Fat Burning Heart Rate

To lose weight you need to burn up 3500 more calories than you eat in a week.  It’s that simple. A heart rate watch will help you keep track or your calories burned and will help keep you in your target heart rate zone.  

The intensity of your exercise will determine whether you're burning fat as a fuel or carbohydrates as a fuel. Training at medium intensity within your heart rate target zone your energy production is about 50% from fat and 50% from carbohydrate.  As your exercise intensifies your body will rely on carbohydrates as a fuel rather than fat. 

Your body doesn't store as much carbohydrate as it does fat. The un-trained person will quickly elevate their heart rate and approach his or her maximum tolerance for work, relying on limited stores of carbohydrate, while the well-trained person does the same amount of work with a lower heart rate and at less than maximum tolerance. 

To make real progress in a weight-loss program it is suggested you work out in your heart rate target zone most of the time. If your goal is to burn fat, then you might be inclined to workout in the fat burning heart rate zone. This is a mistake.

To calculate your heart rate target zone men subtract their age from 220 and women subtract their age from 226.

The number you get from subtracting your age is your maximum heart rate.  Now take your maximum heart rate and multiply it by 50% and 85%.

The result of your calculations is your heart rate training zone.

For example – 20 year old female

226 – 20 = 206 is Maximum Heart Rate

206 x 50% = 103 is Low End Of Zone (More Fat Burning At Low End)

206 x 85% = 175 is Upper End Of Zone (More Carbohydrate Burning At Upper End) 

Working out at the low end of your zone your body uses fat as its primary fuel source.  As you get closer to the upper end of your zone you will burn less fat and a larger percentage of carbohydrates.

However, as you pick up the pace you will burn more total calories which includes more fat calories.  For example if you go for a fast 30 minute walk you might burn about 100 calories-approximately 80% of them from fat, so that's 80 fat calories.  However if you spend 30 minutes of running up and down hills you might burn 350 calories and approximately 35% or 105 calories will be from fat burning. So the faster you go the more calories you burn including more fat calories.

So, for the most fat loss, keep your heart rate higher than the fat burning heart rate that you calculate. 

If you're a beginner and not up to running you will just need to increase the amount of time you work out.  The slower you go you may be able to exercise a lot longer so you'll end up burning more calories and fat that way. 

You can check your heart rate in one of two ways.  You can take your pulse manually or with a heart rate watch.  To get your heart rate manually place your index and middle finger tips lightly on your wrist directly below the base of your thumb.  Count the beats for one minute.  Or count the beats for six seconds and multiply by 10.  The easiest way to monitor your fat burning heart rate and calories burned is with a heart rate monitor watch.