My heart rate and HRM

jody664

Back when I was in my 20s, I was diagnosed with a minor heart defect that causes my heart rate to be abnormally high. Before being diagnosed, I'd been rushed to the hospital twice with my heart rate in the 200-250 range (amazingly I remained conscious both times). I was sent to an electrophysiologist who put me on medication that has regulated my heart rate. However, it still tends to runs in the upper limits of normal, 90-95 BPM.

Would anyone know what effect this would have on my heart rate during exercise? My HRM (Polar FT4) says my range should be 113 to 148. When I'm working out my heart rate is typically 145-155.

Just curious if my upper normal resting heart rate would cause my calories burned during exercise to be "off" and if so by how much.

(In case anyone is worried, my PCP is aware of my diet and exercise program and has cleared me to work out as hard as I want, as log as my knees can handle it.)

Azdak

Your calories burned during exercise (cardio) are determined by two things: body weight x intensity of effort. So, having a higher than average maximum heart rate will not affect your calories burned during exercise.

It WILL affect the reading you get if you wear a heart rate monitor, but that's a mechanical problem with the HRM--it has nothing to do with your actual calories burned.

Your higher resting heart WILL affect the calculation of a "target" exercise heart rate, and it probably means that all those little charts you see on the cardio machines are completely useless (they are useless anyway, in your case, just more so).

Accurately setting a target heart rate requires that you know your true maximum heart rate, as well as resting heart rate. Resting HR is easy to measure--max HR not so much. In fact, it would not be recommended for you to push yourself to a maximum effort to try to determine that number.

The best thing is to learn to gauge your effort by perceived exertion. Your lower/upper limits should be:

Lower: Someone who did not know you were exercising but talking to you on the phone should be able to tell you are working out by hearing your breathing, but you should be able to easily carry on the conversation.

Upper: While trying to talk to someone, you can only speak in short phrases because of the breathing effort.

Stay within those two limits and just observe your heart rate responses to the different levels of effort. Soon, you will determine your own "target heart rate range".

jody664

Wow, thank you for such a thorough and easy to understand explanation. That makes sense. I have felt that my range was off since I don't feel like I'm dying at 150, which is supposedly out of my range of 113 to 148.

Thanks for taking time to respond with such a detailed explanation. I really appreciate it.