ok...is it true that working at a lower level burns fat and the higher level is for cardio? i keep hearing that and it makes some sense to me as i have lost 45 pounds but i still have a lot of fat. is there a website or a guide for what intensity i should be at to burn fat?

right now i do an exercise bike at the same intensity for 30 mins. i dont vary it as far as time or intensity goes. I use the same bike daily. i also keep my rpm's at the same level from day to day. i havent been able to move up an intensity level yet, i havent been working out that long.

when i do this workout, the highest my pulse gets is 180. i know the bike has a 'fat burn' mode, maybe i should try that. any ideas? thanks!!

Ok - this whole "low intensity, fat burning zone" principle has been proven wrong.

- Even though a lower intensity will burn a higher percentage from fat, you won't burn a large amount of calories, which is the key for weight loss.

E.g. - low intensity = 60% calories from fat, 40% Glycogen.

- Working at a high intensity for the same duration will burn sometimes more than twice as many calories. Even though a smaller percentage is from fat (e.g 45% fat, 65% Glycogen, ATP etc..) you will end up burning more calories overall, and thus - more actual fat calories on the whole. Hope that makes sense.

I.e:

A) 30 mins walking at 60% MHR will burn 200 calores ( just an example, not accurate) - 60% from fat (120kcal approx) and 40% from Glycogen and other sources (80kcal approx).

B) 30 mins high intensity interval training - you burn 340 cals. (again, example). 45% from fat - (153kcal approx) and 65% percent from Adenosine Tri Phosphate (ATP) and Glycogen, etc.. which is 221kcal approx.

See what I mean?

Furthermore, at the end of the day - the whole 'fat burning zone' thing becomes quite obsolete when you consider the fact that if you dont use the available blood sugar, it gets stored as fat anyway.
PLUS - high intensity interval training elevates your metabolism higher and for longer after the exercise is over. The afterburn from low intensity exercise is minimal.

I hope I've explained in a way that makes some sort of sense...

No. It's a total myth.

The only way to burn calories is to get your heart rate up. The higher you get your heart rate, the more you burn. Doesn't mean you won't burn calories at the lower rate, you'll just burn fewer of them.

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that makes sense to me...and its funny how working harder burns more calories and in turn burns more fat than the supposed fat burn workout. thanks for the info!! where did you find it?

Yeah, exercise physiology is pretty fascinating stuff =D

Well, I'm involved in the fitness industry and I also like to read up about this sort of thing. The info is just what I have learnt over time - in books, articles on the internet, workshops and lectures, etc.

cool. i will keep up my normal routine. thanks!! i appreciate the info!!

Hey, CardinalsFan! I found similar information on www.t-nation.com It's aimed at serious body builders, but the information is pretty solid. I also find a lot of information on www.figureathlete.com It's aimed at females, but the info is still valid. From my studies and personal experience, high intensity interval training is the quickest way to burn fat. You can do a web search for HIIT and find tons of info. Hope this has helped!

I have a Polar F11 heart rate monitor and love it for this exact reason. It has a feature called "ownzone" where you do periodic tests of your resting heart rate and then when you work out on manual setting, you can set the level of HR you want to target or you can follow one of the programs it sets up for you. Anyways at the end of it, it gives you calorie burn along with the percentage of calories that came from fat. I know the calorie burn for me is overestimated but I use the fat percentage as an estimation for tracking. A couple months ago when I got it, it seemed I'd get an overall greater NUMBER of calories burned from low to moderate intensity workouts for the same time period vs high intensity. Now that I'm in better shape, I do burn more calories from fat at a high intensity for the same time period.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that from my own experience - if you aren't in good cardio shape and it doesn't take much to go to a high HR, you'll likely burn more calories from fat at a lower level of intensity however as your level of fitness improves the total fat calories burned will be higher at a higher intensity than at a lower for the same length workout.

I got really confused reading this but I want to understand what you are saying, ANewMe. Are you saying that as your cardiovascular fitness improves you burn a higher percentage of fat when working at a high intensity?

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Here are some other website articles that reinstate what I explained earleir about the fat burning zone myth ( as always, internet info should be taken with a grain of salt, but these articles are among the better ones out there.) :

http://www.fitstyler.com.au/news/Fat...art-1/251/258/

http://www.fitnesshealthzone.com/fit...-heart-health/


Furthermore;

"High Intensity v. Low Intensity.
The basic idea when you're trying to lose fat is to create a caloric deficit. The type of cardiovascular training doesn’t matter so much as creating that deficit. High Intensity training just creates the deficit more efficiently than Low Intensity training, so you can lose fat more quickly.
Interval training for example is a very effective means of burning fat in a short period of time. During interval training you perform quick bouts of high intensity work followed by short periods of recovery.

This type of work-recovery training usually burns fat more quickly than long bouts of low to moderate intensity exercise."

- http://www.fitnessgymmagazine.com/De...ody-Attack.asp

No, I was referring to the total calories burned from fat overall. I am in agreement with what you said. The other thing to consider is why we are exercising to begin with - if it's just to lose weight that is one thing, but if it's to improve our overall level of fitness we need to work on gradually building up our aerobic capacity and low intensity workouts do little to get us there.

BTW I worked for several years as a personal trainer (was ACSM and Y certified) and what I consistently saw with clients was that those that did interval or HIIT training had the best results overall as far as body fat loss goes.

Ooh, okay. Yeah I read back and now I get what you meant - total kcal burned from fat overall.

I definetly agree with the other things you said also - about the reason we exercise and what training to do. Every type of workout has its place.