fat burn

[johnt-]

I walk for about 2 1/2 hour a day. About 15000 steps. 1300 calories. How can I lower my cardio but increase my fat burn. At present my fat burn is lower than my cardio. At this time losing weight and fat is my goal.

[Dominique]

Welcome to the community, @johnt-! 2.5 hours is an impressive amount of walking! Don’t overthink the HR zone thing and focus instead on being in a reasonable/sustainable caloric deficit: that’s what’s going to cause weight loss / fat loss. You can spend all the time you want in the "fat burn zone", if you are not in a caloric deficit at the weekly level, you won’t burn any amount of fat in net balance. Your 2.5 hours of walking should contribute mightily to the needed caloric deficit, provided you don’t reward yourself by eating the same calories you just burned.   

[checking]

@johnt- I walk at about the same rate, on the level my HR doesn't get much above 85 - mostly fat burn. Keep walking at your current rate and take the cardio as a good thing - nothing magic about fat burn calories - cardio calories are just as good for weight loss as 'fat burn' calories. The difference is that cardio work will deplete glycogen reserves in your muscles, which are later replenished from fat metabolism. In 'fat burning' the muscle activity is low enough that glycogen can be replaced as it is used. Again, take a mild amount of cardio with your walking, you'll lose weight faster, get fitter, feel better, and generally progress faster. Eventually, at the same walking rate, you'll find your HR lower, and a higher fraction of fat burn calories - if that is what you are shooting for.

[SunsetRunner]

If you mean lower the time it takes to burn the same amount of calories, HIIT is your best friend and tends to burn calories long after you have stopped. If you aren’t already, I would start weight training. You can accomplish HIIT and weight training well under the time it takes you to do your walk.

[Dominique]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

You can accomplish HIIT and weight training well under the time it takes you to do your walk.

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HIIT may be more "time-efficient" than low-intensity cardio like walking. However, you cannot perform it everyday (because of the need to recover for it) and you’re always going to expend more energy in absolute terms doing 2.5 hours of low-intensity activity than 0.5 hours of high-intensity stuff. Besides, what if squeezing your activity in just 0.5 hours results in spending the remaining two hours in front of the TV or the computer? For someone spending their day sitting in an office (like most people these days), time spent on your feet (e.g. walking) is always beneficial, even if deemed "wasteful".

That being said, I agree it’s a good idea to include some resistance training as well, but it doesn’t need to be mutually exclusive with "wasteful" low-intensity cardio activities like walking.

[emili · Accepted solution]

@johnt- hey there and let me add my welcome to the community. Unless I am misreading your question, I think you are getting caught up in terminology. Being in an HR that is labeled as fat burn, doesn't mean that actual fat burn will occur only in this "segment". Fat burn will happen when you are in a caloric deficit as @Dominique mentioned. You can help the deficit by being active, which will also improve your cardio score which could be an indicator of overall cardio health. I hope between all of us, we helped you with your question...