Heart Rate Zones

Marciad1976

Hello everyone!
I recently purchased the Polar FT4 heart rate monitor to use while working out to Beachbody dvd's Jillian etc. I entered all of my info and it gave me the heart rate zones to stay within. I used it for the first time yesterday and at the end of my 38 minute workout it showed that only 7 minutes I was actually in my targeted heart rate zone. So I wanted to come to all of you and get your thoughts.

1. Should I worry about this - I am trying to lose weight.
2. Should I change my zones?
3. If you did change your zones what method did you use to come up with the correct zones?

Thank you!

BrianSharpe

I'm assuming you mean the "fat-burning" zone?

Forget you ever heard the term. While it is true that low intensity cadio burns a higher proportion of fat as fuel it burns far fewer calories than higher intensity exercise and, in terms of weight lose it's calories that count (fat burning is really of interest only to endurance athletes).

The other issue is that the zones that many HRMs calculate are based on 220-your age as the MaxHR which is also a pretty useless number, it was originally considered the maxHR for sedentary recovering heart attack patients.

Use perceived effort as your guide, most of your exercise (cardio) should be at an intensity where you feel like your being challenged but at which you can still speak in full sentences, if you're gasping for air you're going too hard..

Marciad1976

Thank you so should I just ignore the time the HRM tells me i worked out in my fat burning zone or should I change the zones?