heart rate

mpizzle421

I'm 35, weight about 272 currently, and I've started dieting exercising again steadily the last month or so.

When I get my fat *kitten* on the elliptical in the morning I notice based on the heart rate readings I get from the machine that:

1. Very little effort is required to get my heart pumping. When I start I'm at about 120

2. It takes very little effort to reach my 80% between 140-150

I find this frustrating. I feel like I have the stamina to push myself harder, but I don't want to sustain an unhealthy/unsafe heart rate. I also get a bit bummed out when I look over at people at least 10-15 years older than me sustaining a more rigorous rate at a much lower heart rate.

How long did it take you folks to see decent cardio improvements and how much do I really need to keep my heartrate at 80% or so?

DavPul

did a medical professional tell you that walking on an elliptical with a HR of 150 is an "unhealthy heart rate?" and do you consider the HRM reading on a standard elliptical to be a medical quality device?

barring preexisting medical conditions, i suggest paying the HRM zero mind. if you're not dizzy, light headed, nauseous or anything else that's more serious than "out of breath" you're probably fine. you'd have to look far and wide to find otherwise healthy people that had to go to the ER because their heart exploded while walking on an elliptical. while theoretically possible, you would run out of gas long long looooooooong before you reached the heart explodin' portion of the activity


ETA: to add the word "NOT" where it was supposed to be. it's kinda important

wilsoje74

If you feel fine, is it really necessary to monitor your heart rate? Do you have a medical condition?

mpizzle421

Good answers.

1. Thinking I need to adhere to some general guidelines regarding heart rate comes from places like this (the article
Sums it up)


http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/healthtool-target-heart-rate-calculator

No, I'm sure it's it's not medical quality, but it's just consistent and a fair way to judge progress.

No medical conditions.

Thanks for the questions.

sympha01

Bump for the replies.

OP, I'll share my experience in answer to your question about how long until you start seeing results, since I am also an exercise newbie and have have been monitoring my results with some interest.

I am 43 yo and obese (currently at 299 pounds). Especially for someone who has never been into exercising and is not fit, my resting heart rate is on the low side (ranges between 55 and 63). I started exercising semi-regularly in July, and in August locked my regimen down to something challenging that seems to be working well for me. Six days a week I do a range of low-impact calisthenics and some light resistance training, mixed together in a kind of circuit training routine that lasts 35 minutes not including warm up or cool down. My heart rate during exercise ranges between 120 and 140, so not that high, but then I'm not doing anything super-high intensity. After only a couple of weeks in July I could tell it was helping with my flexibility quite a bit. My endurance also improved noticeably in about 4 weeks, and has continued to improve even more. The best / weirdest thing is after about 10 weeks my metabolism suddenly kicked into hyperdrive: I'm hungrier (not unpleasantly so, actually) but the fat is coming off the scale faster even though my calorie intake has been steady. I'm not certain it's the exercise, but I mostly do think that's what it is.

From what I've read, you don't "need" to keep your heart rate up very high but a lot of it depends on what you want to get out of it. You get different benefits from exercising at "high intensity" i.e. above 65% or 70% of max heart rate, or lower intensity i.e. above 50% max heart rate but below 65%. I thought I had read somewhere that once you get to 80% of max heart rate you're getting into territory best left to athletes unless it's just for a brief sprint, but obviously I'm no expert.

I'm hoping others who are more knowledgeable will chime in about different heart rate zones.

P.S. Your avatar is funny.

_Waffle_

I feel like I have the stamina to push myself harder, but I don't want to sustain an unhealthy/unsafe heart rate.

There's your answer. When you're overdoing it the signals to stop are unmistakable. You won't have to ask if you should slow down. Your body will scream at you and I do mean SCREAM!!! that you need to ease up. It's nearly mentally impossible to fight these signals. 3 miles into a 5k when you've been running nearly flat out you hear this voice. I doubt you're going to hear this on the elliptical or treadmill in normal situations.

Max heart rate just means your heart won't go faster. It doesn't mean you'll fall over dead. Go ahead and hold your breath till you die. Go on. See if you can do it. Nope. Not happening because your body will give you clear signals that you're doing something it doesn't like. It's that clear with heart rate too.

I also get a bit bummed out when I look over at people at least 10-15 years older than me sustaining a more rigorous rate at a much lower heart rate.

Your max heart rate drops as you get older. Also they might have been doing this for years. You have no idea and it doesn't matter. Just keep challenging yourself and with dedication and persistence you'll drop your heart rate so that what's hard today will eventually be a pretty easy task. You need to give yourself at least 6 months before you worry about it getting lower or not. Just do the exercise and don't sweat the small stuff. Or yeah, do sweat. It's good for you.

Azdak

I'm 35, weight about 272 currently, and I've started dieting exercising again steadily the last month or so.

When I get my fat *kitten* on the elliptical in the morning I notice based on the heart rate readings I get from the machine that:

1. Very little effort is required to get my heart pumping. When I start I'm at about 120

2. It takes very little effort to reach my 80% between 140-150

I find this frustrating. I feel like I have the stamina to push myself harder, but I don't want to sustain an unhealthy/unsafe heart rate. I also get a bit bummed out when I look over at people at least 10-15 years older than me sustaining a more rigorous rate at a much lower heart rate.

How long did it take you folks to see decent cardio improvements and how much do I really need to keep my heartrate at 80% or so?

Couple of things:

1. Those types of calculators assume that everyone of a given age has the same maximum heart rate. They don't. There is a fairly wide range of "normal" max heart rates. It's possible that you have an actual max heart rate that is 10-15 beats higher than the "assumed" number. Needless to say, that will throw off your calculations.

2. Even if one's heart rate DOES match the estimated number, taking a percentage of max heart rate only is a much less precise way of estimating a target heart rate. Using the heart rate reserve method is more accurate, as it takes resting heart rate into account. Google "heart rate reserve formula" or "Karvonen heart rate" and you should get instructions how to calculate that number. For example, if your resting heart rate is 75, your 70% exercise heart rate works out to 152.

3. After a month, things should have started to settle down, but, in the beginning, obese, unfit beginners can have a very labile heart rate response to exercise.

You should always corroborate your heart rate numbers with your feelings of perceived exertion, specifically your breathing. A 60% effort level means you are in a state of mild breathlessness--the old "you can carry out a conversation, but not sing a song" description. The upper limit would be breathing so hard that you can not only gasp out 3-4 words between breaths, but you would have trouble concentrating on the conversation. There is no need at this stage to work that hard, but that's an example in case you somehow find yourself at that level.

If you feel you have the muscle endurance to continue, and you are not breathing excessively hard (see above), then it is probably same to continue at that level of effort, regardless of your heart rate (within reason).

Also, keep in mind that for most people, heart rate will "drift" upward over the length of a longer (30 min >), even with no change in workload.