Monday Fitness Fun Fact

WLS Newbies should be careful about going aerobic (breathing hard) too soon after WLS but in a couple of weeks, it'll will be time to get the ticker going so you can...... 

Burn That Fat Fellas!

Do you ever wonder what the difference is between the "fat burning zone" and the "cardio training zone"? Surely you've seen these diagrammed in some way on cardio equipment, and perhaps you've noticed that the fat burning zone is an easier zone to work out in.

But when you work harder and get your heart rate up higher, the zone becomes "cardio training," or "athletic training," and no longer "fat burning." So in an attempt to lose weight, you make sure to remain walking, stepping or pedaling comfortably in that fat burning zone.

But have you ever wondered how it is, that exercising harder burns LESS fat? How can this be? This shouldn't make any sense. You've probably heard that a greater percentage of fat is burned during the fat burning zone. So surely, the best way to melt off fat is to stay in that fat burning zone, and to make sure you don't get too out of breath or too worked up, right?

WRONG.

The fat burning zone, indeed, burns a greater PERCENTAGE of fat, relative to total calories burned. But the higher intensity cardio or athletic training zone burns more TOTAL calories for the same length of time. This means that the total amount of fat that's burned with these calories, actually comes out higher than the total fat burned during easier "fat burning" work.

Let's do the math. Suppose on Monday, you use the elliptical trainer machine for 60 minutes. You stay within that target heart rate that correlates to the fat burning zone. You burn a total of, let's say, 200 calories. So, you burn 200 calories in 60 minutes in the fat burning zone. Now, about 50 percent of those calories will be fat. 50 percent of 200 is 100. Remember that: You've burned 100 calories of fat.

Now, let's say on Wednesday, you get on the same machine, but train in the cardio zone. You pedal faster at a higher pedal resistance. You drip sweat. You hear yourself breathing hard. You huff and puff. After 60 minutes, you've burned 300 calories.

In cardio zone training, about 40 percent of the calories burned will be fat. Note: 40 percent is a smaller number than 50 percent. HOWEVER...what's 40 percent of the 300 calories that were burned? It's 120! Your total fat-calories burned were 120! This is 20 percent MORE fat burned, than what you did in your fat burning session on Monday!

'Nuff said.

By Jillita Horton

Great article Boner.... You know I wanna add...over the years I've had gym rats tell me...you are going about this all wrong....you are wasting time...blah blah blah...and horse **** like that.... that may be fine and well for a top of the line high performance jock...but I ain;t a high performance jock...so for me...any exercise is better than what I was doing 3 years ago... does that make sense??

Great point and absolutely correct. It's all about "baby steps" and like you say, any exercise such as walking is light years (oop's still must have Pink Floyd brain) ahead of where we came from. Those who choose to ramp it up later can do it down the road. The key in my mind is to do the basics, like walking, daily and that's why the 50 mile a month challenge is so important for newbies. Setting a goal then accomplishing it is so important in my opinion. Thanks, Russ!!

Follow up Question... Did that flaming you gave that chick the other day, count as cardio??? it did get your heart rate up

You're right, I should add a couple more miles to the 50 mile a month exercise log for the flame-a-gram workout.  

Great post. Too many people get that wrong. Doing something is better than doing nothing, but there is no reason to convince people that barely working out is better than putting some real effort into it.