Heart Rate Monitors and Weight Loss HELP!?!

HonestOmnivore

I still need help!

I understand that my HRM can give me a pretty good estimate of the calories I burn during aerobic activity such as work out tapes, tread mill time, running outside etc... When I do strength training such as weight lifting the HRM will give me a number for calories burned but it's unlikely to be accurate (so don't use it). When I do combination work such as circuit training or Curves it will help me keep track of my average heart rate and for a work out to work out comparison should give me an indication of how hard I worked - but again - the calories burned won't be very accurate so I shouldn't use it.

For aerobic activity, such as the elliptical machine, what % of my max heart rate should I work to maintain? I understand my body will metabolize fat when I work at a lower rate, but it will only burn fraction of the calories (most from fat) at that level of effort. When I go up to the 80% of max range my body converts other forms of energy (easier) rather than burning fat and I pull more calories out of my system. The hope here is that my body will then convert fat to rebuild muscle or other sources of energy.

Is that right so far?

My HRM and my elliptical both want to hold me in the 70-80% of max heart rate range for a good workout. Shouldn't I want to work up to my max? I feel like I'm getting a much better work out if I work in the 80-90% range? I'm pretty out of shape so it's very easy for me to go up into this higher range right now if I want to keep any sort of rhythm going on the elliptical machine.

I've also heard it's good to "mix it up" spend some time up in the high 80s and some time down in the 70s but that seem counter intuitive because it seems like the lower heart rate ranges would burn less calories.

I have about an hour a day for aerobic exercise and I want to make sure I use it in the most effective way for weight loss. I have another 75 lbs of fat I need to get off before I'll be able to really see the toning or strength building - not that I'll wait! It just won't be for aesthetics for now - just building muscle to give me a better resting metabolism for for the longer after burn. My plan is to build three 30 minute sessions of weight training into my schedule over the next few weeks to give me six 60 minutes sessions of aerobic (elliptical plus speed walking) and three 30 minute sessions of weights or strength training each week.

As I get into shape I plan to mix up the aerobic with some running and work out videos.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated!

tlblood

You have a lot here, so I'll touch on what I know/or do...

First, it is my understanding that at 60% of max HR is where you will start to burn fat (weight loss zone), but you're not getting the aerobic benefits for your heart until you are above the 80% mark. I believe that 80% is best because you are doing your heart good and still burning max calories.

I wear my HR monitor for cardio and circuit training, since in circuits, when I'm doing the strength exercises, my HR is still up from the cardio and I'll be getting right back to it. I don't rely on it for just strength training because it doesn't seem accurate at that point, and so I just figure those are bonus calories...extra calories I'm burning but not counting.

As far as the "mix it up" goes, I've mostly thought that refers to which muscles you are working, not necessarily mixing up your HR within a workout. So, don't use the elliptical every day because those muscles need to rest, so on your off elliptical days do something else that works different muscles. Often 2 days on, one day off I've heard is the recommended pattern for exercises.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Azdak

My personal feeling about aerobic training is that your overall plan should have 2 goals:

1. Maximize your calorie expenditure (average over time).

2. Train to improve your overall fitness--this will allow you to work harder and thus, among other things, to contribute to goal #1.

The fuel substrate you use during your workouts (fat or carbohydrate) is insignificant. Even if you could burn "all fat", the total amount consumed during a workout is miniscule--if you burned 1000 Cals in and hour, it would only be 1 to 1.5 ounces at best.

I feel that, if you have a lot of weight to lose, the combination of a relatively high volume of aerobic training, 2 strength workouts, and a restricted calorie diet is the best overall strategy. Eventually you will have to plateau, at which point this will all have to be revised, but that is down the road.

To improve your aerobic fitness, I find the best approach is a combination of less-intense endurance workouts, medium tempo workouts, and some shorter, more intense interval workouts. Normally for a 5x/wk program I would do 1 endurance, 3 tempo, and 1 interval workout. For losing weight, I might revise that to 2 endurance, 3-4 tempo and 1 interval--and I would modify the interval workout so that the "work' intervals were not quite as hard as usual, so I kept the minutes up and still did 25-30 min.

To determine intensity, pick the intensity that allows you to complete the number of minutes you are shooting for in that workout. I would make sure you are always comparing your feelings of exertion with the heart rate number--don't necessarily let the HR number or percentage rule you, unless that is your plan for the day (e.g. to keep the HR at a certain level if it's an "easy" day). By that I mean, if you feel you can work harder and maintain that effort for an extended time, do it and don't worry about the %. There are three basic intensities--easy, medium, hard. All have a place in your workout routine.

