Fat Burning Zone Learn How To Burn More Fat
I want to help women achieve bodies that are healthy and that they are comfortable in. One of the ways I do this is by teaching women how to lose extra body fat and weight in the most efficient way.
I believe that getting your body in the fat burning zone is a great way to burn more fat.
In this blog post, Ill explain what the fat burning zone is, how it works and the best way to exercise to lose fat fast.
How To Find Your Fat
There is a perfect heart rate zone tailored to each individual, which burns the most fat.
Stay below this zone and you arent maximizing fat burn. Go above this zone and youre only burning the food in your stomach, not getting rid of your body fat. And you might be surprised to learn the intensity level is fairly low, and you should aim to workout slightly longer at that lower intensity.
Max Heart Rate = 220 your age x .66
To use heart rate in your own training, start by calculating your maximum heart rate. Multiply your age by .66. Then, subtract that number from 220 and you have your estimated max heart rate. For example, if youre 30, your maximum heart rate is roughly 200. This is the most accurate way to calculate max heart rate without using technology, according to a 2017 study published in the Chinese Journal of Sports Medicine.
Once you know your max heart rate, you can calculate heart rate zones. These zones are designed to give you an idea of how hard to work during your training session. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends sticking to 6476% of your max heart rate for moderate-intensity activity in your fat-burning zone.
Endurance athletes who dont want to push themselves should stay in this range. Most weightlifting workouts stay in this range as well. For a 30 year-old with a max heart rate of 200, the range extends from 128152 beats per minute.
Intense Heart Rate Zone
This zone feels like when your PT tells you to push through the last 30 seconds of your 3 rounds of HIIT!
In this zone, youre working out at about 90 to 100 percent of your maximum heart rate.
Youll probably only be able to stand this zone for a few minutes. Your bodys respiratory and blood system will be working as hard as possible, and youll be panting and unable to talk.
Doing interval training in this zone will make it easier for your body to burn both carbs and fat. Youll also continue to burn calories after the workout is over, and your metabolism will temporarily increase.
If youre new to exercising or havent done much high-intensity workouts, you might find that you cant handle this intensity at all. So its important to listen to your body and take it easy.
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How To Calculate Heart Rate For Fat Burn
Exercising at different intensities will produce different results. Depending on your goal, exercising at one intensity may help you reach your objective better than exercising at other intensities. And the best way to know if you’re exercising at the appropriate intensity is to pay attention to your heart rate and understand your heart rate zones.
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For example, if you want to encourage your body to use more stored fat as fuel during exercise, you’ll want to exercise at a low-to-moderate intensity. To ensure you’re exercising at the right intensity, you first need to know how to calculate your target heart rate zone for fat burn.
Finding Your Resting Heart Rate
Your resting heart rate can help you to determine how fit you already are or aren’t! The lower your heart rate is when you are doing nothing, the more physically fit you are. A high heart rate can put you at risk of various types of heart disease.
To find your resting heart rate, find a watch or clock that has a second hand. Before you get out of bed in the morning, find your pulse either on your wrist or on the side of your neck using your index and middle finger. Dont use your thumb. Count how many beats you feel in 10 seconds, then multiply this by 6. For example, if you count10 beats in 10 seconds, 10X6 = 48 beats per minute . This is your resting heart rate.
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How To Calculate Your Ideal Fat
Figuring out your target heart rate is easy and takes just a few steps. Grab a calculator and lets get started.
To see if youre within your target heart rate range when youre working out, take a quick break to check your pulse for 15 seconds and multiply that number by 4.
How Do You Calculate Your Maximum Heart Rate
In order to figure out which heart rate training zone youâre working in, you first need to know your maximum heart rate. This is the most output your heart can handle during exercise.
The easiest way to calculate your maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age. While this is a very general tool, it is not the most specific and exact. Itâs difficult to get someoneâs actual maximum heart rate, because that would require field testing someoneâs heart at their actual maximum exercise output, which is cumbersome. For these purposes, 220 minus age is a good starting point, knowing that not everyone of the same age has the same maximum heart rate .
< p class=”pro-tip”> 220 – = Maximum heart rate < /p>
As an example, someone who is 25 would find their maximum heart rate like this:
< p class=”pro-tip”> 220 – 25 = 195 bpm< br/> < strong> 195 bpm< /strong> is the maximum heart rate.< /p>
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How Do Heart Rates Affect Workouts
Heart rate zones let you know how hard your heart is working and what energy source youre using carbohydrates or fat. The higher your heart rate gets, the more youre relying on glycogen from carbohydrates for fuel.
For endurance athletes, its best to exercise in the zones that mostly rely on fat for fuel, says Travers. Fat is a longer-lasting energy source and better for longer, intense workouts.
Best heart rate zone for fat loss
Youll burn fat at every exercise heart rate zone. If youre just starting to exercise, aim for the lower-intensity heart rate zone. As you build stamina, push yourself into the next zone until youre comfortably at the aerobic level. Thats your heart getting stronger.
Cardio exercise is designed primarily to improve heart and metabolic health, says Travers. It helps lower your:
- Blood pressure.
- Cholesterol.
- Blood sugar.
For fat loss, he recommends strength training to build muscle. Having more muscle mass boosts your metabolic rate , helping you burn more calories throughout the day.
If you havent been active before, then cardiovascular exercise will help with weight loss in the beginning. But at some point, youll become aerobically fit, Travers notes. Then you wont use as much energy to complete the same amount of exercise, so youll stop seeing significant weight loss.
So What Is The Fat Burning Zone
The fat burning zone that most people talk about is the heart rate range in which your body is burning the most body fat to fuel your workouts and the least carbohydrates from your muscles and liver. On first glance that sounds great, right? Your goal is to burn body fat, after all! Well, theres a little bit more to the equation than just that.
While more of your calories burned in this low-intensity zone come from fat, the overall number of calories you burn is much lower when youre working much less hard. Imagine going for a 30-minute leisurely walk vs. a 30-minute run. During your 30-minute walk you might burn 100 calories, and 70 of those will be from fat. During your run you may be burning only 50% fat and 50% glycogen , but if you burn 300 calories total you will still burn 150 fat calories.
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What Are The Types Of Heart Rates
Heart rates vary depending on several factors, including:
- Weather
Different types of heart rates include:
- Resting heart rate: Measured when you are at rest and should be between 60-100 bpm.
- Target heart rate: Measured during exercise and is calculated as 50%-85% of your maximum heart rate. Different types of target heart rate zones include:
- Lower-intensity zone: Working out at 50%-60% of your maximum heart rate.
- Temperate zone: Working out at 60%-70% of your maximum heart rate.
- Aerobic zone: Working out at 70%-80% of maximum heart rate.
Exercise Heart Rate Zones
Of course, we arent always training at a very light effort. If youre trying to increase your working on your endurance, odds are youre exercising at a light effort. If youre an athlete working on explosiveness, hard or maximum effort is where you focus.
Here are the different ranges:
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Very light Improves overall health and helps recovery very easy on breathing and muscles
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Light Improves basic endurance and burns fat characterized by comfortable, easy breathing and light sweating
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Moderate Improves aerobic fitness light muscle fatigue, easy breathing, and moderate sweating
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Hard Increases maximum performance capacity muscle fatigue and heavy breathing
-
Maximum Develops maximum performance and speed should be very exhausting for both breathing and muscle fatigue alike
Like the chart above illustrates, exercising at 60-70% of your total effort is one of the most effective ways to burn fat. To reap the most physical benefits its best to exercise within this heart rate range for 40-80 minutes.
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Here is a fat-burning zone calculator, or use the equation below: 220 =
-
* 0.6 =
-
* 0.7 =
Lets use the same example we used above. For someone who is 35, the fat-burning zone is
-
220 age 35 = 185
-
185 * 0.6 = 111
-
185 * 0.7 = 129.5
This person should do light exercise for 40 or more minutes, keeping their heart rate between 111 and 129.5 beats per minute.
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A Final Word On Exercise Intensity And Weight Loss
But while low-to-moderate intensity exercise can be a great way to burn fat, you should make sure you’re incorporating other types of exercise into your routine as well â especially if weight loss is the goal.
Minute-per-minute, higher intensity exercise burns more calories than lower intensity exercise. For example, a 155-pound adult can expect to burn roughly 260 calories in 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cycling, and 391 calories in 30 minutes of vigorous-intensity cycling, according to Harvard Medical School.
