Heart rate and fat burning

andreasy

New member
My question is simple. If my focus is on fat burning, during cardio workout on equipment like treadmill, elliptical, etc, should I follow the recommended heart rate target zones for fat burning?

The reason I decided to ask is that regardless of how slow I run on treadmill or on elliptical, I find it impossible to stay in fat burning zone, unless I just walk.

If that's the case, should I just go that easy and just walk or not bother and try HIIT as I usually do and ignore my 155 bpm rare?
 
andreasy said:
My question is simple. If my focus is on fat burning, during cardio workout on equipment like treadmill, elliptical, etc, should I follow the recommended heart rate target zones for fat burning?

The reason I decided to ask is that regardless of how slow I run on treadmill or on elliptical, I find it impossible to stay in fat burning zone, unless I just walk.

If that's the case, should I just go that easy and just walk or not bother and try HIIT as I usually do and ignore my 155 bpm rare?
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Won't matter too much. Yes, the primary substrate burned will be fat at those intensities, but the same applies to walking as well.

Run at low intensities if your goal is to get better at running at those intensities, but otherwise a good interval workout is also good for fat loss.
 
The simplest answer is Yes.
 
I've often wondered about this myself, as there have been conflicting studies in medical journals over the last 15 years. The idea for low intensity / low heart rate for burning fat got popular about 15 years ago, then came high intensity interval training, then came all the debates.

Personally I found that a mix of low intensity and HIIT on alternating days to be the best choice. Imo if there's so many conflicting studies why not split the difference and do both?

I've been doing low intensity cardio i.e. walking on a treadmill or around my neighborhood first thing in the morning in a fasted state. I'll do my high intensity interval training on days when I'm fed but at least 2 hours after eating. HIIT is also my preferred post workout form of cardio because I can get done in 15 minutes but otherwise would take me an hour
 
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