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Author: Margin 165/163.5/145
Date: 03-24-03 17:49
Here is my situation...I keep reading that in terms of exercise alot of cardio is the way to lose weight. I understand that you should do weights also, and that's great if you have time for all this, but I don't. So i go to Curves and do the 30 minute workout 3-4 times a week and watch what i eat. I am confused because at Curves i am encouraged to stay in my fat burning zone when i take my heart rate, but I feel that I don't really have to work that hard to achieve this. When I ask why I shouldn't get my heart rate up they say that anything above my fat burning zone will just burn sugar. Is doing cardio more effective than staying in your fat burning zone? My taarget heart rate for fat burning is between 19 - 25 for a 10 second count. Can anyone clarify this for me?
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Author: GymMachine
Date: 03-24-03 18:12
they have fed you the typical yesteryear train of thought...and it shits me trainers still tell you this..
'I am confused because at Curves i am encouraged to stay in my fat burning zone when i take my heart rate, but I feel that I don't really have to work that hard to achieve this. When I ask why I shouldn't get my heart rate up they say that anything above my fat burning zone will just burn sugar'
YOur fat burning zone is rather low intenisty your right...but who wants to be in that zone for 30-45 minutes? how boring!....my advice is to go harder and you will double your results...as quickly and less scientific as i can i will tell you why:
The harder you work the more your heart works and the faster it beats....when your doing cardio your primary energy source is glycogen (sugar as they call it) and carbohydrates....fat is used as energy when you doing long cardio like they tell you to do...NOW if you halved that time you do cardio but go twice as hard you will burn more calories...it will raise your metabolism up to 48 hours after exercise...the 'fat burning zone' cardio does not do this...once you stop your cardio the calories you burn during the exercise is it..no more...but if you go harder and for shorter as soon as you hop off the treadmill/bike whatever you keep burning calories because your blood ph is out of whack, your homeostasis is up the creek etc etc etc...all this means is because you have disrupted your body and under more stress your body requires ALOT of calories to return everything back to normal...the amount of calories required to do this is huge compared to the cardio your doing now...by the way this is well documented and has been for a while now...personally i think they are telling you that because its easer for them to say 'you will just burn sugar' rather than the truth...trust me, and the rest of the scientific world, go harder and half the time...interval training is an example of this...a training method of sprinting phases and jogging phases in one...your fat loss results will double and when you show them the results you can basically shove it up their bums!....sorry trainers stuck at old school level annoy me, they are just saying something easier so they dont have to explain it to people what the real truth is (thats if they even know it)....after your cardio have a gatorade or sports drink because you do use glycogen as fuel (they call glycogen, sugar)...they were right about that but this is a good thing not a bad thing..just replace the 'sugar' once your finished...a sports drink is a good idea.
Just for reference an example of higher intensity training which doesnt use 'fat burning zone methods' are 100 metre sprinters...do you think they train to get fast by sitting on a treadmill for 45 minutes? hell no!..they train in sprint phases...their heart rate is super high, but for super short...and look at their well defined bodies...train shorter, sharper and more intense, it saves u time and your results will easily double...there will bo noone on this board who will attest to anything different i assure you
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Author: Sam164/156/140
Date: 03-24-03 18:39
Thank you so much for that reply gym machine! I was wondering the exact same thing because I also go to Curves and they told me the same thing but I never quite understood it. I go to Curves 4-5 times a week, do you think think that's enough to be effective? Or should I do some other sort of excercise?
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Author: GymMachine
Date: 03-24-03 22:10
i think 4-5 times is plenty especially if your doing the 'harder' cardio...in which case you could probably get away with 3 days a week, diet depending ofcourse.
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Author: brandalini 170/170/135
Date: 03-25-03 16:44
So When I do the Eliptcal or the bike, my heart rate is at 170 (over 85% of "target heart rate". That seems like a lot. I also do intervals -3 minutes super fast, 2 minutes slower, 2 minutes super fast, 1 minute slower and keep that up. I was under the impression that I had to do like 50 minutes of this to do ANYTHING because at 30 minutes the machine says I only did 230 calories. That doesn't feel like enough. Should I ignore those machine calorie totals all together? I thought cardio for 25 minutes just started the burn so I figured if I did it for 50 minues I would double the burn. This is not correct? I just want to be absolutly sure because the weight is not coming off and I want to do the right thing. (I used to do 25-30 minutes cardio until this week when i started the 50 minute thing)
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