The Fat Burn Zone Does not Equate to Fat Loss

The burning question! If you look at cardio equipment and any other gimmicky device that monitors your heart rate, you'll be shouted at ''the fat burning zone''. It's a USP selling point and all that malarkey.

The advice for getting into this zone is 60% of your max heart rate or a level of exertion where most people can talk at still talk in full sentences.

They say working in this zone will burn more fat and lead to longer-term weight loss, however, this is very misleading. A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous if you don't have the full picture of what's going on.

Your body will always use a combination of fats and carbohydrates to fuel its daily activities. The ratio of which one you use more is linked to our activity intensity. At rest, we generally use 50% fat and 50% carbohydrates from breathing oxygen into our body - aerobic metabolism. If we are doing a high-intensity movement like a deadlift, the body needs energy straight away, which is carbohydrates ie ATP System.

A graph of different heart rate zones has been created for endurance athletes to roughly know what zone to train in for extended periods to build their aerobic base (shown below). However, people have taken it that zone 2 ''fat burning zone'' is needed to turn your body into a fat-burning machine for lean mass....

If you burn more fat and less carbs in the workout, it will mean you will burn more carbs and less fat outside of the workout. It all balances out.

So how do we burn fat ultimately? It boils down to the energy balance equation, be in a calorie deficit.

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