Understanding the Fat Burn Zone

The fat burn zone is a level where your heart rate is operating between 55% of its maximum and for the aerobic zone it's between 75% and 85%. A heart rate below 55% is considered to be an optimum heart zone which improves overall cardiovascular fitness. To get into this zone, you need to know what you're trying to do. You have to make a commitment to exercise and diet. If you do these things, then you will begin to experience the fat burning benefits.

Cardiovascular fitness exercises are designed to increase your heart rate and that in turn helps you lose fat. There are two main areas of cardiovascular exercise. You can train on your treadmill or by using an electronic cardio machine. Both work well but you can get much better results by doing one or the other.

For those just getting started, the best way to go is to start out with the fat burn zone. By keeping things simple, you are less likely to get overwhelmed and quit halfway. It is important to know that you have two zones, your cardio zone and your anaerobic zone. These zones are based on your heart beats, which are measured in beats per minute.

Your cardio zone is going to be the majority of your workout so you want to find a program or routine that you can do it most of the time. This means that the intensity should be high, the length should be long, and you should be doing the workouts at a high intensity. Your fat burning zone should be a little more difficult. Many people are confused when they try to mix the intensity of their cardio training with fat burning. To help clarify things, the fat burning zone describes your resting heart rate, and the cardio zone is the maximum amount of exercise you will do for a set amount of time.

So, when you are working in your fat burn zone, your heart rate should be around sixty percent of your maximum heart rate. Your workout intensity should also be about sixty percent of your maximum heart rate. Your anaerobic zone, on the other hand, is what you will use when your workout gets really intense. The intensity of this zone should be low.

This brings us to our next consideration, your rest period between exercises. You want to be able to spend a minimum of an hour (forty-five minutes) in the exercise zone using your heart rate to your advantage. However, you should spend at least fifteen minutes in the anaerobic zone using your maximum heart rate. If you are a beginner, you should start out with a session of just fifteen minutes in the zone using your maximum heart rate. Once you have become accustomed to the session, you can increase your time in the zone. Your body will adjust to the new intensity of your exercise and you will not need to increase your rest time.

You do not want to completely quit in the fat burning zone. The reason for this is that you will burn more calories in this region because you are using less energy than you used in the previous zone. If you go too long in the anaerobic zone, you will burn too many calories. You do not want to become efficient in this area as well. You want to take your calories and turn them into fat, so if you can keep your intensity the same, you will burn more fat calories.

You can of course vary these zones, but this gives you a good foundation for your workouts. In addition, you may want to move your workouts around from one zone to another. For example, if you need to work your upper body, you could start in the zone where you are working your upper body but move to the cardio exercise when you reach your goals for that zone. Of course, if you do not get to your goals, you should go back to your weight loss zone or resting zones.