HRM: Fat Burn vs Fitness

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photo_kyla
photo_kyla Posts: 322 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I'm still new to my heart rate monitor (Polar FT7) and figuring things out, but I have a question about the Fat Burn zone vs the Fitness zone. It is almost impossible to stay in the Fat Burn zone during my workout. It's like I *look* at a piece of equipment a my heart rate goes over that. Even when I'm trying to be really careful about keeping my heart rate in zone, it usually ends up going 10-20 bpm over and then I have to try to bring it back down. I understand that this is all part of the natural process of metabolism, aerobic vs anaerobic, but my question is this:

I only have a limited amount of time to exercise each day and my overall goal is losing fat (and weight). Is it better to really work my butt off and burn as many calories as possible, even though they aren't necessarily fat calories; or should I slow down and keep my burn in the "fat burn" zone, but effectively halving my total burn?

Thanks for any knowledgeable advice :)

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  • MC0301
    MC0301 Posts: 25 Member
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    bump.
  • smcassaro
    smcassaro Posts: 123 Member
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    Someone explained it like this & it helped me to understand:

    As an example say in the fat burning zone you burn 60% calories from fat, while in the cardio Zone you burn 45% from fat. So in a 30 minute workout you may burn 240 cals in the fat burning zone but 360 in the cardio zone. 60% of 240 is 144 cals from fat in fat burning zone, whereas 45% of 360 is 162 cals from fat in the cardio zone.

    Hope this helps!
  • jogdog
    jogdog Posts: 89 Member
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    A couple months ago, I picked up a training book for triathlons for newbies. It had an excerpt in there about the fat burning zone when they were talking about HR. If I had to summarize it, it pretty much said it's a myth.

    "It really doesn't matter how much fat you burn during exercise, but how much is burned during recovery...The bottom line for all of this is that you should forget about the "fat-burning zone" during exercise. Such thinking is counterproductive. Going slow for a long time won't make you svelte." - Your First Triathlon by Joe Friel, pg 31-32

    If you do more reading in it, it offers research to back up that short intensive workouts are much better than long slow ones as in the long run you will burn more fat with intensity and will help you lose weight more quickly.
  • photo_kyla
    photo_kyla Posts: 322 Member
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    If you do more reading in it, it offers research to back up that short intensive workouts are much better than long slow ones as in the long run you will burn more fat with intensity and will help you lose weight more quickly.

    That's great to know. Exercise calories, here I come! :bigsmile:

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