– Does your body burn more fat when your heart rate is elevated, even if you’re not exercising?

Question

I wear a Fitbit that tracks my heart rate. I’ve been really stressed recently which is causing my heart rate to spike at times. When this happens, Fitbit tells me that I’m in the “exercise zone” and that I burned a ton of calories. I’m assuming this is because my heart rate falls into the exercise “fat burn” zone, but does my body actually burn any more fat than usual if I’m just sitting at my desk and anxious? Seems way too good to be true…

In: Biology

Answer 1

At some level, sure. Takes more energy (calories) for a heart to beat more times per minute than less times per min.

Your watch should use the heart rate, and motion (and maybe galvanic skin) to determine how many calories you are actually burning. But yes, Sitting on the couch at 40BPM burns less calories than sitting and doing 100 BPM (all other things being equal).