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Burn Fat With The Karvonen Formula

Fat loss clearly stands out as the chief reason clients enlist my services as a personal trainer. Although many have little or no prior exercise experience, some perform semi-regular cardiovascular exercise and still see no significant changes in their body. If you’re thinking: “You mean to tell me that even if I finally get off my butt and do cardio I still might not lose fat?” I am sorry to break the news to you, but the answer is, yes. The sustained intensity and duration of your cardiovascular activity dictate whether or not you burn fat.

Think of fat as nothing more than a storehouse of calories. Every day you consume a quantity of calories in the form of food. You offset that with the amount of calories you burn every day through physical activity, and even while at rest (called the basal metabolic rate). To put it simply: You have “calories in” and “calories out.”  If your “calories in” are greater than your “calories out,” the excess is stored as fat. Reverse the two and you lose fat.

When doing cardio, it is possible to burn fat with the Karvonen Formula, a mathematical formula that determines your target heart rate zone. If you maintain your target heart rate, you will get the most out of your cardio workouts.

Here’s how to can burn fat with the Karvonen Formula.
Understand heart rate
Two factors determine whether you utilize fat as a source of energy during exercise: intensity and duration. It takes your body a little while to begin the fat-burning process, so you must be able to sustain the activity for a prolonged period of time in order to ensure you are burning fat. Consequently, activities that require near maximal effort, such as weight training (which cannot be sustained for long periods of time), do not rely on fat as the primary source for energy. I generally start a client with 20 minutes and steadily increase the duration as they become accustomed to the activity.  

The intensity of cardiovascular exercise is measured in beats per minute. When you exercise, your heart rate increases. This increase occurs as a result of a greater demand for oxygen by the working muscles in your body. The more intense the activity, the more oxygen is required and the heart, in turn, must beat faster to meet this need. However, if the intensity of the activity increases too much, your body is unable to process fat as a source of energy and switches to a different energy production method called anaerobic glycolysis. In order to keep from switching to that alternate energy production system, you must keep your heart rate from getting too high.      
Use the Karvonen Formula
You can burn fat with the Karvonen Formula, which is used to calculate where your heart rate should be during cardiovascular exercise in order to burn a significant amount of fat. Your age and resting heart rate (RHR) are used in the calculations. These are the two formulas used to calculate the upper and lower end of your zone:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend a range of 50%-70% for moderate-intensity physical activity and 70%-85% for vigorous-intensity physical activity. If you are unsure as to which range you should use to burn fat with the Karvonen Formula, begin with the moderate range. If you are able to stay in the range for 45 minutes, then you are ready to train in the vigorous range. Remember to stay in your zone for at least 20 minutes to ensure your body engages in the fat-burning process. The longer you stay in your zone, the more you will burn fat with the Karvonen Formula.
Monitor your pulse
A convenient way to monitor your pulse is to use a heart rate monitor. Although there are many styles to choose from, the basic design is the same: a sensor strap goes around your chest and transmits a signal to a watch you wear around your wrist. Most watches allow you to program your zone (or even calculate it for you) and use a combination of tones to alert you if you are outside your target zone. I recommend the Polar heart-rate monitor. Polar manufactures sturdy, waterproof products that interact with most commercial-grade cardiovascular equipment.
getting physical  
Remember, cardiovascular exercise is anything that elevates your heart rate for an extended period of time. Whether it’s running, power walking, swimming, or cleaning the house (yes, that can be cardio too), so long as you stay within your zone you are calling upon your storehouse of energy (i.e., fat) to fuel the activity. Perform that activity regularly enough to offset the calories you put in your body (i.e., food) and you most certainly will lose fat. It will not happen overnight, but it will happen.