Obesity Panacea: Myth of the Fat Burning Zone
This is something I’ve written about myself, elsewhere, but researcher/blogger Travis Saunders sums it up pretty well – with a graph from a recent lecture, no less, which helps drives the point home.
It is absolutely true that in a relative sense, the lower the exercise intensity the greater the reliance on fat as a substrate for energy. As the exercise intensity increases, the relative proportion of fat oxidation decreases while that of carbohydrate increases. However, the value of interest to anyone attempting to maximize fat loss is not what percentage of energy comes from fat during the exercise (relative), but how much fat is oxidized (absolute). This is where the fat burning zone breaks down.
The explanation is pretty simple: at higher intensities (70%-80% maximum heart rate), a lower percentage of your total cals may come from fat, but you’re burning more cals overall, so the total amount of fat burned during cardio can be just as great – if not greater. So if you’ve been holding yourself back to a snail’s pace at the gym, in order to optimize fat burning, feel free to pick up the pace.
July 5, 2010
Obesity Panacea: Myth of the Fat Burning Zone – http://blog.ultimatefatburner.com/2010/0…
July 9, 2010
The explanation is pretty simple: at higher intensities (70%-80% maximum heart rate), a lower percentage of your total cals may come from fat, but you’re burning more cals overall, so the total amount of fat burned during cardio can be just as great – if not greater. –I agree! Great post, thanks a lot for sharing 🙂
July 9, 2010
Not to forget the calories burned post exercise! It´s another 50% of the calories burned through activity, that are burned post exercise!