Fat Burning Cardio
How Much Is Enough?

The truth about how to melt off those pounds

To make sure you do lose weight from cardio workouts you have to work out long enough to make a difference, but not so much that you overtrain and exhaust yourself.

You are trying to make yourself stronger--not weaker.

You need a way to know if you are working out hard enough to get a result. And you don't want to overdo it either.

So how do you know?

The complicated--you could go to a research laboratory and get hooked up with all the latest equipment and you could have your oxygen consumption and your energy production measured.

But you don't need to do that. There are some very simple ways to figure out the same thing that will work fine for you.

If you don't want to do any measurements:

One simple way to judge your fat burning cardio workouts is by how hard the workout feels. You don't have to do any measurements. You just decide for yourself whether the workout feels easy or medium or hard.

There are some numbering systems that go with this that can help you. One of the best is the Borg Scale. The Borg Scale goes like this:

• 6
• 7 Very, Very Light
• 8
• 9 Very Light
• 10
• 11 Fairly Light
• 12
• 13 Somewhat Hard
• 14
• 15 Hard
• 16
• 17 Very Hard
• 18
• 19 Very, Very Hard
• 20

To use the scale you are supposed to make a judgment about how hard you are working overall.

You don't want to be wasting your time, right? Well, there have been lots of scientific studies on the use of this scale. And what they found was that you need to be in the range of 14 or so. If you are below that you won't get anywhere.

Now, if you get results working out at 14 on this scale, then fine. You just keep it up. But if you are not getting results with your fat burning cardio workouts, if you are not dropping the pounds, then you should push it up to 15, 16, or 17.

If you try to go beyond 17 it probably won't work. You can't keep that up for very long. You will just collapse. And for effective aerobic exercise you have to keep going. You can use levels of 17 or more for high intensity interval training though.

If you want to do some simple measurements:

If you want to do some simple measurements you can use your heart rate. The way to do that is to estimate your maximal heart rate. You do that with this formula:

• 220-your age = your maximal heart rate

Now, you should be exercising between 60-80 % of your maximal heart rate.

If you are just starting out you can try 60%. So your target heart rate would be:

• Maximal heart rate x 0.6 = target heart rate.

• 180 x 0.6 = 108.

Over 85% is pretty difficult and when you can keep that up for 30 minutes or more you will know you have gotten in great shape!

How to check for heart rate:

You can also check the carotid artery in the neck by pressing gently to the side of the Adam's apple with several fingers. You may have to adjust the pressure until you can feel it. (Don't press both sides of your neck or it can make you pass out!)

It is most accurate to check for a full minute, but it is easiest to check for 15 seconds and multiply x 4. If your heart rate is 35 beats in 15 seconds, that is 140 beats per minute (35 x 4 = 140.)

There are devices to measure your heart rate:

The main drawbacks are the cost and the fact that you have to wear a strap around your chest. There are strapless devices that go around your wrist and hand that may be more comfortable.

If you are at the gym a lot of the machines will measure your heart rate continuously. You just hold on to the handle and your heart rate shows on the screen. You can watch your heart rate continuously as you work out.

And finally, the easiest way to judge your workout intensity: