Weight Loss, Diet and Fitness Program

Do you ever wonder whether the fat-burning option on your treadmill, elliptical trainer or stationary bike delivers what it promises?

Is getting rid of unwanted fat stores as easy as pushing the right button on the console of your cardio machine and working up a quick sweat?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. selecting the “fat burning” option on your cardio machine merely programs the machine to maintain a training intensity equal to 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate (220 minus your age). At intensities this low, exercisers burn a higher percentage of fat than carbohydrates, hence the moniker, “the fat-burning zone.”

While no one disputes this claim, the important question is whether burning predominately fat as fuel results in greater or faster weight loss. After all, for people looking to lose weight, the crucial element in any exercise program is not what kind of fuel they are burning but whether they will eventually fit into the pair of size 8 jeans stuffed in the back of the closet.

Burning Calories is Where it’s At
The basic principle of weight loss is that unwanted pounds disappear only when the number of calories burned exceeds the number of calories consumed. Hence the need to burn as many calories as many calories as possible.

The best way to maximize calorie burn is through exercise. And while you can be like the proverbial tortoise and burn those calories at a slow pace, you can also choose to be the hare.

Increasing the intensity of your workout is significant in two ways. First, it burns substantially more calories than exercise done for the same duration but at a slower pace. Second, carbs replace fat as the primary source of energy for high-intensity exercise.

Just because high-intensity exercise relies on carbs as its major source of fuel, doesn’t mean your fat-burning potential has been exhausted. The body doesn’t completely abandon one source of fuel in favor of another. As intensity increases, so does the rate at which fuel source, including fat, are burned.
This increased burn results in more fat calories being used over a given period of time, even though fat no longer dominates as the energy source. Add the fat calories to the calories burned from carbohydrates and protein and your high-intensity workout burns and impressive amount of calories from a variety of energy sources.

The most important fact to remember is that when it comes to weight loss, it is the number of calories burned that counts.