Fat burn vs Fitness on Polar FT7

Options
vkpmusic
vkpmusic Posts: 343 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So I've had an FT7 for a couple of months now and I've been using it to track calories burned. I just recently noticed it would also show minutes of fat burning vs minutes of fitness.

So I went to Zumba today and burned 538 calories. It said my avg hr was 145 and max was 175. Ok. From glancing down from time to time, that's about right. Here's the thing....it said that I only had about 3 minutes of fat burning and the rest fitness. The fitness makes sense, don't get me wrong, but only 3 minutes of fat burning? I thought the whole purpose of intense aerobics was to burn fat....

Confused. :frown:

Replies

  • KatyG0409
    KatyG0409 Posts: 74 Member
    Options
    Mine does this as well. I notice that it usually says Fat Burn during my lower heart rates, 120ish (when I am warming up). It says it on the screen that displays the heart rate and time *during* your workout.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,239 Member
    Options
    Ignore it. The whole fat burning zone thing is twisting the numbers. Google fat burning zone and you will find a bunch of articles showing how it is wrong. You want to burn the most calories you can. Fat burning zone will not do that as it is not intense enough.

    Here is a link http://www.active.com/triathlon/Articles/The-Myth-of-the-Fat-burning-Zone.htm
  • Sweetlost
    Sweetlost Posts: 29 Member
    Options
    Your lower heart rate 112-145 are usually the fat burning rate and anything higher is fitness improvement or endurance. To lose weight it is more effective to burn fat by staying within those zones. In the gym, you always see these numbers as fat burning zones depending on your age too. Higher heart rate cardio like Zumba are good for endurance and fitness improvement.
  • vkpmusic
    vkpmusic Posts: 343 Member
    Options
    Wow! I'm going to have to reread that again to absorb it all, but it seems I had it right the first time. Track the calories burned, do lots of different types of exercises, including weights.

    I was smarter than I thought I was. :blushing:

    Thanks for the information!

Categories