Fitness or Fat Burn? Help

phasesme

I am a 35 yr old woman and I way 346 lbs. I just started to use a hrm to help me really get the most out of my workouts and help me to stay within my calorie burn ratio. I don't want to miss count and eat back my calories. I am really confused about the difference between the fat burn and fitness zones on my hrm. When I ask the trainer at the gym she told me that there was no real difference and to just pick one and stay within that range. HUH??? Clearly there must be a difference or there wouldn't be a two different settings. Right? What I noticed is when I did water aerobics I stayed in the fat burn for the most part. Realized I burned less calories in more time but the cal. fat percentage was greater. Here is the break down.

Water aerobics (cardio): Staying in Fat burn most of the time 48 minutes, burned 277 calories, 41% cal. fat.
Walking (Cardio): fluctuating from fat burn to fitness 35 minutes, burned 320 cal, 33% cal. fat
Shaun T Rockin' Body (cardio): Staying in the fitness mode 26 minutes burned 405 cal 19% fat cal.
30 day shred (interval training): Staying in fitness mode 32 minutes burned 300, 25% fat. cal

So with all of that said here are my questions.
1) Should I be staying in the fat burn zone or fitness? Staying in the fat burn zone is really hard I seem to jump up to the fitness mode really easily when doing everything except water aerobics.

2) When I am doing all of the other exercises am I burning heart muscle which really scares me. I am working out to get healthier and make my heart stronger not damage it.

Please help

Sycoholic

Lately it seems that the opinion of the fat burn and cardio zones are a load of b.s. designed to sell machines and what-have-you. I workout in the high end of my heartrate. I haven't read any magazines or read any articles as of late that support it. I have read plenty that are calling it b.s. I would say to workout with whatever zone you feel most comfortable in. I've also never heard of exercise burning heart muscle. Where did you get this idea from? You burn muscle when you go catabolic, meaning your body ran out of food as fuel so it's relying on fat stores and muscle for fuel. The muscle you burn will be minimal and if your ultimate goal is fat loss then just make sure you're eating enough protein (for muscle recovery) and keep on burning. If anything cardio will be making your heart stronger. Just stay in a zone you find you can maximize and stick with it. You're overweight so you may not want to push the high end of the spectrum without having a doctor check you out first. A doctor may not be a bad idea just for a good checkup and to see what he/she recommends you try or stay away from. They may even suggest a nutritionist to get you on the right path.

Azdak

"Fitness" and "Fat Burn" are just made up terms for different levels of intensity. For weight loss, they don't mean anything.

Working at different intensities will help you to improve your fitness level. You will then be able to work out longer and harder and thus burn more calories.

Total calories burned is more important than "calories burned from fat" which really has no effect on body fat loss. That doesn't mean you should do all higher-intensity workouts, however. You want to work on endurance as well.

I'm not sure what you mean by "burning heart muscle" unless you are getting that idea from a phrase--"too much cardio burns muscle"--that is sometimes used here and elsewhere.

Just forget that phrase--it is complete nonsense.

In addition, there is no reason for your to be concerned about "eating back exercise calories". At your weight, you should be able to eat 2000 calories a day --which is plenty to support your workouts--and not worry about anything else.

Congratulations on getting started on a healthy lifestyle program.

phasesme

Thanks for the good advice....I was very worried about burning heart muscle because a very good friend told me that working out too hard can cause this to happen. Clearly I know very little about strenuous exercise and thus was very concerned. I appreciate you all clearing that up for me. I have seen my doctor and my heart is in great condition despite my weight. He did recommended things like water aerobics to spare my joints. I do feel better when I do things a little more intense than that however. I tend to get bored in the water classes.