I want to start by stating that exercise in all forms will be beneficial to your over all health whether you walk or cycle or lift weights.
Are you trying to lose body fat? If you’ve ever been to the gym, or mid session you looked at your fitness tracker and see your heart rate and notice “Fat Burn” or “Fat Burning Zone” then this is for you. Have you ever wondered what that means and if you are actually just burning fat?
Consider the following when designing your training:
The heart rate/effort that the fat burning zone needs is around 60% of your max (walking/jogging) which is low intensity.
This means that the primary fuel source that your body will use to maintain this level of effort is fat.
However, don’t let that fool you into thinking that working at this intensity will shred you of fat; You will be working at a lower intensity therefore burning fewer cals per hour than something more intense like HIIT or weight lifting so you would need to workout for a lot longer for it to be effective.
When it comes to true fat loss or fat burning, the key is being in a consistent calorie deficit, which means you consume fewer calories than you burn. That is it, in cold hard facts.
Workouts/exercise that burn the most calories per hour are going to be more effective for fat loss in general, because they are more likely to put you in a calorie deficit. A 30 minute intense weight session will burn more calories than a 30 minute walk or jog. If you’re unsure then try one of our sessions.
Low intensity activities like walking and jogging do have a place in your exercise routine so don’t stop because they contribute to your calorie output throughout the day and they should be included.
If fat loss is your goal, you need to maintain a constant calorie deficit over time. This is more easily achieved if you exercise with higher intensity such as HIIT, weight training but add some low intensity exercise to supplement it.
The Fat Burning Zone is misleading- don’t rule out exercising at higher intensity in the quest for fat loss. It is more likely to accelerate it!
Roughly 1lb of fat is worth 3500 calories, so being in a 500 calorie deficit every day for a week will mean you lose 1lb of fat. This is approximate, but a good guideline. It doesn’t matter what type of workouts you did to get you to that deficit, The point is that you are in that deficit.
Finally, I haven’t touched on nutrition here and that is going to be so important over all, because you can’t, and should never try to out-train a bad diet! None of the training, fat burning zone minutes or weights lifted will be as effective, if the fuel that you provide your body is no good!