The best % of Max Heart Rate for losing weight, walking?

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YaMon22072
YaMon22072 Posts: 14
in Fitness and Exercise
I've been reading what the best percentage of your maximum heart rate should be while exercising for losing weight. There are many different answers. I have a heart rate monitor so it would be helpful to know exactly what I should be looking for while walking. I'm 41yo so my maximum is 179 beats per minute. For a moderate work out I have seen where it should be between 70-80% of max and between 60-70% for light activity. In this same article online it mentioned that between 60-70% is best for weight loss, doing it for 30 minutes a day. I have had it stuck in my head that you need to do as much as you can w/o keeling over to be effective. LOL. Any words of wisdom would be helpful. Thank you.

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  • rparkman
    rparkman Posts: 15
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    My trainer has me doing 30 minutes of 80% of max, first thing when I wake up in the morning. It has worked like a charm.
  • Yooperm35
    Yooperm35 Posts: 787 Member
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    An interesting article:

    http://m.active.com/triathlon/Articles/The-Myth-of-the-Fat-burning-Zone

    I personally just use My HRM to calculate calories burned- I've never used it to stay in a certain zone. Oh, and to be sure my heart rate is not too high during insanity ;)
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    The 60-70% of MaxHR is the so-called "fat burning zone" which, in terms of weight loss, is completely meaningless (you burn a higher proportion of calories from fat but a lot fewer calories overall and there's no correlation between burning fat and losing weight - it's the caloric deficit)

    For both increased caloric expenditure (which may make it easier to maintain a caloric deficit) and cardiovascular health you should be aiming for the 70 to80% MaxHR which would require a pretty brisk walking pace.

    Personally I'm a big fan of perceived effort. It should feel like work but shouldn't leave you gasping for air and keeling over is definitely not recommended.

    30 minutes a day (for cardiovascular health) should be considered a bare minimum. If you can fit more in to your schedule that would be great (or you could try other activities based on personal preference and available time)

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