Fat Burning Zone

[BFS]

When it comes to burning fat there are two basic schools of thought:

1) Fat Burning Zone

The fat burning zone is based on Heart, the theory is that when your heart rate is between 60-65% of your max that the majority of the energy is provided by burning fat. So if you burn 150calories in 30 min with this low intensity HR then 50% of these calories will be from fat. So 75 calories from fat. (these figures are approximate).

2) High Intensity Exercise

DUrning High intensity exercise (a heart rate of 80-85%) the percentage of fat used for energy drops and carbohydrates are used. However because the total number of calories is higher then more fat is burned overall. Going on our 30 min example, 200 calories burn't, 40% from fat. 80 calories overall.
The second positive with this mothod is that your body will continue to burn calories for longer after you finish exercising.

Whats Best??

We'll thats a personal thing and depends on your level of fitness. If your a beginner you will most likely not be able to exercise at a high intensity for 30min and so the Fat burn zone would suit. However If your able to exercise at the higher intensity then I encourage my clients to do so.

Weight Training

Weight training gets little attention when it comes to fat burning. People are convinced that weight training will make them muscle bound and bulky. This comes from the Body buiders they see in magazines and on TV. However not all weight training will cause this, to put on that much muscle will take alot of weight trining and alot of eating.

Why weights:

1) Weight traing can burn up to 500+ calories per hour

2) Increasing your muscle mass will increase your metabolic rate, and therefore burn more calories all the time.

3) You burn more calories after you finish weights than aerobuc training.

Ask a trainer at your gym about getting a strength program. 20 minutes of weights completed along side an aerobic workout and you'll get great reduction in body fat. (providing you eat well!!!!!!) But thats a new thing all together.

[paul_r]

I'm glad this came up because it's obviously not quite as simple as I thought. On cross-trainers programmes and wall charts, etc. I've seen the 'Fat burning zone' as being at the 60-65% range but had always assumed that more-is-less (More heart rate = Less fat). Therefore I've aimed at 80-85% myself thinking that was better (not that I need to lose fat you understand - this is purely for research purposes :whistling: ). If I understand you right that would be ok if I was using time as the measure, but I've been using calories lately - i.e. I work on the treadmill or cross trainer at 80-85% until the monitor tells me I've burnt say 250 calories, then move on to another station. Now I see that this method would actually burn less fat from that 250 calories than if I'd worked at 60-65%. I'd obviously have to work longer at 60-65% to burn the calories so I guess I can see logic in that now.

Another question I'd been asked recently was by a guy who basically wants to build beach muscles as his first priority, and pure strength as second priority - so for him size does matter in this context. I think this is about high weight/low reps versus low weight/high reps but I've heard conflicting explanations about this so didn't want to comment until I checked. He's doing three sets of 12, 10, then 8 reps at the highest weights he can manage for each set (for each exercise). What does that do compared to higher reps (say 15) in each set, but with lower weights (in each case still setting the weight to the max he can manage for the full 15 reps)?

I've also heard someone say if you're going for the reducing reps approach the weights should be higher and aim for sets of 8,6, 4 reps.

Maybe the correct plan is some comination of these? I'm hoping there's a simple rule of thumb for this.

NB the guy in question does a lot of his weight training at home so won't have a spotter, which in turn means he can't really push himself to failure on at least some exercises such as bench press or squats. Maybe pushing to point of failure isn't recommended unless under supervision or for professionals anyway?

[BFS]

The first thing you asked about the fat burning ZOne, total time is important. If you can only exercise for 10 minutes at 85% then you won't burn many calories. However If you can manage 25min plus, then I say go the Higher intensity route. If your changing between your machines then make sure that you don't take too long between them and let your HR fall too much.

The weight training again opens up another debate, there are basic guidlines from most weight training organisations and organisations that run coures about increasing muscle mass.

Generally they will say:

sets of 15 reps plus for muscle endurance
3-5 sets of 8-12 reps for size
3-5 sets of 4-6 reps for strength

and basically this is the case. However its not just that simple. Firstly to increase muscle mass its about volume. So you want to make your muscles do alot of work, and this can come from reps or sets.

So 6 sets 6 reps? or 3 sets of 10 reps?
Truth is both will work, as long as you lift to near failure.
I don't imagine that anyone on the forum is a serious body builder or strength athlete so keep it simple. Vary what you do for example:

Week 1: 2 x 12
Week 2: 3 x 10
Week 3: 4 x 8
Week 4: 4 x 6
Week 5: 2 X 12
Week 6: 4 x 10
Week 7: 4 x 8
Week 8: 5 x 6

This keeps variation in your training and stops the muscles getting used to the tarining. You should be really be failing at on the last rep of the last set with good form. But As you said this may not be safe if your on your own, so be sensible.

Also use multi joint exercises Such as

Legs:
Squat
Lunge
Leg press

Upper Body:
Bench press
Chins
SHoulder press
Seated/Bent over row

These main exercises will build more muscle.

I'll do a bit next month on strength training in more detail, because its a big area, and this ramble dosen't do it justice.

[paul_r]

Thanks. That's exactly what I was looking for.

If your changing between your machines then make sure that you don't take too long between them and let your HR fall too much.
:1 (56): ok, being too soft on myself there maybe.