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Originally Posted by abaya
Right... but what is "safe?" Is 90% not safe? I always thought that 162 beats per minute was fine, but when I look at that chart (and now that I'm 29)... it appears that I am working too hard. But it feels good/natural for me... not sure what to do.
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Willravel answered this well.
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I get the fat-burning part... but if I am working above 60% ("fat burning" range), does that mean that I'm no longer burning fat during the workout, because I'm working too hard (anaerobic zone)? Or does it just mean that I am still burning plenty of fat during the workout, and will just continue burning more during recovery, too?
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It varies person to person, but for the sake of argument let's say above 60% is what you experience. If you go above the "fat burning" range, your body doesn't have enough time to break down fat to glucose for energy use, so gets it from other energy stores, typically found in your skeletal muscles. (A high level of energy expenditure such as this isn't nearly as sustainable as long-term lower-intensity exercise.)
Basically, this means your recovery requires far more calories to replace the expended energy from your body. If you eat right, this means your body will turn partially to your fat stores to do this.