The fat-burning zone seems to be everywhere in the fitness and weight loss press, but what is it?
The "zone" is supposed to be an ideal exercise intensity at which you burn more fat than glucose (the other main fuel for exercise), and losing fat is presumably important for weight loss.
This zone is estimated at between 40 and 60 percent of your maximum heart rate. If your maximum heart rate while exercising intensely is 200, your estimated fat-burning zone will be between heart rates of 80 and 120 beats per minute. In this range you burn, more or less, an average of 60% fat and 40% glucose, allowing for differences in metabolism and other variables.
That's the theory at least, but it's not that simple if your goal is to lose weight. The thing is, even if you exercise at higher intensity and you burn less fat and more glucose in that exercise session, you can still burn more fat overall -- and lose weight.
See my article Burn More Fat - Secrets of Exercise Physiology for a detailed explanation of this and other fat burning secrets.
