Heart Rate- Fat Burn or Cardio?

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kellyw036
kellyw036 Posts: 58 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hi All-

I have a HRM to help me better track exercise calories as well as my heart rate during cardio workouts. Currently, my goal is weight loss as far as my workout goes (I am also doing weights, but more focused right now on loss and burn).

When I am doing cardio, is it most efficient for weight loss to have my heart rate in the "fat burn zone" or the "cardio zone"?
Cardio zone, I obviously burn more calories....but I'm not sure that I totally understand why these matter..and ultimately, maybe they do not matter?? I just want my workouts to be as efficient as possible!

Thanks for any input.

Replies

  • phjorg
    phjorg Posts: 252 Member
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    Hi All-

    I have a HRM to help me better track exercise calories as well as my heart rate during cardio workouts. Currently, my goal is weight loss as far as my workout goes (I am also doing weights, but more focused right now on loss and burn).

    When I am doing cardio, is it most efficient for weight loss to have my heart rate in the "fat burn zone" or the "cardio zone"?
    Cardio zone, I obviously burn more calories....but I'm not sure that I totally understand why these matter..and ultimately, maybe they do not matter?? I just want my workouts to be as efficient as possible!

    Thanks for any input.
    always go for the calorie burn. IE: push yourself.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Fat-burn zone, for years more correctly called the Active Recovery HR zone (best for day after lifting), just means that with the lower amount of calories burned, a bigger % of those calories is supplied by fat.

    But go higher and you burn more, and more of those calories are now coming from carbs. About the same quantity of fat calories is burned, but it is now a smaller % of total calories.

    Up until you get to upper reaches of almost anaerobic, where it's almost total carb burn, then that fact falls apart.

    So if this cardio session isn't following a lifting day and won't kill any repair process, and not proceeding a lifting day and you won't tire out your muscles - go as hard as your little heart desires. Of course day after day of doing that isn't smart either.

    Actually, you'll get more benefit from it by making it interval like on so many improvements. So do 10 min warmup in "fat-burning zone" (that's why that is useful) and then alternate going as fast as you can for 1-2 min, and then back to lower zone for same amount of time, repeat until time is up. Then do 10 min cooldown in lower zone again.

    Usually those Polar's have another HR zone setting you can make, like an upper zone alarm, though I'd turn the alarm off. Figure out where the top of the Aerobic HR zone is, set it, and that's what you should be above for the 1-2 min, and then back below the lower fat-burning zone on the easy part.

    That's when the zone matters, for better training. Like above, if you didn't really drop to lower zone, you quickly discover that hard 1-2 min steadily becoming slower. Even though you feel like you are pushing the same, you can't push as hard because you didn't really recover low enough.

    Exactly the same reason why the amount of max weight you could squat on 3 sets x 10 reps with set rests, could not be done on 30 straight reps. It's the recovery that allows the hard effort.

    Same reason why it's the rest, recovery, and repair to any exercise that allows the exercise to be done harder and faster and better.

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