target heart rate

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jamie77
jamie77 Posts: 101
in Fitness and Exercise
I read today that if you go over your target heart rate, you are not burning fat. Has anyone ever heard this before? It doesn't make sense to me, if you have insight, please explain.

I'm always at about 185 - 190 bpm when I'm on the treadmill. My target is only 130 - 145, so I've been told. My resting is always around 85 - 95 bpm.

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  • jamie77
    jamie77 Posts: 101
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    I read today that if you go over your target heart rate, you are not burning fat. Has anyone ever heard this before? It doesn't make sense to me, if you have insight, please explain.

    I'm always at about 185 - 190 bpm when I'm on the treadmill. My target is only 130 - 145, so I've been told. My resting is always around 85 - 95 bpm.
  • AlbertSchwartz
    AlbertSchwartz Posts: 810
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    yeah, the body would rather use other stores to convert to energy, but still more cals are consumed at this higher rate.

    When do you check your resting heart rate? I was told to check it in the morning before getting up or even moving, do that over a few days and then take the average. Also if you have excersied the day before you heart rate will be slightly higher...
  • 2catowner
    2catowner Posts: 94
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    I am certainly not an excercise physiologist (sp?)- but I was told at the gym by someone that is that you are burning lean muscle instead of fat when you get your HR too high. I still raise my HR at the end of my workout just to keep my aerobic level up.
    I'm 5-6" 138- 43 yrs old, he told me to keep my HR at 120-129 for the first 40 minutes and then 129 to 140 for 15 minutes after that. I've only been doing this for about 3 weeks, so I will let you know if I see an improvement ! Not sure if this helps you or not...
  • MisdemeanorM
    MisdemeanorM Posts: 3,493 Member
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    The way it works is if you are in your "fat burning zone" you burn a higher percentage of calories of fat. Say 50%. In the cardio you burn say 40% of your calories from fat...

    BUT....

    Say you burn 200 calories in your "fat burning zone" - at 50% that would be 100 calories of fat burned.

    But you burn MORE calories when you are in cardio because it is a harder workout. So say you burn 300 calories in the same time ... at 40% that is 120 calories of fat burned...

    Even though the % of calories burned from fat is lower than in your "fat burning zone" the overall number of calories times the lower % is a still higher # of fat calories burned.

    (Now, I dont know that my percentages are exactly right and they depend on hight and weight and fitness level (too high a heart rate is bad!) etc, but the math still pans out the same...)
  • jamie77
    jamie77 Posts: 101
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    The way it works is if you are in your "fat burning zone" you burn a higher percentage of calories of fat. Say 50%. In the cardio you burn say 40% of your calories from fat...

    BUT....

    Say you burn 200 calories in your "fat burning zone" - at 50% that would be 100 calories of fat burned.

    But you burn MORE calories when you are in cardio because it is a harder workout. So say you burn 300 calories in the same time ... at 40% that is 120 calories of fat burned...

    Even though the % of calories burned from fat is lower than in your "fat burning zone" the overall number of calories times the lower % is a still higher # of fat calories burned.

    (Now, I dont know that my percentages are exactly right and they depend on hight and weight and fitness level (too high a heart rate is bad!) etc, but the math still pans out the same...)

    I'm 6' and 182...30 years old and fitness level is probably about a 6 on a scale from 1 to 10.
    Now I'm really concerned that I'm not getting the full benefit from my workouts.
  • pmkelly409
    pmkelly409 Posts: 1,653 Member
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    I read today that if you go over your target heart rate, you are not burning fat. Has anyone ever heard this before? It doesn't make sense to me, if you have insight, please explain.

    I'm always at about 185 - 190 bpm when I'm on the treadmill. My target is only 130 - 145, so I've been told. My resting is always around 85 - 95 bpm.

    Here is an article that ViviaKay posted awhile back that helped me...

    http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/good-workout
  • pmkelly409
    pmkelly409 Posts: 1,653 Member
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    also do a search of the posts for target heart rate and there is a ton of useful info about this topic.

    that is the great thing about this site, if you have a question about fitness and exercise you can be sure that 100 people have had it before!!

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