If you use any standard cardio machines, such as the treadmill, bike, cross trainer, etc, you will know they provide you with a lot of information. They will tell you how many calories you have burnt, as well as what ‘heart rate zone’ you need to be in to burn fat most effectively. But what if the information it gave you wasn’t accurate?!

The ‘Fat Burning Zone’ is something cardio machines love to show off about. Many of them have diagrams (like the one above) showing what heart rate zone you need to be to burn fat most effectively.

It obviously depends on your age as to the exact figures. They may say your fat burning zone is between 120-140 beats per minute. And your ‘cardio’ zone is 150 beats per minute and above.

In my mind, the fact these companies can get away with providing people with this kind of information is scandalous. Honestly the ‘fat burning zones’ they talk about are such rubbish and lead people into doing ineffective workouts.

This issue really is amazingly straightforward. The harder you work and the higher you push your heart rate the more fat your body will burn. This idea of working at a lower intensity to burn fat is utter rubbish.

Ideally you would use interval training to achieve this ‘elevated heart rate’ but even if you are going for a run of a set distance, the faster you do it, the more fat you will burn.

And the danger zone on the chart above should only be used if you are a beginner to exercise. If you are an experienced exerciser, you can definitely push yourself beyond the levels in the chart.

Today’s Takeaway – Forget this idea of low intensity training for fat burning. Your optimal fat burning zone is as hard as you can work!