help! - burning carbs vs. burning fat

[ft3in2003]

Hi everyone - I'm new and this is actually my first post. I have a question about burning carbs vs. burning fat. My situation is this - I'm 5-8, 180 lbs. I appear to "slim" but my gut is horrible! I'm trying to lose it - that is my main priority. Right now my workout schedule is something like this -

3 days a week - weights & light cardio (heart rate at 120-130 for 30 min or so)
3 days a week - high intensity cardio - combo of stationary bike, elliptical, stairmaster, or just jogging (heart rate at 150-180 for 45 min to 1 hr)

I've heard that by having my heart rate over 150 that i'll be burning "Carbs" as opposed to "Fat". What in the hell does this mean? Is this OK? I want to lose as much weight as possible without OVER TRAINING.

I guess my question is this - Is it beneficial for me to do high intensity cardio (heart rate 150-180) 3X a week? Is that too much? too little?

Thanks guys!

Fred.

First of all, welcome to Discuss Fitness.

I believe twice a week of an anaerobic HR-range cardio session is sufficient. You should be able to get the job done in 30 minutes if the intensity is there. Personally, I favor running over the other cardio alternatives.

You want to save some energy for pumping some iron or a challenging bodyweight only workout. You'll do more for reducing your gut by doing "push aways" as in pushing away from the dinner table and eating less food.

Others will chime in here and give you their two cents.

Why don't you start an online journal to record your workouts. You'll get great feedback by doing so.

Have a great day!

[bics56]

Diet is key to lose your gut. Make sure you are taking is lees calories than the amount to maintain your current bodyweight...take in good carbs, good fats...clean it up basically. As for you question...I read in a study with 3 groups of people walking Group 1 walked at a pace of one mile in 14 minutes, group 2 walked at a pace of one mile in 16 minutes and group 3 walked at a pace od one mile in 20 minutes. They found that group one burned more carbs and less fat and group 3 burned the most fat. But is you have unused carbs they will most likely convert to fat anyways...just thought it was interesting