Fat-burning myth

Here's an interesting article on working out in your "fat burning zone."  The author makes some interesting points and concludes by saying that you don't actually need to work out in this zone to burn fat, and in fact you might do better to work at a higher intensity.

great article tiamat.  Lots of people don't get that concept. 

Personally I try to do a mix of different kinds of cardio to keep my body guessing, fight boredom, and well, sometimes I just don't feel like killin' myself.  I usually get in one low-level "fat burning" session a week, but I do go an extra 10 minutes or so to burn a few extra calories.

Interesting read...but I wish there were a few actual percentages.  I always kinda worked out at slower pace, but not too slow.  IN a half an hour, I'll burn around 360 cals on the ellip, so I work out at an a good rate but not a blistering rate.  So it's good to see I'm doing something good for myself :)

Thank you thank you thank you for posting the link to that article. I was trying to formulate a response to someone last week who had posted something about the "fat burning zone", but couldn't find the right terminology.

They de-bunked the fat-burning zone myth in my personal training course, and explained the difference in low-intensity and high-intensity cardio training.

Low-intensity cardio training, for example, running at a steady pace for 30min is great for burning visceral fat (the fat that surrounds your organs).

High-intensity cardio training (for example - running intervals) is great for burning subcutaneous fat (the fat right underneath your skin).

Both low and high intensity cardio training are important, and like tracyvision said, it's good to mix it up and keep your body guessing and fight boredom.

great article! i love it when common sense prevails!

I agree!  its like you read my mind today!  I just wrote in Tracyvisions journal- I need to get this layer of fat off of my waist!  I know my abs are there but this layer of fat is covering them!

I do the Jillian Michaels Dvds a couple times aweek and its high intensity.  Once you get your heart rate up she brings it back down some and back up again!  Its a 30 min workout but when Im done it feels like its been an hour! Very intense.  She says that interval cardio helps with fat burning zones.

Babyd, what you said about high intensity and low intensity fat burning.  Low intensity still burns some of the "subcutaneous" fat, right?  Cause I'm starting to enjoy my long slow runs and don't wanna cut them short cause I'm going at it too hard.  Granted, I'd rather my heart and other organs be clean and beautiful, but I want the outside to be nice too, haha.

Yes definately. Low-intensity cardio won't burn away all the fat around your organs, you need to have SOME fat around your organs to protect them (kinda like shock absorbers), it will burn some subcutaneous fat too.

Do keep up your runs! You don't have to give them up! But try this... at the end of your run, try sprinting back to your house for the last couple blocks.

I don't do intervals either when I'm running outside because I like to go for as long as I can, I do the whole 'sprint home' thing, and I save the intervals for when I'm stuck inside the gym on the treadmill. It helps because I get REALLY bored on the treadmill and would rather cut my time on it down to 20-25 minutes instead of 45-60min. If I do intervals, I can burn the same amount of calories in that short period of time as I would have burned in 45-60min.

this is a little off topic, but when I was injured and thought I'd never be able to work out regularly, I looked into liposuction.  The doctor couldn't give me a sensible answer to "if my eating and workout routine results in the % of body fat I have now, won't it just go somewhere else if you suck it out of my hips and thighs?" so I never did it. better the devil you know and all that. 

Turns out there's research that people who have lots of lipo end up accumulating fat around their organs, and they think that may lead to increases in health problems like heart disease.