The advantage of exercising at a lower intensity is that it’s typically easier to sustain this type of exercise. So, aim to exercise at different intensities throughout the week, and prioritize the activities you enjoy most.
How To Calculate Your Maximum Heart Rate
As soon as you wake up, find your resting heart rate : Feel your pulse by pressing into your left wrist with your right index and middle fingers. Time yourself for 15 seconds, counting the beats of your pulse multiply that number by four. This is your resting heart rate. Write it down.
Using your RHR, follow this simple formula to find your MHR and fat burning zone: 220 age = MHR RHR x .65 + RHR = 65 percent of MHR.
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How Do You Calculate Your Heart Rate
You can calculate your heart rate manually or with a heart rate monitor, like the fitness tracker you may be wearing on your wrist right now.
To calculate your heart rate manually, place your index and middle fingers on your wrist, close to your palm, just down from your thumb. Move your fingers until theyâre just over your artery and you can feel a pulse. This pulse is created by blood moving through the arteries each time the heart contracts, so it is a direct reflection of your heart rate.
Once youâve found the pulse, apply very gentle pressure on that area. Then, count how many pulses you feel during the course of 10 seconds, with the first pulse starting at the count of zero. Multiply that number by six to get the amount of times your heart is beating in a one-minute period. This is your current heart rate. In order to get your resting heart rate, you would complete this heart rate check shortly after waking.
There are a number of things that can affect your heart rate, including exercise, dehydration, temperature of your environment, and, of course, your cardiorespiratory fitness.
How To Calculate Your Fat Burning Zone
First, youll need to know your maximum heart rate. Your maximum heart rate = 220 minus your age. So for example, if you are 25 years old, your maximum heart rate is 220 25 = 195 beats per minute .
To calculate your fat burning zone of 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate, follow these equations:
- Maximum heart rate x 0.6
- Maximum heart rate x 0.7
AN EXAMPLE
Heres what this would be for a 25-year-old.
- Maximum heart rate = 220 25 = 195 beats per minute
- 60% of your maximum heart rate is 195 x 0.6 = 117 bpm
- 70% of your maximum heart rate is 195 x 0.7 = 136.5 pm
So for a 25 year old person, the fat burning zone is when your heart rate is between 117 137 bpm.
If this is too technical for you, I recommend you try to just notice your bodys signs. In the fat burning zone, you should be able to talk and continue at the pace youre going for at least an hour.
When I go for walks, I try to be in the fat burning zone as Ive found this really helps to keep my legs slim.
I aim to walk at a medium-fast pace, and my heart rate is in the right zone. I dont need to go full speed and feel really puffed out.
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Chart And How To Calculate
There is an equation for figuring out a persons maximum heart rate and fat burning heart rate. The fat burning heart rate is based on the maximum heart rate.
It is important to note that these equations are not suitable for determining safe heart rates for children.
To calculate the maximum heart rate, a person should subtract their current age from 220 . For example, a 40-year-olds maximum heart rate would be 180 beats per minute.
To calculate the fat burning heart rate zone, a person should determine the upper and lower limits. The upper limit is 70% of the maximum heart rate. The lower limit is about 50% of the maximum heart rate.
Using the same example, a 40-year-olds fat burning heart rate is between 90 and 126 beats per minute.
People interested in increasing their endurance and cardiovascular strength often train at higher levels. Sometimes called the cardio zone, people training for performance increases often train at 7085% of their maximum heart rate.
The following chart shows the breakdown of heart rates based on a persons age.
How The Fat Burning Zone Works
Your body gets most of its fuel by burning a combination of fat and carbohydrates. The more active you are, the greater percentage of carbs it burns as opposed to fat. Why is this the case?
Carbohydrates are a less dense form of energy than fats, which makes them easier to break down. When the intensity level of your exercise increases, your heart rate rises and your body needs energy more quickly, so it turns to the source that can be accessed faster.
For this reason, lower intensity workouts burn a higher percentage of fat compared to carbs than higher intensity efforts do. That is why the heart rate zone for burning fat is also categorized in the chart above as light exertion level. The 70% of max HR number comes from it being strenuous enough exercise to burn fuel, but not too strenuous to burn carbs instead of fat.
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