Aerobic Zones and Fat Burning Zones

I have been walking 5 miles per day mostly in 30 -60 min sessions . My heart-rate has been around 100. I have read that the best fat burning zone is around 70 to 80 percent of your max heart-rate.

For me 220-43 = 177 X 0.7 124 BPM

 As my fitness improves should I keep the walking constant (does it have value) or perhaps include slight jogs to get the heart-rate up (and use this for my NEPA instead).

The walking is talking quite a long time . But I guess it is not taxing .

Any advice is advice is greatly appreciated. I would like to thank the forum for its continued support.

Step up the pace a tad, these walks are most effective at around Cardio Zone 3… you should be able to talk, but with noticeable breath.

EDIT:
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For more reading, try here (although any website can tell you the -ins and -outs of Cardio Zones) Heart Rate Zones | The Basics | Polar Blog

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Might be worth looking into heavy hands, which Dan John talks about here

However, don’t throw out the importance of long, easy cardio like walks or heavy hands.

Marty Gallagher also discusses this in “purposeful primitive”. You can keep the walk pace the same and still get your heart rate jacked by moving inefficiently with something in your hands.

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Could I wear a 10 kg vest too? I will take a look thanks .

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You can wear whatever you want, but the way heavy hands works is by moving the load AWAY from your body. Wearing a vest is the opposite. You could always do both.

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I’m in a boat with you @decimation, and I’m sure @T3hPwnisher / Dan John’s advice is better, but I just throw a loaded backpack on. I don’t have the time/ inclination to take walks for myself, and take my calls, and walk the dogs… yet a walk is not enough to get my heart rate up. Throwing some weight on helps get the heartrate up and I can still take the dogs (which I couldn’t if I was holding things).
I guess the point is: just do whatever the lowest barrier is to accomplish your objective (getting that heart rate over 124) without getting too worried about which method is better. If you don’t have to deal with the dogs, the inefficiency of the “heavy hands” is likely the barrier; for me, multitasking is the obvious choice.
Does that ramble make sense? Sometimes I’m pretty sure I’m just an idiot spouting nonsense.

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No I get it. I do not have heavy hands. Funnily enough I refused a very similar gift a few weeks ago.
Going to try walking with a 10 kg vest for now. I do have two vests , if I go too heavy I get joint pain . I don’t have dogs. I could try some light dbs or 1kg plates.
I’ll get some heavy hands at some point.
I have set up an upperbody ergometer station at home for a bit of variety.

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It’s just all about getting in activity that gets you winded - sounds like you’ve got a ton of routes!

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Yeah I got lots of options. I have always struggled with diet though. It’s going well now though. Thanks guys.

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