The Myth of the “Fat Burning Zone” for Fat Loss
November 26th, 2008 by Egan C. | Filed under Body Composition, Fat Loss Exercises, Weight Loss Exercises.If you’ve been around the fat loss block for some time, then I’m sure you’ve heard of the all important “fat burning zone.” In case you’re not familiar with this term, it is the heart rate you’re supposed to achieve while performing cardio if you want to stand any chance of losing body fat with your workouts. What I’m going to reveal to you is going to blow this myth right of the water. I’ll be showing you that by targeting your heart rate to be in this so-called fat burning zone is actually the opposite of what you should be focusing on in your workouts if you truly want to lose ugly belly fat.
The majority of people who have attempted a weight loss workout have used a treadmill, exercise bike, or stair stepper. This isn’t necessarily bad–it’s simply a matter of choice as to what method of exercise you want to use. Most exercise machines give you the option to choose between manual and pre-set modes to achieve specific goals. The problem you’ll run into comes when you choose the so called fat burning mode. When you choose this option, you will be taken through a workout that is supposed to target fat loss.
The resultant workout ends up being sub-par by real fat loss standards. This has conditioned many to believe that in order to achieve fat loss, they must perform one of these low intensity steady state cardio routines that are ineffective and causes most people a major lack of results from their workouts.
You’re going to have to get into a new mindset if you really want to lose fat. You have to get out of the old mentality of “fat burning zone = maximum fat loss.” The more quickly you realize this, the faster you will actually start to get real results and begin changing the shape of your body once and for all.
Enter the Turbulence Training workouts. What is Turbulence Training you ask? Briefly speaking, it is a method of working out that actually burns more fat and more total calories than traditional workouts performed in the “fat burning zone.” The big difference is that Turbulence Training actually targets fat loss when you are away from the gym due to the high-intensity and variable intensity nature of the training methods in these programs.
This phenomenon is not due to the elevated heart rate you experience during the workout (even though your heart rate will be increased from the supersets and intervals), but rather from the metabolic and hormonal response you achieve from the more effective workout compared to your typical “fat burning zone” workout.
The science of fat loss has come a long way in the past 10 years. For example, we now know that lifting heavier weights while exercising leads to a higher caloric consumption by the body in the period for about 1-2 days following the workout when compared to lifting light weights with higher repetitions. In case you’re wondering, that means that performing 6-8 repetitions per set is better than 12-15 reps per set when it comes to stimulating the metabolism for permanent fat loss.
I realize that this goes against conventional thinking, but I’m about dispelling myths, not perpetuating them. Performing real fat loss workouts in the scientifically proven (and real) “fat burning zone” is what Turbulence training is all about.
Something else science has taught us in recent years is that highly variable interval-type training is far superior to slow, steady-state cardio exercise for fat loss and post-exercise induced calorie burning. In the long run, if you focus on the internal metabolic response your body is getting from your workout routines, instead of how many calories you burn during some sort of magical “target fat burning heart rate zone”, you will achieve superior results. Thus, not only is it more result-producing, but it is also more time-efficient to use short high-intensity interval training workouts instead of slow, long, steady-state cardio sessions.
There will be a time when knowing your heart rate is important. This is during the recovery period of the interval training. It is important to take enough time during your recovery intervals in order for your heart rate to drop back down significantly, ensuring it drops to approximately less than 60% of your max heart rate.
This will allow you to achieve a higher quality of work when it counts. That’s because you don’t want to start your next high-intensity interval too soon, nor do you want to exercise too hard during your recovery intervals.
All of these details (and more) are outlined within the Turbulence Training program. It’ll show you how to properly structure your intervals so that you allow enough recovery time in between each.
With the guidelines set forth in the Turbulence Training program, you don’t have to worry about monitoring your target heart rate or anything fancy like that. It’s simply not necessary. Just follow the TT instructions, and you will do see tremendous results.
So what’s the bottom line?
If you want to start getting the fat loss results you’ve been craving, then don’t spend too much time worrying about your target fat burning heart rate zone during exercise. Instead, make sure that you’re working at a high-intensity and a variable intensity, during each bought of weight lifting and interval training session.
Use the Turbulence Training workout guidelines to figure out all of the details you’ll need on the specific rest periods to use between supersets and intervals. By utilizing these guidelines, you will finally begin to see greater results from your workouts within weeks of implementing these changes, than what you’ve been experiencing from your typical “fat burning zone” workouts. You will be able to lose belly fat like you haven’t been able to previously.
You can grab a free report on creating a much better metabolic environment that is far more optimal for fat loss than traditional cardio routines. Free yourself of the old mindset of working out in the “fat loss zone.” Grab a free cardio myths report, and get rid of stubborn belly fat for good.
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Great point Vinensia. I do realize that some people can’t work out at high intensities. For them, I would recommend a low intensity, steady-state exercise routine. After all, doing something is better than doing nothing. However, this article was meant to describe a routine that’s more effective for fat burning than your typical low intensity cardio programs.