What Is Fat Burning Zone? How to Find It?
How to calculate fat burning zone? What’s my fat burning zone? Does fat burning zone really work?
Firstly, let’s find out, is there a fat burning zone? There is! Should I stick to it? If it is important for you here and now to realize that fat is burning, then stick to it, and if you need to reduce the percentage of fat in the body, then do not fool around.
Why at the level of 25% of the IPC (replace this IPC with the word intensity), i.e., with leisurely walking, about 90% of fat is used by muscles? At 65% (running at an average pace) – carbohydrates and fats are oxidized equally.
At 85%, i.e., with fast running, the proportion of fat decreases, and carbohydrates increase. By the way, you noticed that fatty acids of muscles and blood plasma are involved in energy supply, so you don’t need to feel yourself for a decrease in the percentage of belly fat during running.
From theory to practice
Imagine that in the body there are two containers with different fuels – with fat and carbohydrates, which we spend doing work of different powers and replenish while eating. So, today you performed low-intensity cardio, and there was less fuel in the tank with fat, but the tank with carbohydrates was almost full. And so you replenish the tanks, i.e., eat, and these calories can’t turn into muscle glycogen, but they can turn into fat.
If carbohydrates are predominantly burned during cardio, then post-workout calories will replenish the carbohydrate tank.
We foresee questions, such as – “It turns out that I can run at a speed of 20 km / h and will lose weight in the same way as at 8-9 km / h?” Of course not, this will happen two times faster if you can run an equal amount of time with both speeds, but we haven’t seen such Forrest Gumps.
By the way, the studies did not show a difference in energy consumption when passing the same distance at different speeds, i.e., running the same person, for example, for 3 km at different rates, spent approximately the same amount of energy, let it be slow, fast or interval runs.
Does fat burning zone really work?
You need to choose the intensity that you can maintain for as long as possible, creating a greater energy consumption, which in the end will lead to a greater fat-burning effect. And we recommend choosing cardio intensity depending on the level of preparedness and the time you have allocated for cardio.
Is it worth adding an empty stomach to the cardio described? Find the answer in the previous material.
