Fat Burning Zone

Many athletes and regular exercisers would love to lose body fat and improve their overall body composition. If we could identify the exercise intensity that evokes the highest rate of fat oxidation, then we could selectively carry out workouts at this intensity and make dramatic improvements to our bodies. Low intensity sessions to burn off fat There are two key variables that we need to know: 1. Fatmax - the exercise intensity at which the highest rate of fat oxidation occurs 2. Fatmax zone - the range of exercise intensities in which the fat oxidation rates remain within 10% of Fatmax Research Researchers from Birmingham University's Human Performance Laboratory attempted to pinpoint the exercise intensities at which fat metabolism is maximised in a study of 18 male endurance cyclists with a training background of at least three years. Their work found that the Fatmax Zone is between 68% and 79% MHR Alternative research has suggested that when you cycle, swim, row or run at a modest intensity of only 50% VO2max (about 69% MHR), fat provides about 50% of the calories you need to keep going for the first hour or so. If you keep going after that, fat becomes even more generous, providing around 70% of the total energy after two hours and 80% or more if your work duration exceeds three hours. If you increase the intensity then the Fat contribution decreases - at 75% VO2max fat provides 33% of the energy. High Intensity sessions - just as good! The implication from all this research is that if you wish to burn maximum amounts of fat then you should train in the 68 to 79% MHR window. The reality is that if you train at higher intensities you can burn just as much fat - you cannot be serious - read on If you cycled along at 50% VO2max, fat would provide about 50%, on average, of the energy you needed to keep going. If you cycle along at 75% VO2max, fat would provide 33% of the required calories. Thus, the slower workout sounds better from the fat breakdown perspective or does it? A moderately fit athlete exercising at 50% VO2max generally consumes about 220 Calories during a 30 minute workout. If the same athlete works out at 75% VO2max, 330 Calories are burned during the same period. Of course, 50% of 220 Calories and 33% of 330 Calories yield an identical number of calories coming from fat - 110 Calories. Interval work may be the solution

Australian Researchers at the University of New South Wales and the Garvan Institute studied 45 overweight women over a period of 15 weeks. Three times a week the ladies cycled for 20 minutes, sprinting in bursts of 8 seconds followed by 12 seconds of easy cycling. Professor Steve Boutcher, leader of the team, stated that the women lost 3 times more weight as other women who exercised regularly at a continuous pace for 40 minutes. The women in the study were said to have lost weight mainly from their legs and buttocks. It is not clear as to how it works but interval training is far more response in getting the body to yield its fat. Fat provides all your energy If fat alone was meeting all your energy needs, you would not be breaking down carbohydrate during your workouts and as a result your leg muscles would be amply and permanently stocked with glycogen (assuming, of course, that your diet contained a normal carbohydrate content). Each time you ate, the carbohydrate from your meal would be processed and transported to your muscles. Your muscle cells would say, 'No thanks, I do not need more carbohydrate, I am already full.' The surplus carbohydrate from your meal would be converted to fat. Looks like a no win situation - as fast as you burn fat off it is replaced. Effective way to lose fat Most exercisers are time constrained to some degree and do not have hours to spend on low intensity sessions. When time is limited, there is little reason to train in your Fatmax Zone. If your overall goal is to get leaner, the bottom line is that calorie burning is the best way to achieve it. The most effective way to lose body fat is to burn slightly more calories than you take in, and to continue this negative energy balance over an extended period. Medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) MCTs are a class of fatty acids occurring normally in oily foods which require less energy for uptake and storage in the body and are easier to digest and absorb than ordinary fats. Research indicates that the consumption of MCT oil (14-20grm/day - 112-160 calories) could be a useful addition to the diet for athletes trying to loose or maintain body fat. MCT oil is commercially available. Coconut oil and Palm oil are naturally rich in MCT but they also contain long-chain triglycerides (LCT). Studies have demonstrated a weight loss effect with a MCT/LCT mix 14grm with a 12% MCT content [Asia Pacific Journal Clinical Nutrition 2003;12(2):151-160]. Related Research Papers

Med Sci Sports Exerc 2002; 34(1):92-97 Asia Pacific Journal Clinical Nutrition 2003;12(2):151-160

Additional Information

Fat burning zone - Why athletes, fitness enthusiasts and slimmers should steer clear of the fat burning zone Gary O'Donovan explains why high-intensity exercise is the best bet for training and weight loss The concept of the fat burning zone is highly attractive to the exercise enthusiasts of today, many of whom are more interested in weight loss than the pursuit of fitness. Training zone charts adorn the walls of fitness centres up and down the country, and body-conscious exercisers religiously adhere to the recommended limits for exercising heart rates. For more high quality information on dieting and weight loss, subscribe to Peak Performance here and receive a bundle of free reports.

