Sing Yourself Lean

So what to do? How do you pick the right intensity? It turns out that there is an ideal range of exercise intensity for each person, which elicits the optimal balance of maximum total caloric expenditure and highest possible percentage of calories drawn from fat. The fitter one is, the higher the speed at which one can run or ride or swim or row or cross-country ski in the optimal zone. Aerobic training actually boosts your ability to use fat as a fuel at higher exercise intensities, so there is no good formula based just on speed or age or maximum heart rate for everyone.

The optimal intensity can be anywhere from about 55 percent of maximum heart rate in a mostly sedentary individual, to 75–80 percent of maximum heart rate in a very fit individual. If you know your lactate threshold, the maximal fat-burning/minimal appetite-boosting zone ends about 10 to 15 beats below it. Laboratory tests can precisely pinpoint your optimal intensity, which is why competitive athletes have themselves tested (though your range will change depending on each specific exercise mode and as you become fitter, so if you want to pinpoint your zone precisely you need to revisit the lab frequently).

Fortunately, you can easily feel when you exceed the optimal fat-burning range. The optimal intensity corresponds pretty closely to the highest intensity of exercise that you can sustain and still be able to sing or orate comfortably. If you can orate or sing at a particular level of effort but any increase in effort eliminates that ability, you are close to your optimal point. If you are exercising so hard that you don’t have enough breath to sing, you are going too hard for optimal fat utilization. If you feel you could exercise harder and still sing, you could be going harder and use more fat calories. So challenge yourself. How fast can you sing?

Photo: Perttu Lämsä