Am I Effectively Burning More Fat?

Bump - I am curious about this too. I barely break a sweat in the "fat burning" range

All those zones have never made any sense to me. I go to the gym and push it until I sweat and can't hold a conversation. I do this intensity for 20-30 minutes. I am gaining muscle and losing body fat. So that is my target zone. I think it is wise to exercise below your max heart rate, because you don't want to push yourself straight to the hospital, but I wouldn't feel effective if I was in that "fat burning zone" target.

follow the personal trainers advice. I am an ex BB and ex personal trainer. I would vary your workouts and o what is best for you- weights and moderate cardi that makes you sweat! The calculations can consume you- Calories in and calories out- adding lean muscle to your body will assist with the fat loss with maximum results- stay carrion in your weight training too and that can count as calories out.

Well my body fat stands at 33% and I'm less than 39 lbs from my goal but right now I still have rolls that need to be address on my body. I'm not trying to complicate things. I'm trying to be as informative as I can and learn whats more effective for my body. I've been really successful with weight loss so far now my focus is on shrinking my body fat and gaining more lean muscle.
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You can be at your goal weight and still have rolls, you are not going to get all the fat loss you want from working your heart it comes from working doing weights.

I can remember back in junior high when they tested our body fat% and i was tiny back then, but i had the highest in my class. Kids were astounded over that. (so was i) So when i tested mine last week i almost fell on the floor! (40%) It has come down a little since i've started excersizing, & lifting weights. People don't realize that just because a person may not be obese doesn't mean that their healthy. I have got to build muscle and bring mine down, that's crazy! When i work out on the elliptical, i stay in the fat burning zone and don't focus on the heart rate. While i'm doing it, i'm huffing & puffing and work up a good sweat by the end of my session so i think i'm doing the right thing. Good luck to you~

Well my body fat stands at 33% and I'm less than 39 lbs from my goal but right now I still have rolls that need to be address on my body. I'm not trying to complicate things. I'm trying to be as informative as I can and learn whats more effective for my body. I've been really successful with weight loss so far now my focus is on shrinking my body fat and gaining more lean muscle.

You can be at your goal weight and still have rolls, you are not going to get all the fat loss you want from working your heart it comes from working doing weights.
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Great point - Working out with weights will do several things: increase muscle mass, increase in musle will increase calorie burn that accelerates fat loss. Weights will enhance your toning.

There is no easy route to long term health. You have to do the weights, cardio, and nutrition. I have beed doing beachbody programs such as Chalean Extreme, 10 min trainer, and Turbo Fire. They are a lot of fun and very effective (I've lost 8% body fat and finally close to a healthy BMI). Not to mention -Turbo Fire music is slamming! It may be worth it for yor to checkout those programs. If you do feel free to add me as a buddy (Iron Diva is my id)

Amen on the music is TF. It's awesome.
To piggy back on what you said...it's seems forever to get the weight off but with a healthy life style you will get there and keep it off.
Also muscle burns fat. Focus on building muscle and eating clean and you'll see wonderous things happen. From what I've seen you've come a long way (around 100 lbs lost) and are doing great. Slow and steady wins the race.

Can any of you tell me how effective it is to maintain a lower heart rate in order to burn more fat stores from your experience? I just want to make sure I'm on the right track with this.

Ok, let me try to shed a little light here.
Yes, in zone 2 you but the highest % of fat but you won't burn a lot of it.
30 minutes in zone 2 will burn let's say 150 on a brisk wak. 85% of those calories or 127 calories came were burned from fat.
Now, Let's say you did an Insanity Workout for 30 minutes and burned 400 calories but only 40% was from fat. That's 160 calories.
So you see...it depends what kind of workout you want to do. A brisk walk, which is nice to do especially on a nice day.
Or Intense to the point of 90%-95% of MAX HR which will really increase your cardio.
I prefer the Intense. It's more fun and I like pushing myself to the point on explosion.
My Max HR is 177 and I've come close to that many time. When I first started working out 2 years ago and I got in the upper 160's I would see stars (they were pretty), and get light headed. Now it's not a problem. I also ran a 14 minutes mile now I'm sub 7's.
Not tooting my own horn but just showing what can be accomplished with good ole fashion american hard work.

Peace out

Laddyboy - To build on (and support) what you wrote here, I found a blog on teambeachbody.com with the following information:

Fitness/Fat-Burning Zone (Fat Burning)
(60–75% of maximum heart rate) Burns more calories than a healthy heart at rest. Optimal fat burning consists of working out at a moderate intensity level you can sustain for long periods of time. This trains your metabolism so your body releases more fat from your fat cells throughout the day.

Aerobic Zone (Endurance Training)
(70–80% of maximum heart rate) Improves your cardiovascular and respiratory system and increases the size and strength of your heart. This is the preferred zone if you’re training for an endurance event. Your body burns more calories, 50% of them from fat.

High Intensity/Anaerobic Threshold Zone (Performance Training)
(80–90% of maximum heart rate) This is a high-intensity zone that burns more calories, around 15% of them from fat. You’ll benefit from an improved cardio respiratory system, fight fatigue better, and improve endurance. For optimal fat burning cardio, train at high intensities in short bursts of time (1–3 minutes each), recover, and repeat several times. This is the most efficient way to raise your metabolism and burn fat. You’ll burn 100% carbs as a source of energy during these bursts.

Red Line Zone (Maximum Effort)
(90–100% of maximum heart rate) Although this zone burns the most calories, it’s very intense and hard to maintain. Only train in this zone for short periods of time, and only if you’re in good shape and cleared by a physician.

Each zone has key aspects to overall fat burning. An optimal program consists of workouts in all zones each week. Each person’s heart rate will be different for each zone.

Calculate your estimated maximum heart rate with this formula:

Women, subtract your age from 226.
Men, subtract your age from 220.

This is your age-adjusted maximum heart rate

Now take your age-adjusted maximum heart rate and calculate the following percentages for the various parts of your workout.

60% for your warm-up and cool down
65–75% for your moderate pace
75–85% for your vigorous or interval pace

For instance, a 40-year-old woman’s estimated maximum heart rate is 186 (226 – 40 = 186).

60% of her max = 112
65% of her max = 121
75% of her max = 140
85% of her max = 158

Or, use the Team Beachbody heart rate calculator found here:

http://teambeachbody.com/get-fit/fitness-tools/target-heart-rate

I highly recommend joining this site - teambeachbody.com (there is both a free membership and a paid membership). Either way you have access to great training and nutritional information.
BBDIVA (a.k.a. Coach IRONDIVA)