hcir wrote:Studies have shown that you burn more (edit: fat) calories when you are within 50-75% of the difference between your resting and maximum heart-rate. A heart-rate monitor (such as the ones made by Polar) calculates a "zone" in which to keep your heart rate so that you can maximize the calories that you burn. I try to keep at the upper end of the zone. I know from looking at my heart-rate whether I need to slow down or put in more effort. It has made a real difference to the way that I cycle. It does not interfere with earbuds or mp3 devices.
Pretty sure this is a misconception. You burn more calories (including fat calories) in a given time when you exercise harder. But you may burn less fat calories as a percentage of calories burnt.
example with made up numbers:
Low effort for 30 minutes:
100 calories burned, 50 fat calories. 50% of calories used where from using fat.
High effort for 30 minutes:
250 calories burned, 100 fat calories. "only" 40% of calories burned were from fat stores.
If a high percentage of fat burned was the goal, sleep would be the best exercise!