However, while moderate-intensity exercise may be appropriate for beginners, athletes and serious fitness enthusiasts should avoid the fat burning zone like the plague, except on light days or recovery runs - unless they want to see a decline in energy expenditure and fitness. What is the fat burning zone? Although the origin of the fat burning zone (FBZ) concept is unknown, the fitness industry probably seized on the following key facts: 1. low- to moderate-intensity exercise is fuelled predominantly by fat; 2. an optimum fat burning rate has been identified (Figure 1) at 65% of maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) - the body's ability to take on board and use oxygen during exhaustive exercise. Because fitness centres don't usually own the gas analysers that measure VO2 max directly, the FBZ is instead located indirectly, with a heart rate monitor, at 60-70% of age-predicted maximum heart rate (1). Age-predicted maximum heart rate is derived from the formula 220 age, giving a 25-year-old, for example, a FBZ of 117-136 beats/min. The use of this formula involves two considerable assumptions: * that exercise heart rate can be used to predict oxygen consumption and * that maximum heart rate is the same for everyone of a given age. Receive top quality information about Fitness programmes and sports physiology as well as a bundle of free reports by subscribing to our No. 1 newsletter, Peak Performance
These assumptions will be questioned later.

Exercise intensity and fuel use Supporters of the FBZ advocate a reduction in effort in return for the promise of increased fat metabolism. However, fitness professionals should receive the suggestion that such moderateintensity exercise will improve fitness or body composition with scepticism. Inherently we are aware that performance becomes less efficient as exercise intensity increases and that, if exercise duration is held constant, an individual will burn more calories with high-intensity work .

At the start of exercise (regardless of the intensity), a cascade of biochemical events is initiated by neurological stimulation. Glycolysis (an anaerobic means of ATP/energy provision, fuelled by carbohydrate) is primed by hormones and neurotransmitters to take over from phosphagenmediated energy sources (2). Thereafter, if the exercise is of a low- to moderate-intensity, energy demands are met increasingly by fat in the form of muscle triglycerides and plasma free fatty acids. If the exercise is of a high intensity, energy from carbohydrate-derived fuels predominates (3). This shift from fat to carbohydrate oxidation during high-intensity exercise is essential to increase both the magnitude and the rate of energy release. Muscle can extract more energy per litre of oxygen consumed from carbohydrate than from fat. Table 1 shows that more than 5 kcal of energy are liberated per litre of oxygen consumed if carbohydrate alone is oxidised. On the other hand, the mixture of carbohydrate and fat oxidised during moderate intensity exercise releases only 4.86 kcal per litre of oxygen. Thus, although oxygen uptake may be a limiting factor, the greater energy demands of high-intensity exercise can be met. Unfortunately, though, the 'fast-twitch' muscle fibres recruited in high-intensity work are relatively inefficient and bring about the decline in power associated with intensive exercise. The myth of the fat burning zone We all know that the only reliable route to weight loss is to take in less energy from food than we expend in activity - regardless of the fuel for that activity. We also know that energy expenditure increases in line with exercise intensity: Table 1 shows that 404 kcals of energy are expended in 20 minutes of very high-intensity exercise, compared with only 244 kcals in moderate-intensity exercise performed for the same duration. Consider this also: Figure 1 shows that at 25% of maximum oxygen consumption, the demands of exercise are met entirely by fat. However, the minimal calorie cost of such exercise is unlikely to make any meaningful contribution to daily energy expenditure. Thus it is clear how the principles of substrate metabolism have been misinterpreted: when it comes to weight loss it is not the proportion of each fuel metabolised but the total calorie expenditure that is crucial. The real fat burning zone There are two components involved in the total energy cost of exercise: first, the energy cost of the activity itself, which accounts for most of the caloric expenditure; secondly, the energy expended in recovery while the metabolic rate remains elevated above resting levels. This 'excess postexercise oxygen consumption' (EPOC) is fuelled by fat. Intriguingly, not all exercise is sufficient to bring about a meaningful EPOC: it is generally agreed that such exercise must be carried out at more than 70% of VO2 max (4). Although this mechanism is not entirely understood, it seems that the metabolic disturbance of exercise determines the magnitude and duration of EPOC. In order to recover from exercise, the body undertakes several active (energy-consuming) processes for up to an hour afterwards: phosphate is reunited with creatine and ADP; haemoglobin and myoglobin (oxygen-carrying pigment within the muscle) are resaturated with oxygen; lactate is oxidised or resynthesised to glycogen; circulation and breathing increase. In addition, the return to homeostasis following high-intensity exercise is further delayed by the demands of glycogen resynthesis and increased hormonal activity. Interestingly, in the glycogen-depleted state, this prolonged EPOC period is fuelled by lipid as blood glucose is used to replace muscle glycogen (3).

