When it comes to weight loss the first thing many people
think about is that they have to do tons of cardio. Many
people spend hour after hours counting the calories burned
on their treadmill. Others are using a heart rate monitor
to stay in their fat burning zone for hours hoping the fat
will burn away. One of the number one questions I get is
"I do 6 hours of cardio a week and can't lose a pound."
With proper hear rate monitor training, a person can
optimize their workout to raise their metabolism and burn
more fat not just during your workout, but all day long.
To understand heart rate training, we first have to
understand how our bodies produce energy. We have two
major processes that produce energy within our bodies.
First, our aerobic metabolism utilizes oxygen combined with
carbs and fat to produce our long lasting energy and the
energy you are using to read this article. Your second way
you produce energy is anaerobically. Your anaerobic
metabolism creates energy for short durations of intense
activity. Your only source of energy for your anaerobic
metabolism is carbohydrates in your blood stream or carbs
stored in your muscle cells. So aerobic burns fat and
carbs, and anaerobic burns carbs only.
Proper heart rate training has three distinct training
zones each designed to challenge your metabolism to become
faster and more efficient which leads to burning more fat.
Most people only exercise in one of them. When we train in
the same zone everyday our body adapts to that workout and
we stop getting the weight loss and fat loss we are after.
To optimize your fat burning results we want to do each
zone's workout once a week.
To create your optimal fat burning heart rate zones we have
to find your anaerobic threshold. Your anaerobic threshold
is the point at which your physical activity becomes so
intense that your body is unable to produce enough energy
aerobically. Your anaerobic metabolism kicks in to produce
more energy to continue the activity. During intense
cardio workouts both your aerobic and anaerobic metabolisms
are producing energy to keep you moving. Online personal
training website Liveleantoday.com utilizes a customized
online profile to find your anaerobic threshold and create
your fat burning heart rate zones. If you have the
ability, the best test for your anaerobic threshold is a
treadmill test where you are hooked up to an oxygen mask
connected to a metabolic cart. The most common place to
get this test done is at certain universities around the
country.
Fat Burning Zone
The first zone (zone 1) for optimal fat burning cardio
consists of working out at a moderate intensity level. You
want to workout at an intensity that you can sustain for
long periods of time, greater than 30 min. consistently.
With training, it is good to work up to consistent
cardiovascular exercise for 60 min. The goal in zone 1 is
to train your body to burn fat efficiently. Don't be so
concerned about how many calories you burn during the
workout. A proper fat burning zone workout trains your
metabolism to burn more fat by efficiently training your
body to release more fat out of your fat cells all day long
while you are not exercising.
Anaerobic Threshold Zone
For the second zone (zone 2), we want to train as close as
we can to our anaerobic threshold. A measure to find this
point is the highest constant heart rate you can sustain
for 15-20 min. The goal of zone 2 is to train your aerobic
metabolism to burn energy as fast as it can. Your
metabolism then adapts and you burn more energy 24 hours a
day. Zone two is the workout that I see that every
exerciser skips. Most people either spend all their time
in the easy zone 1 or do high intensity training all the
time which we are going to talk about next. Working out at
the moderately high intensity in zone 2 is essential to
training our aerobic metabolism which is our major source
of energy all day.
High Intensity Zone
The third zone for optimal fat burning cardio is training
at high intensities (zone 3). Another name for this zone
is interval training. Interval training is where we
workout for short burst of time, 1-3 min., and then walk or
rest for short bursts of time, and then repeat the high to
low sequence again. Zone 3 workouts train your body to
produce energy greater than it has ever done before for
short durations of time. It is more important about the
rate of burning energy than total calories. Which means
the faster you go the more calories you burn in a short
period of time the better. One key to interval training is
you have to be able to repeat the same speed and heart rate
for each interval. Often people train to hard for the
first interval and though their heart rate goes up they
slow their speed down with each interval. Zone 3 workouts
are considered the most efficient way to raise your
metabolism and burn more fat. You actually burn 100% carbs
during the workout as a source of energy. People that do
consistent interval training on a weekly basis burn more
fat 24 hours a day, even on days they don't exercise.
Each zone has key aspects to your total fat burning
program. An optimal program consists of workouts in all
three zones each week. Every person's heart rate is going
to be different for each zone. Liveleantoday.com uses it
customized profile to create the individualized heart rate
zones to optimize your fat burning workouts. Heart rate
zones between people can vary by over 20 beats, so training
at your friend's zone doesn't work. Start training at all
three zones each week and start burning more fat 24 hours a
day.
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About The Author: Charles Carter, BS in Exercise Science is
President of LIVE, llc of http://www.liveleantoday.com -
visit the website for more information on weight loss, core
fitness programs, optimal diets, and online personal
trainer and dietician services. For more information go to
http://know-instantly.blogspot.com/ .
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