You can achieve your weight loss goals with more effective workouts. You do not need to workout harder to achieve maximum results. Instead, workout smarter. Locate your personal fat-burning zone to improve the effectiveness of your workout. Burn additional fat when optimizing your workout with heart rate training.

Find Your Sweet Spot

Every individual has their own fat-burning zone. Staying in the zone allows you to burn the most amount of fat calories. You do not have to go all out in order to burn more fat. The fat-burning zone occurs at relatively low intensity levels. You will have to go lower but longer to achieve the results you want to burn the most fat. Here are a few ways to find your personal fat-burning zone.

1. First off, find your own fat-burning zone.

You can:

• Calculate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. Your maximum fat-burning range will be 60 to 70 percent of your calculated maximum heart rate.
• Choose a fitness app to identify your heart rate zones.
• Find your burn and burst zones when you perform a home or field test with your fitness app.

Make sure that you are burning fat, not simply extra calories. A harder workout may allow you to rack up more expenditure of calories. However, how do you ensure that the calories burned are fat calories? Often times, higher intensity workouts burn short-term stores of carbs and sugar. This will burn off calories from your last meal but not those love handles. Targeted fat-burning occurs at lower intensity fitness activities within your fat-burning zone determined by your heart rate and must continue over a longer period. Work out longer at a lower intensity to get the fat-burning results you need using the data about your fat-burning zone and heart rate.

2. Select the right workout for your fitness level.

Beginners can find fat-burning opportunities in daily activities. Suggestions include:

• Taking the stairs when available.
• Walk or ride your bike to appointments or lunch.
• Walk the dog.
• Choose to park at the rear of a parking lot and walk to store entrances.

Gym enthusiasts can focus on moderate-intensity levels during a routine such as:

• Performing cardio exercises 3 to 5 times weekly. 10 minutes each on the rowing machine, elliptical and treadmill at a heart rate zone below 3 or within your fat-burning range will maximize your results.
• Vary the cardio activities each workout to stay motivated.

Runners need to stay within the fat-burning zone during slow and long distance runs. Remember to:

• Keep at a moderate pace to stay within your fat-burning heart-rate zone.
• Those new to running should begin with brisk walks. Keep it up and you will soon be able to move up to a steady jog while staying in your zone.
• The goal is to perform these runs 3 to 5 times weekly.
• Never increase total mileage more than 10 percent a week. Push yourself too fast and you will run the risk of injury through over-use of muscles, tendons and ligaments.

Anyone can begin to burn more fat calories starting today by working out in their fat-burning zone and optimizing the effectiveness of their fitness activities.

3. Know what moderate exercise feels like.

Individuals in the fat-burning zone will:

• Be able to converse during exercise, but not sing.
• Begin to sweat after approximately 10 minutes.
• Breathe faster but not feel out of breath.

This is especially important to those new to physical fitness and unaccustomed to how their body may feel during moderate exercise. However, these guidelines are also important to keep in mind for those that constantly seek to push their bodies to the next level. A comfortable, middle-ground is the level to aim at when looking to lose weight and burn fat.

Maximize Your Weight Loss with Heart Rate Training

Whether you are new to fitness activities or are familiar with physical training, know that not all calorie burning is alike. You can work out harder but not achieve the fat-burning results you desire. Rather, use heart rate training to key into your optimal fat-burning zone. Stay within your personal zone while walking, running or performing cardio activities in the gym to burn more fat calories every session.