Quote:
Originally posted by IROC
The more intensely you exercise, the more fat you'll burn. There has been some data in the media about burning a higher percentage of fat at lower heart rates, but it's a case of playing with the numbers. While it is true that you'll burn a higher *percentage* of fat at lower heart rates, you'll burn more total fat calories at higher heart rates.
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This is absolutely true. Say at a heart rate of 100, 25% of your calories come from fat, and at 120, only 15% of your calories come from fat. Since you burn so many more calories at 120, 15% of that number is more fat than 25% of the calories burned at 100. Make sense?
Another way to look at it is this. If what you want is an activity level where the highest percentage of calories come from fat, then you should sleep. Something like 80% of your calories come from fat when you are sleeping (I forget the exact number). The thing is, you burn very, very few calories when you are sleeping, so 80% of that is still just a small amount of fat.