The Fat Burning Zone

There is no fat-burning zone. What this refers to is heart rates (usually around 65% to 75% of your max) where fat is burned as the primary fuel source. In other words, aerobic training. It’s perfectly fine to train in this supposed “zone,” but it may not be enough to lose significant fat. Remember that, while you may be burning a higher percentage of calories from fat in this zone, the training is only moderately intense, so you aren’t burning a great deal of calories overall. Your workouts will probably need to last close to an hour and be done several days a week to have an impact on your waistline—and that’s on top of following a careful diet. A better approach would be to do some light cardio so you burn fat directly and some interval training so you can speed up your metabolism and burn more calories for days afterward. “