You’ll Never Lose Fat in the “Fat Burning Zone”

The mythical fat burning zone

The Myth

“The Fat Burning Zone” It’s a myth, but it is based in actual science…misconstrued and poorly interpreted science.

Here’s the deal. Right now you’re in the fat burning zone. When you sleep, you’re in the fat burning zone. When you walk, talk, shop, eat, drive, and do light to moderate exercise…..you guessed it. Just the act of being alive requires caloric energy, and fat (as an energy source) is abundant in all of our bodies, even skinny bitches. At low intensity, fat is your primary energy source. Hence the name “fat burning zone.”

A Little Clarity

When you up the intensity, glucose/carbs become the primary source of energy. This is the “cardio zone.” Fat is now the secondary energy source, but you’re burning more of it. High-intensity exercise also stimulates the release of HGH, a hormone whose many functions includes fat burning. That’s not happening in the FB zone. The FB zone isn’t harmful, unless you consider time-wasting to be harmful.

How to Burn the Most Fat

High-intensity interval training. HIIT is simply a rise and fall of your intensity level within a workout. So a run might look like: jog for 1 minute, run faster for 2 minutes, sprint for 30 seconds. Think peaks and valleys: Go unsustainably hard, then recover, then go up, then go down.

My current HIIT run program:

• Set the incline to 1.5 or 2.0; warm up at 6.0 mph for five minutes

Then:

• Run at 8.5 for 1 minute
• Jog at 6.5 for 1 minute
• Sprint at 10.0 for 1 minute
• Recover walk at 3.5 for 1 minute*

I repeat those intervals four more times, then cool down walk for 5 minutes; 30 minutes total. HIIT makes the fat burning zone look like a walk in the park. Walks in the park are great, but they don’t change physiques.

*These numbers are great for me, but they might be too slow or fast for you. Experiment…and listen to your body.