I would also strongly recommend using the HR reserve method for calculating training heart rates, if you are not doing so already. This involves a multi-step process.

1. Determine resting HR (HRrest).
2. Estimate maximum HR (HRmax)
3. Subtract HRrest from HRmax--the remainder is called the HR Reserve.
4. Multiply HR reserve by your target intensity in decimal form (.6 fo 60%, .75 for 75%, etc).
5. Add the result from #4 to your HR rest--that is your target HR for that intensity.

Example: let's say your estimated HR max is 180 and HR rest is 60. HRmax (180) minus HRrest (60) equals HRreserve (120). To calculate a 60% intensity target HR we multiply HR reserve (120) by 60% (.6). The result is 72. Add 72 to HRrest (60) and the result is 132. That would be the 60% intensity target heart rate. That's quite different that take HRmax (180) and multiplying that by 60%. The result of that would be 108, which would be way too low.

So vary your intensities--don't do the same thing every time. And don't be afraid to push it if you feel inspired.

HonestOmnivore

Thanks to both of you!

The HR Reserve method makes total sense to me - my estimated max is 177 and my resting pulse is 80. I've been feeling like my workout is hard when I'm between 150 and 160 bpm - up in the 160s I start to feel a little woozy :ohwell:

Using this HR Reserve method, my 80% max starts at 156 and up MUCH more reasonable than the standard method which put me down at 141! I'd already reset my HR watch to keep me in a range from 145 to 155 because anything lower just didn't feel like I was working hard enough - now I have some real justification for my hunch! Now I'll move my range up to 165.

Yesterday I was able to go 50 minutes at an average of 151bpm (73% of max with this method) after a 10 minute cool down the average dropped to 141, and I was pretty well taped out for the day. If I understand you I could do that twice a week, as my endurance session.

When you say tempo - what do you mean? Is that varying the tempo for a range of efforts over a shorter period of time such as 45 minutes? Or would it be a 50 - 60 minute workout but by varying the effort my average hr might be lower?

For shorter, intense workout you mean through resistance and speed doing something like sprints where you use bursts for a few minutes at a time over a 30 -35 minute period?

I had a stress-echo in 07 and all was great (had an esophageal spasm and they admitted me to cardiac step-down) so I'm not worried about working up in my range- I just want to do what's smart. My doctor gave me the clear to start exercising and encouraged me to run as soon as my weights down (to spare my knees).

I'm sorry for all the questions but if I'm going to do this I want to do this right (you have no idea how much I hate exercise!:huh: )

Azdak

Thanks to both of you!

The HR Reserve method makes total sense to me - my estimated max is 177 and my resting pulse is 80. I've been feeling like my workout is hard when I'm between 150 and 160 bpm - up in the 160s I start to feel a little woozy :ohwell:

Using this HR Reserve method, my 80% max starts at 156 and up MUCH more reasonable than the standard method which put me down at 141! I'd already reset my HR watch to keep me in a range from 145 to 155 because anything lower just didn't feel like I was working hard enough - now I have some real justification for my hunch! Now I'll move my range up to 165.

Yesterday I was able to go 50 minutes at an average of 151bpm (73% of max with this method) after a 10 minute cool down the average dropped to 141, and I was pretty well taped out for the day. If I understand you I could do that twice a week, as my endurance session.

When you say tempo - what do you mean? Is that varying the tempo for a range of efforts over a shorter period of time such as 45 minutes? Or would it be a 50 - 60 minute workout but by varying the effort my average hr might be lower?

For shorter, intense workout you mean through resistance and speed doing something like sprints where you use bursts for a few minutes at a time over a 30 -35 minute period?

I had a stress-echo in 07 and all was great (had an esophageal spasm and they admitted me to cardiac step-down) so I'm not worried about working up in my range- I just want to do what's smart. My doctor gave me the clear to start exercising and encouraged me to run as soon as my weights down (to spare my knees).

I'm sorry for all the questions but if I'm going to do this I want to do this right (you have no idea how much I hate exercise!:huh: )

I know that the "tempo" part is a little tougher to quantify, but I haven't come up with a better explanation yet. From what you describe, your 50 min workout comes pretty close (the idea that you felt "tapped out" the rest of the day is indicative of that); So doing that for 45-50 min would work. If you want to do more (maybe just 1x per week in this case since you are already at a good level), take the intensity down a notch and push the minutes out to 60-75.