This postexercise fat burning zone barely exists after moderate-intensity exercise. In a 1992 study, participants cycling for 80 minutes at 29% of VO2 max experienced an elevated oxygen consumption (and energy expenditure) for 0.3 hours, compared with 3.3 hours for those exercising at 50% of VO2 max and 10.5 hours for those at 75% (4). Clearly, the calorific value of EPOC has implications for those seeking to reduce body weight. Indeed, after 20 minutes of high intensity exercise (70% VO2max), Sedlock et al (5) observed an EPOC of approximately 30 kcal and calculated that if such exercise were performed five times a week for 52 weeks, the EPOC period alone would amount to 7,800 kcal or the energy equivalent of approximately 1 kg fat. The fat burning zone and the training response Trained individuals are better able to burn fat during submaximal exercise than their untrained counterparts (3). This adaptation delays the fatigue associated with the depletion of muscle glycogen - also known as 'hitting the wall'. There is also evidence to suggest that resting metabolic rate (RMR) is increased with endurance training. For example, Lawson et al (6) noted a 13% increase in the RMR of six subjects following 10 weeks of training (17 min 3 times/week during the first week, progressing to 77 min 4 times/week by week 10). Conversely, when exercise training is stopped for as little as three days, RMR has been shown to decline by 7% (7). Since RMR is the primary component of daily energy expenditure, elevation of metabolic rate with exercise may be an invaluable tool in weight loss. These training responses are muted with moderate intensity exercise performed within the FBZ. Exercisers and personal trainers alike should also be aware that the FBZ is identified from an unsubstantiated prediction equation. The research which gave rise to the formula for maximum heart rate (220 minus age in years) has never been published (8). Moreover, it assumes that the maximal heart rate for a particular age is uniform. Given the considerable individual variation in maximum heart rate (9), this assumption will inevitably result in some people overtraining while others undertrain. Equally invalid is the assumption that percentage maximal oxygen uptake and percentage maximum heart rate are directly comparable. Oxygen uptake scores are approximately 5-10% lower at any given intensity than those predicted using maximum heart rate values. An intensity of 65% maximum heart rate, therefore, is likely to elicit only 55-60% of maximal oxygen consumption. Crucially, this may not reach the lower threshold for improvements in aerobic fitness of 60% VO2 max set down by the American College of Sports Medicine in 1995 (10). In conclusion... * The fat burning zone is not the optimum exercise intensity for weight management, fitness or performance. * Although a greater proportion of energy is derived from fat within the FBZ, total energy expenditure is greater with high-intensity exercise. * It is total energy expenditure, regardless of the source, that is paramount for achieving sensible weight loss via negative energy balance. * Energy expenditure is greater both during and after high intensity exercise. * The moderate-intensity FBZ is unlikely to bring about a prolonged excess postexercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). * The prolonged EPOC component is fuelled by fat and may add an additional 30+ kcal to each workout. * It is unlikely that aerobic fitness will be maintained or improved within the FBZ.

* Training within the FBZ will not bring about the preferential metabolism of fat during exercise or higher resting metabolic rate enjoyed by endurance-trained subjects. * The variation in max heart rate undermines the use of prediction equations in exercise prescription.

FAQ: Calories to lose weight

What is the fat burning zone? Should I run more slowly to lose fat?
You may have heard the claim that you should run more slowly to burn more fat. My local gym has signs suggesting that if you want to burn fat, you should exercise in a "fat burning" heart rate zone. This idea is based on a misunderstanding of the science. It is true that when you exercise at a lower intensity, your body is able to draw more of the energy directly from fat. But it is not correct to conclude that exercising at this lower intensity will result in your having lower overall body fat. There are two reasons why the claim about a "fat burning zone" is wrong. First, it does not matter where the fuel comes from while you are exercising; in the end (ie later in the day) your body will replenish and rebalance your energy stores. So a calorie surplus will always end up increasing your body fat; and a calorie deficit will always end up reducing your body fat. The source of fuel while you are exercising is irrelevant. Second, what matters is the total amount of calories you burn; not the proportion that come fat. If you exercise at lower intensity, a higher proportion may come from body fat, but this may be a smaller absolute number of calories.

In other words, the fat burning zone is a myth caused by misunderstanding the science.

So how can I lose weight?

To lose fat, you need to eat fewer calories than you burn. The extra calories you burn will be taken from your body fat. Suppose your daily calorie requirement is 2800 kcal per day; and suppose that you consume 2710 kcal per day. Then you are consuming 90 kcal a day fewer than you are burning. Because fat is about 9 calories per gramme, you will lose about 10 grammes of body fat a day. You can reduce weight either by reducing your calorie intake (eg by eating smaller portions) or by increasing your daily calorie requirement (eg by exercising more) or both.

How quickly should I lose weight?

If you do decide you want to reduce your body fat, you should not attempt to lose weight too rapidly. In particular, you should not aim to lose more than kg a week; nor

should you try to consume less than 85% of your daily equilibrium calorie needs. This is to avoid illness, and because if you eat less than this, your body goes into starvation mode, your metabolism slows down, and your rate of weight loss decreases. The best approach to estimating how fast you should be losing weight is: decide how much running you realistically intend to do per week; estimate your equilibrium daily calorie requirement at that level of exercise, given your current bodyweight; work out how many calories a day you need to eat to lose weight without consuming less than 85% of your daily needs or losing more than 500g a week.