Target heart rate

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mygrl4meee
mygrl4meee Posts: 943 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I run and use a polar ft4 for my calorie burn. It tells me how much of my workout was in the target heart rate zone. Most of the time my runs are majority of the time in the zone. But sometimes I notice if I end up with an increased speed I have a higher heart rate and miss the zone. What does that mean? Not in fat burning zone? If so what am I burning? Is it ideal to be in the zone even if that means going slower? I don't think of myself as a fast runner. I am training for a half marathon and based on my times it will probably take me 2 3\4 hours. Last summer half marathon was 3 hours 5 minutes

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  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,209 Member
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    I'm surprised they still use the silly "fat burning zone". Google "fat burning zone myth" for more on that. Run at whatever pace works for you. :+1:
  • mygrl4meee
    mygrl4meee Posts: 943 Member
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    Thanks. I won't worry about the zone.
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    The other problem with may HRM's "zones" is that they're simply taking 220-your age as the MaxHR which isn't very accurate for the vast majority of people.

    The is a great deal of virtue in doing most of your training at lower heart rates but you can usually just go by perceived exertion, if you can speak in complete sentences you're probably on the right zone.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,568 Member
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    The "fat burning zone" IMO was basically created by the fitness industry to help people who weren't that great at cardio, feel good about at least doing even low intensity cardio. While it's true that the PERCENTAGE of fat burn is higher a lower levels, TOTAL fat burn is still higher at higher intensities for the same duration.
    You're still going to burn glycogen primarily anyway.
    You want to burn fat effectively? Make sure you get enough rest. At rest, fat is the primary source for fuel.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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  • dewd2
    dewd2 Posts: 2,449 Member
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    Zones are useful if you know your actual max heart rate and your lactate threshold. I use this information in my training . For example, today rather than rely on pace, I use my HR percentage when I ran my 18 mile training run. My purpose today was to stay between 75-80% max. Over the next couple months I will use this to find the best pace for my upcoming marathon. While this isn't 100% accurate it will give me an idea what pace group to start in.

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