Article By: John Fontana
Walk into any major gym at around 6 p.m. on a weekday and it is tough to find an open piece of cardio equipment. The people hop on and follow the instructions listed on the machine in order to burn some fat. It’s nice isn’t it, the idea that you can cruise along in this “fat burning zone” for 30 minutes to an hour and achieve great results?
For years the myth of the “fat-burning zone” has polluted gyms across the country and even the world. This idea that steadily keeping your heart rate at around 65% of your max for a long, continuous time would net you a large amount of fat loss has made its way into the mind of just about every gym go-er.
Does It Work?
Take a look around at all the people just cruising at a steady pace on the treadmill for 45 minutes or so. How do they look? Are they the fittest in the gym or the most out of shape? For the most part, you will see these people on the same piece of cardio equipment for the same amount of time, month after month. They lose a little weight at first, then the weight loss stops. So they decide to increase the amount of time they work out. The same thing happens again, so they increase the amount of time yet again. Again and again, this cycle continues with results diminishing, if they occur at all.
Does It Exist?
The fat-burning zone was created with the idea that if you stay around 65% of your max heart rate for the duration of the workout, you will be using mostly fat stores for energy. While there is some truth to this, there are a few underlying issues with the theory. First off, you are never truly using solely fat for energy unless you are at complete rest and sleeping. Oxygen is the real tell-tale sign of which energy store (fat or carbohydrates) is being used during a workout. The more oxygen your body requires to continue, the more you shift from fat to carbs. As you can see in the graph below, there is a point where the total amount of fat and carbs being used for energy meet.
This point is what is called the fat-burning zone on any treadmill or elliptical you see. While it is great that you are burning fat, your workout will not demand too much from your body. This will leave you burning a decent amount of fat, but a low amount of overall calories. You still need to burn more overall calories in order to lose more weight.
New Rule: Resting Zone
The point in the chart where the two lines meet needs to turn into your new resting heart rate. In other words, your heart rate should never dip below that during a workout. The resting rate is the 65% of your max that you used to use as your “fat burn” heart rate. Buying a simple heart rate monitor will help give you an idea of where you need to stay, but for the most part it will be in 120-130 range. While doing cardio, you should fluctuate from your resting rate to a higher heart rate throughout your workout. A good way to do that is to start performing interval training. Intervals are great because they allow you to burn a high amount of overall calories in addition to the fat calories they will already be helping you burn.
If you are lifting weights, your heart rate will likely spike well above that during a given set. Your rest period should only be as long as it takes you to get back down to your resting heart rate. Once you hit that point, grab the weights and get moving.
Muscular Demand
A good rule of thumb to get your heart rate up during a workout is by thinking “more muscles.” The more muscles you have involved during the workout, the higher your heart rate will be. Bicep curls, triceps extensions and calf raises are not the type of exercises you should be doing if you really want to elevate your heart rate. Anything with the legs (squats or lunges) and big upper body movements are key here. Remember, higher heart rate equals more calories burned.
This is where I get frustrated with women who want to lose weight but refuse to lift more than 5 pounds on any given exercise. I’m not saying you need to lift the heaviest weights possible, but at least grab on to something that will give you a challenge. Keeping the reps around 8-12 will challenge your muscles enough to get your heart rate up without the threat of getting you “too bulky.” For guys who don’t mind putting on some muscle, don’t hesitate to get into some heavy weights. This will get your heart rate jumping during and after the set of an exercise. Super sets and circuits are a great idea because you can mix in multiple exercises that will get the heart rate going without making you focus on one exercise for too long.
EPOC
While getting your heart rate up and keeping it there is key for calories burned during a workout, it does wonders afterwards as well. EPOC is a term commonly refereed to as afterburner. This is the idea that even hours after your workout, you will still be burning more calories than you were before you started the workout. Exercise is a short-term stimulus to your metabolism that also helps keep your metabolism elevated after your workout. Just as your car stays hot for a while after you drive it, the same thing happens with your body. If you burn a high number of calories during a workout, your EPOC will result in a greater amount of calories burned than if you burned a limited number of calories during exercise.
Forget about this “fat-burning zone.” Regard it instead as your “resting zone.” Once you figure out where your resting zone is, you should never let it dip below that during any given workout. By doing so, you might realize that your workouts will be shorter in duration because you are running out of energy. This is fine — think quality over quantity. For some reason, a lot of numbers seem to be set in stone in the exercise world: 3 sets, 10 reps or a one-hour workout. Your workout does not necessarily need to be an hour long. The time on the clock is irrelevant to the success of your workout if it’s not “quality time.”
A good way to figure out where your resting zone should be is to take 200 minus your age and multiply that number by .65. Welcome to your new style workout, the death of the “fat-burning zone”. You are now in a world that will burn fat and a high amount of calories simultaneously. It’s nice isn’t it?
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