Training Myth part 8 The fat burning zone.

Training myth 8 - The fat burning zone - Low intensity training burns the most fat.

This old chestnut i hear you say. We have all heard this one before - slow steady rate exercise burns more fat than high intensity training. The fat burning zone. OK the confusion lies in that you do burn more percentage of fat in the low intensity (LI) zone actually 50% compared to 35% at high intensity (HI). So people got on to this fact and told the world to burn fat LI is the way to go. Everybody was very accepting and glad to hear it because its easier than HI training so it pleases lazy people who like to chat to there friend whilst on the treadmill.  Never raising a sweat never raising their heart rate above 120 beats per minute. Then these same people wonder why even after going to the gym every day they still never lose weight. We have all seen that before or maybe even done it ourselves. 

Why they don't lose weight is because there body gets very used to this exercise and because our bodies are so clever it finds the most efficient way of carry out this exercise with the least effort or calorie burn. So while  50% of the calories burnt are fat if you only burn 200 in a session then that's only 100 calories of fat.  Which wont even get your through a entrée let alone dinner. But HI training might burn anywhere from 500 to 1000 calories even though only 35% are fat that's still between 175 to 350 calories of fat burned in a session. So not only have you burned more fat you have also burned more calories altogether. Also with the high impact nature you will build more muscle which then becomes and fat burning machine for you all day long not just after and before workouts. Speaking of after burn and the amount of calories it will take your body back to normal after an intense workout compared to a to a stroll on the treadmill would be significant so there is another reason to train high intensity instead of low intensity. So low intensity equals low results. Sorry guys there is no short cuts hard work means a hard body train hard and eat well is the only way to do it.  See you next week.