Heart rate during cardio

erickirb

According to my heart rate monitor, for me to target weightloss, MY heart rate needs to be no more than 142 bpm

That's wrong. You mean to put you in the "fat burning zone", that said you will burn cals at any HR level and zones should, for the most part be ignored. The more cals you burn the more you can eat, or lose, depending on goals.

Yes I meant "fat burning zone" and want to stay there in that area which is 142 and if I exceed that, I'd be burning more carbs instead of fat. I'm not wanting endurance and I'm fat and out of shape so my heartrate result are going to be different than yours considering my height ,age, and weight

You would burn more fat at the higher HR levels, but the % of total cals burned would be less from fat.

Weight loss all comes down to the caloric deficit. If you can burn more cal in the same period of time you will lose more fat and weight, regardless what HR level you exercise at. It is the daily deficit that matters, not the amount of cals burned in different zones

arsan

Here's a good guide for what percentage to target for different goals:

http://www.thewalkingsite.com/thr.html

Personally I stay around 130-150 when doing cardio.

Exactly!

jacksonpt

Here's a good guide for what percentage to target for different goals:

http://www.thewalkingsite.com/thr.html

Personally I stay around 130-150 when doing cardio.

But you're missing the bigger picture. Let's use nice round numbers for easy conversation.

Say you work out for an hour.

at 50% of max HR, you burn 300 calories, and at 75% of max HR you burn 450 cals.

Yes, more of those 300 cals burned at 50% of max will be from fat, but you're still only burning 300 cals, which at the end of the day means less weight loss.

I guess this could be important for really lean people who are looking to get to exceptionally low body fat %, but for 99% of us, more cals burned is more better.

scottb81

My personal opinion.

If you want to maximize fat burn in the long term then the ideal "zone" to train in is the aerobic fitness zone. This is right around 75% max heart rate for most people.

The reason is that at 75% the fat & glycogen burn is around 50% each. At the same time this is the intensity level that best increased aerobic capacity - commonly called aerobic fitness.

When you first start out you may be very slow at this intensity and not burn many calories. This is due to lack of aerobic fitness.

However, after a year you will have developed a higher aerobic capacity and be able to go longer and faster at the same intensity all the while burning mostly fat.

Bottom line is that someone who has developed a very high aerobic capacity will burn more total calories than someone who only does HIIT in an equal amount of time and the majority of those calories will be fat calories. At the same time, since the workload is fairly easy their total volume of work can be much higher thereby once again greatly increasing both total calorie burn and total fat burn and minimizing the hormonal disruptions that lead to fat retention.

The end result is that weight loss is very easy to maintain even while eating prodigious amounts of food.

Lastly, the science will show that any improvements in fitness will plateau after about 8 weeks when doing only high intensity cardio unless there is a large volume of lower intensity cardio to support it.

Note: This post is only about cardio zone training. It is not saying anything about strength training.

arsan

@scottb81. Your post was written like poetry. Thank you and very informative. Hopefully the OP is getting something out of all this too.

CollegiateGrief

I'm surprised everyone averages such high heart rates during cardio! Since I still have so much weight to lose I'm usually a bit nervous to push higher than 160, and I usually stay in the mid-140s. I find I don't get the cardio high feeling though unless I get into the 150s.

Edited to add I'm 25, so max heart rate is 195.

SJ46

Between 140 - 170, depends on what I'm doing. It is rare that I go over 170 but it happens.

SJ46

But you're missing the bigger picture. Let's use nice round numbers for easy conversation.

Say you work out for an hour.

at 50% of max HR, you burn 300 calories, and at 75% of max HR you burn 450 cals.

Yes, more of those 300 cals burned at 50% of max will be from fat, but you're still only burning 300 cals, which at the end of the day means less weight loss.

I guess this could be important for really lean people who are looking to get to exceptionally low body fat %, but for 99% of us, more cals burned is more better.

This is the way I understand it as well.

carrieous

184

Jessel0001

It depends on my run, on a long slow run 160s, when I'm doing HIIT it alternates from 160 to 180+.

lexherrera

Here's a good guide for what percentage to target for different goals:

http://www.thewalkingsite.com/thr.html

Personally I stay around 130-150 when doing cardio.

But you're missing the bigger picture. Let's use nice round numbers for easy conversation.

Say you work out for an hour.

at 50% of max HR, you burn 300 calories, and at 75% of max HR you burn 450 cals.

Yes, more of those 300 cals burned at 50% of max will be from fat, but you're still only burning 300 cals, which at the end of the day means less weight loss.

I guess this could be important for really lean people who are looking to get to exceptionally low body fat %, but for 99% of us, more cals burned is more better.

I'm not trying to create a huge calorie deficit right now (actually I'm trying to maintain or gain slowly), actually focusing more on strength training, and I only do about 20 mins of cardio after I hit the weights. Already at about 20% BF and actually hoping to put on muscle, so weight loss is definitely not my goal. Makes me feel a little left out on here sometimes :P

invisibubble

Usually, for an hour of quite intense elliptical, I'm at average BPM of 175-190.

meshashesha2012

today my range was from 130-185. i did 4.78 miles of walk/running in 60 minutes.

i personally dont care about staying in a zone. i hate cardio so when i do it there's a goal in mind as opposed to just doing it. like today the target was to reach 5 miles. didnt quite make it today but i will next week

marywanoKC

I keep it somewhere between 155 - 165 for an hour long elliptical session with a resistance varying from 8 - 20. I'm 28 year old, ~320 lbs.

STrooper

Typically 135-150 bpm with a 20-25-pound pack and trekking poles.

Tends to be about 125-135 on the treadmill.

My max should be 167 and I hit that occasionally.

Morning resting is 56 bpm. I just checked and its running at 60-61 bpm.

I find it interesting how fast the rate recovers from exertion. Currently at 169 pounds.

meshashesha2012

i forgot to mention :
my resting heart rate is 65, i'm 41, 5'5 209 pounds and still have quite a bit of weight to lose.