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Originally Posted by apeman
i'd understood that 220 bpm and take away your current age was about what you want to hit .
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I've seen that quoted as your maximium heart rate, not a target heart rate.
I haven't heard anyone claiming you should regularly hit your maximium heart rate as a matter of course.
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Originally Posted by Qazwxedc
I thought the more calories you burn using a high level of cardio intensity will result in more fat being burned. but from what i'm reading, this relationship only holds true for longer cardio workouts at a high intensity. (correct me if i'm wrong)
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The portion of energy from fat changes with intensity -- the higher the intensity, the lower the portion of fat being burned, and the larger the portion of carbs (glycogen mainly, IIRC).
Your body only has so much carb researves availiable at one time.
If you work harder you burn more fat per unit time.
But, you burn less fat per unit of carbs.
At a low intensity, you can work out for longer, and burn more fat, before you run out of carbs. This is important if you get exausted after 15 minutes on the bike -- had you worked out easier, you might have lasted 45 minutes, and burned more fat.
If you aren't working out to anywhere near exastion, working out harder should burn more fat. So, if your limit is time rather than carb reserves, I think a harder workout makes sense.
If you are working out to exastion, working out easier will burn more fat, at least in the short term.
If you are working out for a fixed period of time infrequently (so you recover completely between sessions), barring injuring yourself, the best way to burn fat is to work out as hard as you can for that session.
Anyone disagree with the above? It is just how I understand how it works. =)
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Originally Posted by Jim Kata
I get on the elliptical machine for a good 30 to 40 minutes....daily (and watch what I eat). My heart rate ranges from 170-185 when I'm on the elliptical machine. Now am I going about this wrong? Am I doing something unhealthy? I'm starting to think I need to slow down to burn the calories and fat (see..I told you I was confused).
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As far as I know, so long as you aren't injuring yourself (and a few other provisos*), I don't think you are doing anything horrible.
I was under the impression that one of the benefits of pushing into the higher end of your cardio zone was the training -- your cardio capabilities (max VO2) will go up, which allows you to work out harder in the future, and hence can burn more calories in the long term.
* I could see working out harder resulting in you eating more. Harder work = less carbs in blood = more hunger = eat more, with the possibility that the appitite increase outpaces the better fat burning. But what do I know? =)