fat burn on....

mommycordillia

The elliptical machines at my gym says 'fat burn= low intensity ... cardio=high intensity ' .. the low intensity for fat burn doesn't make sense to me.....has anyone found it to be true for them?

leanhulk

The elliptical machines at my gym says 'fat burn= low intensity ... cardio=high intensity ' .. the low intensity for fat burn doesn't make sense to me.....has anyone found it to be true for them?

that is correct, low intensity taps into stored fat for energy but in order to do that you need to do at least 45mins... you're better off doing HIIT for fat burn...

AnvilHead

Substrate utilization during exercise is largely irrelevant. Although the body switches to carbohydrates as a primary energy source at higher levels of aerobic intensity, there's also a larger calorie burn, therefore more calories burned from fat because fat is still utilized to some extent.

If you burn 100 calories in 30 minutes at a very low intensity and 80% of them are from fat (hypothetically speaking), you'd burn 80 fat calories (along with 20 additional calories from carbs). If you worked at a higher intensity and burned 300 calories during that same 30 minutes and 30% of the calories burned were from fat, you burned 90 fat calories (along with 210 additional calories from carbs). So in reality, you burned 10 more fat calories and 190 additional calories by working at the higher intensity level.

Rhozelyn

Substrate utilization during exercise is largely irrelevant. Although the body switches to carbohydrates as a primary energy source at higher levels of aerobic intensity, there's also a larger calorie burn, therefore more calories burned from fat because fat is still utilized to some extent.

If you burn 100 calories in 30 minutes at a very low intensity and 80% of them are from fat (hypothetically speaking), you'd burn 80 fat calories (along with 20 additional calories from carbs). If you worked at a higher intensity and burned 300 calories during that same 30 minutes and 30% of the calories burned were from fat, you burned 90 fat calories (along with 210 additional calories from carbs). So in reality, you burned 10 more fat calories and 190 additional calories by working at the higher intensity level.

Bump!

mommycordillia

Anvil- thank you! That makes complete sense. I guess when I saw that on the machine I was like'hmmmmmm' cuz I burn between 600-700 cals in an hour at a decently intense level. But haven't seen much visible results and I guess that's why. Thank you for the explanation!

1Fizzle

Anvil for the win..nice breakdown!

DavPul

Substrate utilization during exercise is largely irrelevant. Although the body switches to carbohydrates as a primary energy source at higher levels of aerobic intensity, there's also a larger calorie burn, therefore more calories burned from fat because fat is still utilized to some extent.

If you burn 100 calories in 30 minutes at a very low intensity and 80% of them are from fat (hypothetically speaking), you'd burn 80 fat calories (along with 20 additional calories from carbs). If you worked at a higher intensity and burned 300
during that same 30 minutes and 30% of the calories burned were from fat, you burned 90 fat calories (along with 210 additional calories from carbs). So in reality, you burned 10 more fat calories and 190 additional calories by working at the higher intensity level.

This