The interval workouts don't have to be "sprints" just something where you are pushing it for 1-4 min followed by a recovery interval. Or you can do "ladders"--maybe 5 min sections where you start at a lower speed/level, then push it up one notch every min for 5 min, then drop back down and do it over. I'll do this type of workout on all my cardio machines--treadmill, stairclimber, cross trainer. I find it's a really good way to break up a workout and the extra challenge in min 4 and 5 of the sequence helps improve your overall performance so that your "cruising" speed eventually becomes higher and you burn more Calories overall.

HonestOmnivore

The interval workouts don't have to be "sprints" just something where you are pushing it for 1-4 min followed by a recovery interval. Or you can do "ladders"--maybe 5 min sections where you start at a lower speed/level, then push it up one notch every min for 5 min, then drop back down and do it over. I'll do this type of workout on all my cardio machines--treadmill, stairclimber, cross trainer. I find it's a really good way to break up a workout and the extra challenge in min 4 and 5 of the sequence helps improve your overall performance so that your "cruising" speed eventually becomes higher and you burn more Calories overall.

I tried the interval approach today. I did four "sprints" and held the speed for about a minute (I used the distance guide on the elliptical). I am amazed at how hard that was! I didn't let my heart rate go back down below about 75% of max in between and tried to keep it up in the 85% of max. By the last sprint I was toast and held it the same distance at the others but then basically went into a cool down after a total of 28 minutes. I stayed on the elliptical and kept my heart rate in the 70-75% of max range until I'd been at it for a total of 35 minutes then walked to cool down the rest of the way.

I'm surprised at how much better I'm doing on the elliptical after just two weeks. I am so grateful for your advice on the HR Reserve method - my new target zones make so much more sense to me and feel better. I enjoyed watching my HR go up into the 160s and amazingly I didn't die or pass out :laugh:

One more question! At work we have four flights of steps. I take a break from my desk and climb them once or twice a day. It doesn't take more than five minutes to go up and down them once - I'm totally out of breath when I get to the top, where I'll pause to recover a bit then go back down the steps and back to work. Does that do any good? My co-workers said that since it's not 10 minutes I'm wasting my time - but I feel like I've gotten much better at it (at first I had to rest at each landing).

Thanks!

~Melinda

Azdak

The interval workouts don't have to be "sprints" just something where you are pushing it for 1-4 min followed by a recovery interval. Or you can do "ladders"--maybe 5 min sections where you start at a lower speed/level, then push it up one notch every min for 5 min, then drop back down and do it over. I'll do this type of workout on all my cardio machines--treadmill, stairclimber, cross trainer. I find it's a really good way to break up a workout and the extra challenge in min 4 and 5 of the sequence helps improve your overall performance so that your "cruising" speed eventually becomes higher and you burn more Calories overall.

I tried the interval approach today. I did four "sprints" and held the speed for about a minute (I used the distance guide on the elliptical). I am amazed at how hard that was! I didn't let my heart rate go back down below about 75% of max in between and tried to keep it up in the 85% of max. By the last sprint I was toast and held it the same distance at the others but then basically went into a cool down after a total of 28 minutes. I stayed on the elliptical and kept my heart rate in the 70-75% of max range until I'd been at it for a total of 35 minutes then walked to cool down the rest of the way.

I'm surprised at how much better I'm doing on the elliptical after just two weeks. I am so grateful for your advice on the HR Reserve method - my new target zones make so much more sense to me and feel better. I enjoyed watching my HR go up into the 160s and amazingly I didn't die or pass out :laugh:

One more question! At work we have four flights of steps. I take a break from my desk and climb them once or twice a day. It doesn't take more than five minutes to go up and down them once - I'm totally out of breath when I get to the top, where I'll pause to recover a bit then go back down the steps and back to work. Does that do any good? My co-workers said that since it's not 10 minutes I'm wasting my time - but I feel like I've gotten much better at it (at first I had to rest at each landing).

Thanks!

~Melinda

Glad some of this is helpful. Again, you don't have to kill yourself doing the intervals. And you can come up with all kinds of different patterns. And there is nothing wrong with letting HR go down during the recovery.

Stairs: Two things. One, stairs are really, really difficult because you are lifting your body directly up a vertical distance. It's something that other forms of cardio--even a "pedal type" stairclimber-- do not really prepare you for. So don't be surprised if your stair climbing ability doesn't improve as much as your elliptical performance.

Two: it's probably not enough time to make a huge difference, but it's not "useless" either.. One of the problems is our society is that so much of our work life is sedentary that our "casual activity" is down to almost nothing. So--any movement is good IMO. You keep climbing your stairs!