Cardio and Heart Rate Question

[Heracles74]

I am starting a 12-16 week regiment of fat burning and toning lean muscle. Not trying to bulk muscle at all right now - only cut up.

I start my workouts with 20 minutes of cardio, do my whole body workout, then end with 30 minutes of cardio. For an age of 33 and 215 pounds I hear about 127 or so is peak for fat burning and about 160's is cardio/train.... problem is I can't get my HR to coome down to the 120's for effective fat burn.
Is this worth worrying about?
Am I overdoing the cardio? Not enough?
How much stock do you all put in the lower HR for better fat burning?
any advice and input is much appreciated. Thanks!!

[Heracles74]

Bump.... Come on guys.

[eljeffe]

You just don't want to go above 75% or so as you become anarobic and can start burning muscle, the faster your heart beats, the more calories you burn abd the more fat you burn.

The fat burn zone is a myth, do research on HITT training, you burn a higher % of calories from fat in the "fat burning" zone but more total fat calories the higher your heart rate goes.

[n4529359]

I think if ur having trouble staying in that heart rate zone use intensity as a guide, the fat burning zone is a somewhat low intensity for a long period of time. Your actual maximal heart rate could be much higher than your age predicted max (a good thing) which might be y ur HR is hard to keep in that zone.

[DSM4Life]

Is your first 20 mins of cardio for warm up or is it high intensity ?


I would just hit your full body workout then do HITT (as stated above) to end the day. The rest of your "cutting up" program is going to HIGHLY weight on diet. So worry less about the heart rate and more of what your putting into your body.