Your New Year's Fitness Resolution: The Fat-Burning Zone

As the holidays have wrapped up and the new year has begun, gyms and fitness centers will be packed.  Local and on-line retailers will be pushing a number of fitness items.  Most people will set some type of fitness goal again this year.  What makes the difference between actually sticking to (and reaching) that goal or falling off and forgetting it after February?  That will be different for different people.  One thing that will help, though, is actually knowing how to use some of the equipment you will either be purchasing for your home or using at the gym.  One feature almost every piece of cardio equipment will have is a "fat loss zone."  What is this, and how can you best use this to your advantage?


The "fat loss zone" simply refers to a heart rate zone where you are burning a higher percentage of fat as fuel.  One thing we have to understand is that our bodies are constantly burning calories; this is the basic meaning of metabolism.  At rest, our bodies burn more fat than carbohydrates as fuel.  As we begin to move, the percentage of fat decreases and the percentage of carbs increases.  The purpose of the "fat burning zone" is to keep the percentage of fat being burned greater than or equal to the percentage of carbs being burned.


So, knowing a little better what the "fat burning zone" is, how can you best use this to your advantage?  This is a trick question.  The correct answer is: you can't.  The misinterpretation of the "fat burning zone" has led to "one of the biggest misconceptions in the exercise and weight-loss world" (The Myth of the Fat Burning Zone; Rachel Cosgrove, USAT Level 1, CSCS; for Active.com). If you notice in the preceding paragraph, I mentioned percentages of fat or carbohydrates burned.  The word percentages, however, in this case has been misinterpreted to mean amount. Below is one way I have seen it explained:


"Suppose you are standing next to Warren Buffet.  Would you rather have ALL of the money in your bank account, or 3% of the money in Warren Buffet's bank account?"


For me, and probably for most people, Warren Buffet's 3% is much more desirable than my 100%.  Why?  Because it is a much greater total amount.  So, let's compare that to exercise:  


Let's take an hour of exercise.  To keep the math simple, let's say you burn 200 calories in this hour, and you do it in the "fat burning zone," where 50% of your energy comes from burning fat and 50% comes from burning carbs.  You have just burned 100 fat calories. 


Now, let's take the same exercise but increase the intensity; now, instead of burning 200 calories in an hour, you have burned 600! But because your intensity is so much higher, only 30% of your calories burned were fat calories, and the other 70% were carbs.  Big problem, right?  Well, let's do the math.  30% of 600 equals 180.  So, you may have not been in the fat burning zone, but in the same amount of time, you burned almost twice as many fat calories!  Amazing, isn't it?  Yes, but it's also just basic math.    Not only that, but you have also burned 3 times as many calories in the same amount of time!  You have created a greater caloric deficit (given that you don't "reward" yourself after such a hard work-out by eating half of a 9-inch round, triple layer Death By Chocolate cake), and this is what weight loss--or, more appropriately, fat loss--is all about. 


So, how can you better improve your work-outs to reach your weight loss or other fitness goals?  Let me know what those fitness goals are, and I would love to help you out!  Check out my "Personal Training" link on the right side of this blog, and send me an e-mail.  


Good luck with everything this year!