polar watch fat burn/fitness

[Prunella]

I have a polar watch and chest strap. It tells me I am in the fitness mode when I'm going fairly slowly and not feeling like I'm even getting a moderate workout. When I get to a reasonable speed but can still carry on a conversation it tells me I'm in fitness mode. To stay in fat burn mode I'd have to slow way down and I am no athlete, just and average Jay. Is the fat burn/fitness designation just a gimmick or do I really have to row much slower to see results? Even when I'm just walking I have to slow way down to stay in fat burn. I'm a fast walker but still... I've put in my specifics (weight, height, age, etc,) accurately and done the fitness test. Any insights?

[PaulH]

This is an often-discussed topic. The fat burning mode is a pace at which you're getting the largest amount of your energy from fat. If you go faster than that less of your energy will come from fat, as your body can't burn fat fast enough to keep up. While in theory it sounds like you should stick to the fat burning mode to lose weight, in practice it's not that simple. I'll illustrate why with some numbers that I'm totally making up, just to keep things easy.

Say you row for 30 minutes. In fat burning mode you burn 250 calories, 50% of which come from fat. That means you've burned 125 calories of fat.

If, instead, you row in fitness mode you might burn 400 calories, 25% from fat. That means you've 'only' burned 100 calories of fat.

The trick is that while the fitness mode appears to have burned much less fat, overall you've burned more calories, and those calories have to come from somewhere - either your fat reserves, or your next burger! So while there's nothing wrong with fat burning mode, you'll almost always be better off doing the fitness mode (or even better, do some interval training).

[Prunella]

Thanks for your input, PaulH. In fitness mode you still burn fat calories then, just a little less? I guess your also burning calories from that day that haven't turned to fat yet. I row for an hour a day in two sets of 30 minutes. So I guess I'll keep at a comfortably hard pace that I can keep up and still feel like I'm working out. I'll try some interval training too. Thanks Paul.

[Bob S.]

If you are working at a level that burns up relatively more carbohydrates than fats, it can still eventually mean you will have less fat, since excess carbohydrates in the body get converted to fats. Using up some of that excess means that less fat will be produced.

Bob S.

[kennyhassman]

I have a polar watch and chest strap. It tells me I am in the fitness mode when I'm going fairly slowly and not feeling like I'm even getting a moderate workout. When I get to a reasonable speed but can still carry on a conversation it tells me I'm in fitness mode. To stay in fat burn mode I'd have to slow way down and I am no athlete, just and average Jay. Is the fat burn/fitness designation just a gimmick or do I really have to row much slower to see results? Even when I'm just walking I have to slow way down to stay in fat burn. I'm a fast walker but still... I've put in my specifics (weight, height, age, etc,) accurately and done the fitness test. Any insights?

I would highly recommend reading "The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing" written by Phil Maffetone who has been training superior athletes for years. He does a great job of explaining the positive training effect of slowing down. His system has been followed and endorsed by many athletes and coaches, including Mark Allen who has won the Hawaii Ironman triathlon a handful of times. There is a Kindle version which is how I read the book. I'm an overweight out-of-shape nearly sr citizen former athlete (decades ago) and I have tried a variety of methods since starting back up and I feel much less stressed using this method.

Ken

P.S. He is very big on using a heart monitor which came with my Concept 2 Model E and which I am really getting a lot out of as far as discovering how I'm doing based on his criteria.

[jamesg]

Fitness mode only needs half an hour; fatburning is at a much lower power level, so we can go for two hours minimum, better still all day. We can only do one thing at a time, like it or not.

[kayakr]

Use it more to stay below 80% or 85% HR unless you are exceeding for a specific reason.

See http://concept2.co.uk/training/

Most people have trouble getting their HR up to an interesting level when getting started. Search for the "low resistance" or "low heartrate" threads if you encounter this problem.