are you burning fat?

[NotSoFunny]

Lets discuss your workout and if you are burning fat, or the carbs that you have been eating.

When you first go to a gym you learn about your "target heart rate" and the zone you should be in for cardio and fat burning. Yes...that is right. they are different. Fat burning is the lower end of your target heartrate, and burns mostly fat, and very few carbs. Cardio stresses your body, works your muscles, and is more of a conditioning workout. Once you find out what your target heart rate is you can pinpoint your workout to best accomodate your goals.

In the lower end of your target heart rate zone, you should be able to move, contantly, for an hour without really getting tired. this obviously depends on your body, and your health. But you do not need to be out of breath to loose fat. A slow walk on the treadmill, or a gently cycle on the bike can get you into this zone easily. This is also good for the beginner to see some results without killing themselves at the gym.

The upper part of your target heart rate zone is where you are working it, sweating, and breathing slightly harder. you want to be able to speak. This is not for the beginner, but for the person who has reached a plateau and ready to bump up their workout routine to really make a difference. But the catch to this type of workout is that it burns stored carbs for the first 30 minutes of the workout. If you only workout for 30 minutes, or 45, at this pace, you are not burning fat, just burning carbs and building muscle. This is not a wholey bad thing, as it will condition your body, and raise your metabolism. But you want to get past that 30 minutes, and really melt some fat off of your body. Try for an hour, or 1.5 hours. and i am talking about all at once. Not in bits.

Now any movement you make is beneficial, but if you want to fine tune your fat burning workouts then be sure to learn your target heart rate, and get it beating in that zone. and remember, 30 extra minutes won't kill you, it will only make you healthier. :nod:

[Iulizbug]

So its better to walk moderately for 1hr and a half where your heart rate is barely elevated than to jog/elliptical for 30 min where you are sweating immensely and are exhausted afterwards? I hear what you are saying...I just know in my experience for me anyways I don't lose regardless of the amt of time I am doing something unless i am really pushing myself and the sweat is pouring off of me and I am pooped afterwards. I rarely can talk towards the end of my workout b/c my heart is working so hard. I swam competitively in college and high shcool and I never lost weight when I did my long 2-3 hr workouts when I just swam moderately, which I could do for hrs w/out getting my heart rate up. But when I pushed it and sprinted, the lbs came off. Same with walking...I have heard that walking is the best fat-burning workout there is but just walking doesn't do it for me. I have to use an incline or walk up hills and/or jog with it at least to get my heart going. I am curious to hear everyones thoughts on this......

~Liz~
03/10/06
241/165/160
5'7''

[Jachut]

Sorry, I think that theory is only partly true.

ALL workouts burn carbs AND fat. Its true that at a lower intensity you burn a greater proportion of fat but at a higher intensity you burn way more calories overall and more fat in total. You also get a greater "afterburn" in that if you stop your moderate walking workout your metabolism drops to normal pretty much immediately where if you have been working much harder your body burns a higher level of fat and calories for hours afterwards. But its true that the key is whether or not you can keep it up for long enough. But the thing is, if you never do the higher intensity work, you wont get to the point where you can work at a high intensity for say, an hour.

The commonly accepted heart rate guides are also way too general and do not apply to anyone who's already fit. By using other formulae to take into account your own levels of fitness you get a very different guideline - my "target" zone for fat burning is actually 145 - 165 beats per minute, and not the 118 to 140 that those charts using 220-age would tell me it is. I can work out at 165 beats a minute without being very out of breath. The talk test is what you should go by - if you can just talk and carry on a stilted conversation with one word answers you're doing fine, that's about the right level of intensity. Fat burning exercise should be moderate but its people's idea of moderate that's the problem. When you see a couple of ladies walking in the street in their exercise gear chatting nineteen to the dozen with their friend next to them, they're not achieving much except for a nice social outing.

Too moderate too, like down at the 118 bpm level and you wont get the increases in fitness you are looking for. When I started running I worried about this, and it may be true that my early runs were slighly anaerobic, I certainly did a lot of interval training at very high heart rates. But nine months down the track and I can run for an hour and burn 800 calories and STILL be in the fat burning zone. So you dont want to just dawdle along, you perhaps want to do both some lower intensity stuff on easy days and some high intensity stuff on other days to kick your fitness along.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember though is if you can only do it for 10 minutes its too intense, it IS better to go for a longer workout.

The thing is high intensity exercise develops your cardiovascular fitness, but the lower intensity stuff is really good for developing your body on a cellular level, increasing the number and efficiency of mitochondria in your cells and making your body a fat burning machine.

So I've concentrated on higher intensity stuff and gotten good results but in the last month where circumstance has led me to walk long distances as well as running - WOW, I've never gotten results like that before. So perhaps the best approach is to combine both high and low intensity?

[NotSoFunny]

I agree that a mixture of both is good. I am not saying that a high intesity workout is a bad thing, not at all. What I am saying is that if you do the high intesity workout, you need to do it for a longer amount of time to be in the fat burning zone. Exactly what you have both pointed out, its the same point I have made. The higher intesity workouts are a really good fat burning tool. But only after you get past the carb burn do you really see fat results. And moderate workout, as I stated, should still be in the heart rate zone. I am not saying go mall walking. I am saying get on a treadmill, put your fingers on your neck, count out how hard your heart is beating, and go from there.

[Jachut]

I think overall it takes a lot more exercise (and more effort at that exercise) than people assume it does to really see fat loss results, dont you think? I think people think low intensity means very little effort, that an hour long stroll will do the job. Just as it actually takes a lot less food than people assume to lose weight consistently.

[NotSoFunny]

I agree completely. I really want this to work, so Iam working between 3 and 4 hours a day. most of the time 4. and i am always in my target heartrate zone. I have also brought my calories down. And I see results. Lots of it.

[jqpublic]

there is nothing better the a good carideo work out! walking fast helped me lose weight along with eating around 1200 calories I started to lose weight,but as my health Phycial apperance started getting better I pushed my self hard. CARIDEO CARIDEO CARIDEO 4 Times aweek started 3 days aweek lifting light weight's to tone the body.

now after an accident Im redueced to walking! and very little of that mostly watching my calorie intake ( 1200 ) and drinking lots of water.

well just wanted to say hello to you (LADY"S) JOHN.