fat burning?

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Michelle650
Michelle650 Posts: 218
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok, so I have been exercising consistently for about three weeks. I have a polar ft7 HRM, which shows me if I am in fat burning mode or just improving my fitness. I have been doing various exercises, such as walking, jogging and the 30 day shred. I have noticed that I burn more fat by walking (nothing extreme) than I do from jogging and the 30 day shred.

So my question is, if you burn more fat when doing less intense exercises, why is it that people say the more intense the exercise the better?

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  • DietandVlogsense
    DietandVlogsense Posts: 48 Member
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    The "fat burning mode" is only a guideline and the machine can get it wrong, and frequently does in my experience.

    As far as I am concerned, if you are burning calories, you are making a positive contribution to your wieghtloss.

    As long as calories in < calories out then you will loose weight.

    Noite: Calories out does include the calories burnt just from the fact that you are alive, not just the exercide...
  • ctooch99
    ctooch99 Posts: 459 Member
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    I am not a trainer or a PT, so I do not know all the physiology behind it, but there are certain benefits to exercising in certain ways.

    First off, in the exercise you listed, I could not tell if you were exercising in your maximum heart rate zone for over 25 minutes? This typically is the thumbnail rule for burning up fat and increasing resting metabolic rate. Walking (especially at a brisk pace) is really great exercise, but it probably does not get you to 80% maximum heart rate. It probably slow burns calories over time and in general will improve your health, but eventually I suspect your body would reach an equilibrium point with just walking (that is where you neither gain nor lose weight all other things unchanged). Some people are fine with this and this is what they want.

    But typically, to really get in strong cardiovascular condition (to play a competitive sport for example) you need to jack your heart rate for a sustained period of time of at least 25 minutes. This typically burns a ton of calories. Also another consideration you did not mention is strength training - which has a different goal - building lean muscle mass.

    Ideally your fitness should include fat/calorie burning activities (aerobic) and strength/muscle build activities (anaerobic)

    My 2 cents
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    people say more intense is better on the basis that more calories burned will over time lead to more fat loss. You may have burned less fat doing the exercise, but fat will be needed to replace the carb energy burned anyway.

    HIIT seems to deliver better fat loss - a combination of intense exercise for short periods with low intensity in between.
  • Michelle650
    Michelle650 Posts: 218
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    Thank you all!

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