Explain getting in the fat burning level

[Laketon79]

I have always heard that it's important to get into the fat burning mode while exercising, I'm guessing this too is all wrong? How does that all work?

[whitjm5]

In short, yes, it's wrong (for many people).

http://articles.elitefts.com/training-articles/women-running-into-trouble/

[missmary]

Your body is designed to burn carbs during some activities, body fat during others, and neither of these is wrong.

 

I get the best results (by far) from doing a combination of very short very high intensity work (like sprinting) and much longer/slower low intensity work (like walking). IMHO the only reason to do long duration, medium intensity work (like running marathons) is if you love it or if you a competitive athlete in the event (In which case I really really hope you love it). For most people, that kind of activity just creates more stress on the body, burns muscle and lowers your metabolism--actually it does that for all people, but those who love it are ok with the trade-offs. I used to be a spin class junkie, and I can tell you my fitness improved exponentially after I stopped.

[Kim Christensen]

What's important is that you fuel your workouts for your goals. While I continue to lose weight steadily since I did my first W30 Jan 1st my goals are not weight loss in the gym. My goals are performance based. I want to be strong, and move faster, have more endurance, more power, build physical health, so I fuel my workouts accordingly. Magically your body responds to that kind of thing and will lean out. But if I focused on making sure I was always in fat burning mode when I worked out my performance would suffer.