Fat burning during exercise varies widely between people: Study

The best heart rate for burning fat differs for each individual and often does not align with the fat burning zone on commercial exercise machines according to a small studyInstead clinical exercise testing a diagnostic procedure to measure a persons physiological response to exercise may be a more useful tool to help individuals achieve intended fat loss goals said researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount SinaiThe study which used a machine learningbased modelling approach was published online in Nutrition Metabolism and Cardiovascular Disease People with a goal of weight or fat loss may be interested in exercising at the intensity which allows for the maximal rate of fat burning Most commercial exercise machines offer a fatburning zone option depending upon age sex and heart rate said lead author Hannah Kittrell doctoral candidate at Icahn Mount SinaiHowever the typically recommended fatburning zone has not been validated thus individuals may be exercising at intensities that are not aligned with their personalised weight loss goals she addedThe term FATmax is sometimes used to represent the exercise intensity and associated heart rate at which the body reaches its highest fatburning rate during aerobic exerciseAt this point fat is a significant fuel source and therefore this intensity may be of interest to those seeking to optimise fat loss during workoutsAs part of the study the researchers compared heart rate at FATmax as measured during a clinical exercise test to predicted heart rate at percentages of maximal effort within the typically recommended fatburning zoneIn a sample of 26 individuals the researchers found that there was poor agreement between measured and predicted heart rate with a mean difference of 23 beats per minute between the two measuresThis suggests that general recommendations for a fatburning zone may not provide accurate guidanceNext the researchers plan to study whether individuals who receive a more personalised exercise prescription demonstrate more weight and fat loss as well as improvement of metabolic health markers that identify health risks like Type2 diabetes obesity and heart diseaseThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever