Discover The Best Fat Burner Within:
Burn Up That Fat And Save The Carbs

"Determining, staying within target heart rate is the key..."

By Caroline Smith, M.S., B.S.T.

And What is the best fat burner?

One of the most commonly asked questions I get in consulting is how do I get rid of

this extra fat I am carrying?

Since we are given a certain number of fat cells at birth and cannot change the number, we need to manage the size of the cell.

Your goal is to try and make them as small as possible.

You see, all food is fuel and eventually becomes glucose (blood sugar).

This is stored in the liver, brain and muscles as glycogen. It is the fuel source for high-intensity exercise.

We want to try and choose the best choices within the food groups to avoid excess fat ingested for the body to process.

Therefore, the only way to rid the body of fat is through dietary modifications and aerobic exercise.

The athlete responds, "but I do a lot of aerobic exercise!"

I respond, "Do you know if the exercise you are doing is between 60-70 percent of your target heart rate?

A rate too high will be unsuccessful in helping you achieve optimum fat burning and weight loss.

When we calculate their heart rate zone we often find they are not working out at a low enough percent to burn fat and consequently end up burning the carbohydrate (CHO). When they eat they simply replace it with the food they consume after the workout, since the muscle is depleted and capable of re-synthesizing new glycogen storage.

It is often hard to go at a low intensity because you do not feel as though you are working out and we have been lead to believe that you are not getting conditioned. You are, more so in some ways.

As you clean the body of fat cells the blood supply can be more efficient to the working muscles.

What happens over time is the workload it took to get you to the fat burning level, now has to be increased because you are more efficient. In the long run you get faster without a huge increase in expenditure.

A great way to get started with an effective weight-loss program is to incorporate walking.

Try to schedule five days a week at a minimum of 30 minutes each session. Once you get more conditioned you will find the time you can go will be longer and longer without a substantial increase in your overall fatigue.

If you are presently running, you may have to slow down to stay within the appropriate zone and then you will find you are running faster within a few weeks without a big change in your program.

FIGURING YOUR TARGET HEART RATE ZONE

To figure your target heart rate you need to know your true resting pulse. Otherwise, you can use the average of 72 beats per minute. To obtain your true resting heart rate pick three mornings that you wake up without an alarm if possible.

Place the watch by the bed the night before. When you awaken, reach for the watch before you ever get out of bed. Count your beats for a full minute and make a note of it. Do this three different mornings and take an average.

This is your true resting heart rate. The most important factor is to take this first thing in the morning before you get out of bed!

This can tell you quite a bit. If you are highly conditioned it will be low. It is not uncommon to see marathon runners down in the low 40's. It can tell you how well you have recovered.

If it is 3-5 beats higher than normal try the 5-minute rule on the workout. Get started and if in the first 5 -7 minutes the heart rate is not settling down into your zone stop and go home; eat, drink water and get a good nights sleep and try again the next day.

If it is more than 7-10 beats higher than normal, take that day off you are not recovered or are fighting an infection and may not know it. Say you did a hard workout and experienced fatigue from the micro-tears in the muscles, your body is trying to rush nutrition and oxygen to that traumatized area and that caused a rise in heart rate. Or the body may have an increase in the core temperature so it can fight an infection and this gets reflected in the change of the heart rate

What's a few days off to come back strong than to go into a workout when you shouldn't and lose 7-10 days due to illness or an injury? This guideline can keep you out of an over-training response, which often happens to individuals who train consistently day after day at high intensities.

This is different than the active resting pulse, which is the one you take during the day while sitting quietly on a break. The minute you stand up and start to move your true resting pulse will rise about 3-5 beats, so to tell whether you are rested using the active pulse, you need to add 5-7 beats on your true resting (supine position) average.

If you are normally at 72 beats per minute in the supine position and you feel a little off one day, check you pulse in the afternoon if you were going to work out that night. If it is 77-80 then you are OK, as that allows for the adjustment for getting out of bed. But if it is 81-86 it would be advisable to take the day off from exercise and rest, then recheck it in the morning to assure you have recovered.

Now figuring out your target heart rate should be a pretty quick calculation. This is the long form Karvonen's formula which takes into account your present age and conditioning level. It does not use average norms for calculating so it takes into account the fact that you are working out and your body is benefiting health-wise from it.

The constant for men is 220 and woman is 226 as they have different size hearts to pump the blood out.

Subtract your age from the appropriate constant. There is an assumption that you lose one base beat for every year you get older but if you have done a stress max test and know your max, use that number not the age adjusted one.

The result of the constant minus your age is your maximum heart rate. You would not want to exceed this, as it would put to much stress on the body.

Subtract your resting heart rate (supine position) from the maximum heart rate and then the resultant number is used to multiply by the optimum percentages for fat burning (use both 60% and 70% and create two columns).

Now add back your resting heart rate to each column and those numbers are your land zones for fat burning.

The percentage of exercise expenditure is now performed between these numbers, adjusting the output to stay within the numbers or drinking water to help bring it down. If you jump up to a higher percentage a greater amount of glycogen is being used from your muscles and you will find that you are more tired, sore, fatigued and craving sugars or quick converting carbohydrates.

It usually takes 4-6 weeks to adapt this principle in the body and then you can start playing with other fitness parameters such as intervals or tempo workouts. It is important when laying the base that you stay in the low zone as the muscle fibers you are laying down will be broken if you go do a hard workout and you will have to reestablish the base again.

Watch for an increase in the workload that you are doing to stay in your zone and for a drop in the resting heart rate to know that you are on the right track. When this begins to happen consistently it is time to do some other types of workouts, for example, intervals or tempo.

If you find that your resting is going up, you are unloading toxins from the fat cells into the blood and now the blood flow in inhibited, it is thick and can't move oxygen to the working muscles as well. In this case, be sure you are drinking lots of water and incorporating some lymph support from a homeopathy supplement or rebounding on a trampoline.

Monitor your heart rate through out the year. If you go up or down in your exercise volume or have a change in your schedule, sleep, stress, nutrition etc. use the heart rate as a way to come back correctly. To make it easier to monitor your heart rate a powerful fitness tool is the heart rate monitor as it allows you to use your heart as your personal trainer and adjust your workouts accordingly.

If you want to purchase a monitor at a discount check out the products portion of the website or call Caroline Smith, M.S. at 303 471 4725.

Good luck and train smart. Quality, not quantity, pays off in a multitude of ways.

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