Question about running/fat burning.

Hello, I am new to running. (but not to exercising)

Okay so I can't run for very long because I get tired. My heart rate gets up to and beyond my target heart rate, so I stop and walk.

Now, I heard that when your heart rate is in your target range after twenty minutes or so, you are burning fat.

My question is, do you actually hafta be RUNNING to get the best fat burning, or does it burn no matter what as long as the heart rate is up?

I ask this because I walk (briskly) more than I run, yet my heart rate is right in the target zone.

Thanks Jacob

You might want to visit rec.running.

That's fine. Everyone starts somewhere!

Your body is _always_ burning fat as one of its energy sources. Life is aerobic

My advice:

- Its calories in versus calories out for fat percentage control. Don't worry about fat burning zones.

- GRADUAL increases in what you ask your body to do

- Strongly consider expanding your exercise. Too much plain running often causes injuries. If you read rec.running you will see constant achilles problems, etc.

Congrats on getting active.

Sling Skate

No, and no. But for interesting reasons. Elevated HR means nothing in itself, as you can greatly elevate it by simply breathing hard, fast, and deep! Greer Childers artfully contorts this physiological factoid into her obscene scam, Breathing the Fat Offa Yer Body. Heart rate can be used as a gauge of exertion only within a given exercise. It turns out, tho, that at any speed above about 4 mph, walking burns more calories than running at the same speed, so HR can be used as somewhat of a 'crossover' gauge. I myself am not crazy about walking as simple exercise because the range of motion of most of the leg muscles is so small. It works mostly your groin and your ankles. But no doubt it can be a good calorie burner, and tough on the muscles it does use, as I find out now and then, having to walk fast around town after having been sedentary for a while

It depends what you mean by 'burning fat'. Any aerobic exercise ie walking,running,....) will off set the energy balance and help use up extra calories which may be stored as fat or glycogen ( suger in your mucsles ). Some exercises 'may' use more fat as energy. If your trying to loose unwanted pounds the last recommendation I learned in an aerobic class at a community college was to do moderate aerobic, low end of your target heart rate, for 1 hour 5 times a week. If you want good info on exercise I recommend taking a fittness class at your local comm. college.

No offense intended, but hopefully Jacob's local comm. college will provide more accurate info than your community college. So with moderate aerobics at the *high* end of my target rate, I'll burn *fewer* calories, correct? I guess the VO2 tables must be wrong, or sumpn. Or some *other* calorie is being burnt. I believe people are still misinterpreting respiratory quotient, and taking PERCENT of fat burning out of context.

Good question

What Droll Troll said. I don't know how long ago you 'learned' this tidbit from your community college aerobics teacher, Norm, but I hope you unlearn it quickly because it was completely debunked years ago.

If you want good info on exercise I recommend contacting the American Council on Exercise (ACE) or the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), or enrolling in an actual exercise physiology class at the community college, not asking whoever happens to have been hired to teach an aerobics class this quarter. An aerobics instructor for a community college needs no more qualification than an aerobics instructor anywhere else. And judging by the 'recommendation' you got, it shows.