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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Weight Loss and Fitness Myth #7: You Burn More Fat at a Lower Heart Rate than a Higher Heart Rate
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You may have been told that doing cardiovascular exercise at a lower heart rate is better in order to burn more fat. Though there is a degree of truth to this, it is really another myth that needs to be busted.
Somewhere, someone read an article or a journal stating that the ratio of fat that you burn while doing cardiovascular activity is higher at a lower heart rate. As you begin to increase the intensity by means of speed, resistance, or incline, your fat burning ratio will decline. While this is all true, this information can be severely misinterpreted. At all times of the day the energy of which your body using is primarily aerobic. All this means is that you will utilize more fat energy as compared to carbohydrate energy (aka- glycogen that is converted to glucose). When you increase your aerobic output, you will begin to change the ratio at which you utilize fat and carbohydrate energy. No matter what, when you increase aerobic activity, you will increase your carbohydrate (glucose) usage. This is done by what is known as aerobic glycolosis (you don’t have to remember that). There is a high correlation between your heart rate and increasing “carbohydrate burning.” So, when you read this you may think, “okay, if I want to burn more fat, I need to keep my heart rate down.” However, and this is a big however, notice that nothing is mentioned about the quantity of fat calories that is used at a lower intensity as compared to a higher intensity. All that is mentioned was the ratio. Ratios have nothing to do about the amount of calories used, it is just a comparison.
When you increase your heart rate while doing cardiovascular training, you will burn more fat than you would a lower intensity. Ratios don’t matter. It’s quantity of fat you’re after and it just so happens that your training will also be more qualitative. Even if you were to think, “well I don’t want to burn more carbs, I want to burn more fat.” Well, don’t worry; you’ll still be burning more fat than carbs at a higher heart rate, so long as you’re not breaking what is known as anaerobic threshold (which you can’t sustain for long periods of time anyway). Besides, when you burn more carbs, that is less carbohydrate energy that will be converted to fat.
So, when you go to do cardio, get a sweat going and do something more than a “mall paced walk.” Of course, this all depends on your current fitness level. At some time though, you’ve got to push it.
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