Advice on Cardio and HR

unari68

I’m on day 20 of my dieting and exercising. Mostly my workout consisted of walking around a track as fast as I can. Yesterday, I bumped it up and went to a gym. I worked out on a treadmill at a speed of 3.0mph for 30 mins and my heart rate was at 165-175 the entire time. I’m completely out of shape and have avoided exercising like the plague ever since I was younger. So I googled a target heart rate for a 27 year old and it was well below 165-175 and it actually said a heart rate of 170 is dangerous for a newbie. I’m confused, should I slow down the intensity of my workout even though 3.0mph is already slow? If I do slow down the intensity will it still help with weight loss?

Mr_Knight

Lower the intensity, stretch out the time. Far less likely to hurt yourself that way.

Your walking burn will be almost entirely determined by distance and body weight - you can get the same burn with lower intensity, you just have to go longer to cover the same distance.

Cherimoose

How did you feel? If you felt fine, you're probably ok.

scottb81

170 isn't dangerous as long as you don't have any heart problems. But you're a whole lot better off exercising at a HR of 150 to 155 and going longer. Your HR will begin dropping quickly and you will have to start speeding up.