amount of time - 20 mins max usually. Try and be sure that your easy days don't out number you kicking *kitten* days.

But, I will also say, if you are moving, you are going in the right general direction.

well said!

Steve_Runs

Work smart, not hard.

You said, "... one of my main objectives is to burn more calories."

That's a great objective, but what KIND of calories do you want to burn? Different levels of activity will have different effects on your heart rate. Various heart rates will burn different amounts of calories, and those calories will come from different sources.

Here's a good article to read: http://walking.about.com/cs/fitnesswalking/a/hearttraining_2.htm

Summary:
Keeping your heart rate at 50% to 60% of your maximum heart rate will burn 85% fat, 10% carbohydrates, and 5% protein.
Keeping your heart rate at 60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate will burn 85% fat, 10% carbohydrates, and 5% protein.
Keeping your heart rate at 70% to 80% of your maximum heart rate will burn 50% fat, 50% carbohydrates, and <1% protein.
Keeping your heart rate at 80% to 90% of your maximum heart rate will burn 15% fat, 85% carbohydrates, and <1% protein.
Keeping your heart rate at 90% to 100% of your maximum heart rate will burn 10% fat, 90% carbohydrates, and <1% protein.

What you probably want to do is keep it in the 60-70%, for most of your workout, but every five minutes or so, really push it (80-90%) for about a minute. (That's called interval training.)

If you could, I'd suggest you purchase a good heart rate monitor. (Polar is a fantastic brand). It will help you get into the proper zone, to best meet your goal.

Last week, my husband recorded these two workouts:
Tuesday: 79 minutes. 518 Calories of which 20% was fat (104 fat calories.)
Friday: 83 minutes. 256 Calories, of which 41% was fat (105 fat calories.)
(His Polar FT80 gave him the time, calories and % of fat, as well as much more data.)

He was drained and beat on Tuesday after his workout, AND on Wednesday. Friday he went in feeling dragging -- hence the "poor" workout, but came out feeling better.

Tuesday he did about a half hour of interval training, and then 1/2 hour weight machines and calisthenics.
Friday he only did about 15 minutes of interval training, and then the rest was weight machines and calisthenics.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

Do not listen to any of this, it is pure garbage. All that really matters is the calories burned. Zones and all that stuff for burning fat versus carbs doesn't matter. Why? If you work out at high intensity and you're burning mostly carbs - who cares? Guess what happens? You've now depleted your carbs (glycogen) and come post-workout your body is going to be burning fat to replace those energy stores that you just burned. Either way you will burn fat just fine. Focus on overall calories in versus calories out. Worrying about heart rate zones just over complicates things needlessly.

^^^^This!

dbevisjr

Work smart, not hard.

You said, "... one of my main objectives is to burn more calories."

That's a great objective, but what KIND of calories do you want to burn? Different levels of activity will have different effects on your heart rate. Various heart rates will burn different amounts of calories, and those calories will come from different sources.

Here's a good article to read: http://walking.about.com/cs/fitnesswalking/a/hearttraining_2.htm

Summary:
Keeping your heart rate at 50% to 60% of your maximum heart rate will burn 85% fat, 10% carbohydrates, and 5% protein.
Keeping your heart rate at 60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate will burn 85% fat, 10% carbohydrates, and 5% protein.
Keeping your heart rate at 70% to 80% of your maximum heart rate will burn 50% fat, 50% carbohydrates, and <1% protein.
Keeping your heart rate at 80% to 90% of your maximum heart rate will burn 15% fat, 85% carbohydrates, and <1% protein.
Keeping your heart rate at 90% to 100% of your maximum heart rate will burn 10% fat, 90% carbohydrates, and <1% protein.

What you probably want to do is keep it in the 60-70%, for most of your workout, but every five minutes or so, really push it (80-90%) for about a minute. (That's called interval training.)

If you could, I'd suggest you purchase a good heart rate monitor. (Polar is a fantastic brand). It will help you get into the proper zone, to best meet your goal.

Last week, my husband recorded these two workouts:
Tuesday: 79 minutes. 518 Calories of which 20% was fat (104 fat calories.)
Friday: 83 minutes. 256 Calories, of which 41% was fat (105 fat calories.)
(His Polar FT80 gave him the time, calories and % of fat, as well as much more data.)

He was drained and beat on Tuesday after his workout, AND on Wednesday. Friday he went in feeling dragging -- hence the "poor" workout, but came out feeling better.

Tuesday he did about a half hour of interval training, and then 1/2 hour weight machines and calisthenics.
Friday he only did about 15 minutes of interval training, and then the rest was weight machines and calisthenics.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

Do not listen to any of this, it is pure garbage. All that really matters is the calories burned. Zones and all that stuff for burning fat versus carbs doesn't matter. Why? If you work out at high intensity and you're burning mostly carbs - who cares? Guess what happens? You've now depleted your carbs (glycogen) and come post-workout your body is going to be burning fat to replace those energy stores that you just burned. Either way you will burn fat just fine. Focus on overall calories in versus calories out. Worrying about heart rate zones just over complicates things needlessly.

Nothing better than hostility and opinions with ZERO references cited to confuse a person who is only asking for some guidance.

To the OP: what works for 1 may not work for everybody. Try each for a couple weeks or even a month and see how you do. Or combine them and go hard the first workout each week and then the rest of the week do the longer, lower intensity workout. If you research it yourself (NOT ON MFP) you will find many websites/books that support each method for a variety of different reasons. (So maybe I shouldn't say anything about citing references above.) Best to see what works best for you and stick with it. When you plateau consider switching up at that time. Good luck to you.

mustgetmuscles1

Zones and all that stuff for burning fat versus carbs doesn't matter. Why? If you work out at high intensity and you're burning mostly carbs - who cares? Guess what happens? You've now depleted your carbs (glycogen) and come post-workout your body is going to be burning fat to replace those energy stores that you just burned. Either way you will burn fat just fine. Focus on overall calories in versus calories out. Worrying about heart rate zones just over complicates things needlessly.

^^^ This.

Watch this video about the fat burning zone myth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up5n86VGC3c

It is still going to come down to how many calories you burned vs how many you ate. So if you can go harder why not save yourself the time. Take all the extra time and use it to lift weights. That is the best way to insure that you are preserving as much muscle as possible while losing weight.

sarahisme18

For fat burning, my mom always says (she's a fitness instructor/trainer) to go HARD for LONGER. Both. The problem with high intensity is that you, theoretically, won't be able to do it for endurance. But if you can do high intensity for a long period of time, it's better than either one of those things.