Heart Rate percentage? How high is to high?

NeuroticVirgo
NeuroticVirgo Posts: 3,671 Member
edited September 23 in Fitness and Exercise
I've heard that being above 85% is where you burn the most calories....but is it bad to be in the 90s? When doing the 30 day shred, my heart rate gets up and stays up...and I'm around 85%-95% for most of it. It doesn't get this high during Zumba :(

So just curious how high should you let your heart rate get before you take a breather for a minute?

Replies

  • kiuney
    kiuney Posts: 68
    The fitter you get, the less important that percentage is. This is when it becomes critical to listen to your body and learn from it. Your body will let you know when to take a break. I don't know anything about the Shred program but if you do get up high and can sustain that level, it's not something you should do every day. That kind of training is great for you in a number of days but it'll also burn you out quick.
  • clioandboy
    clioandboy Posts: 963 Member
    bump, interested to know too!
  • NeuroticVirgo
    NeuroticVirgo Posts: 3,671 Member
    Sometimes its hard for me to tell if my body is saying take a break, or if my shady will power is saying take a break :laugh:
  • FrenchMob
    FrenchMob Posts: 1,167 Member
    I'm assuming you calculated those percentage using the "220-age" to determine your max heart rate. That formula is not very accurate, and in fact, your max HR could be higher than what that formula tells you, which would put your 85% higher than you think. But, for all intents & purposes, assuming your calculated range is correct, and you can stand going that high then just do it, but don't push yourself to a point that you might injure yourself either.

    If you find it's wearing you out too much, then do it in bursts like interval training. Workout in the 85-95% range for 5 mins, take a 1-2 min break, repeat.
  • tsez
    tsez Posts: 10
    be smart and check with your doctor, everyone is different, as death is one heck of a weight loss program, i don't think anyone on this site wants to go to that extreme, good luck and be safe
  • badbradclark
    badbradclark Posts: 47 Member
    Yes, you will burn more calories with higher intensities.

    But to really confusing things the "fat burn" zone is actually less than 85% - it's 60-65% of your max. The body pulls its fuel from different places based on the intensity of your workout. For lower intensity workouts, the body will pull from fuel stored up - i.e. fat. For high intensity workouts, the body will pull from fuel more readily available - i.e carbs that you've recently eaten. Now to confuse things even more, if you only work out in the aerobic zone (85%+), you will still end up burning fat calories because your high intense exercising will cause your body to burn more fuel and do it more efficiently through the day (your metabolism kicks up).

    If you do a lot of high intensity workouts, make sure you do lower intensity days or have complete off days to allow your body to recover.
  • mlb929
    mlb929 Posts: 1,974 Member
    I've been trying to figure this out myself, and so far the answers are really just as confusing as I thought they were :) I'm all about PRE, if I think I'm working too hard, I back it down a little, regardless of what my HRM says. It depends on what I'm doing too - Plyometrics, my HRM has me at 85-90%, but I feel great , Kenpo has me at 70-80 and I'm beat when I'm done and sore. Running I'm at 90% and feel super like nothing can stop me and I can go much longer. If I know that I'm doing a long run 8-10 miles, I intentionally keep at 60-70% to keep it up longer. I consider myself fairly fit, with a resting heart rate at 51, so I figure I can go higher on the maximum as I know I'm capable of pushing it.
  • NeuroticVirgo
    NeuroticVirgo Posts: 3,671 Member
    I'm not sure what formula its using, I just go off what my HRM says (I'm pretty dumb when it comes to these things too). I mostly use it to give me an estimate on calories burned for stuff not already in MFP (like videos, zumba etc). So I was just curious though when I saw how high that percent was getting.

    Thanks for the information, I am learning, slowly but surly.
  • Rachelbab1230
    Rachelbab1230 Posts: 19
    Out of curiousity since I am new to this site......when someone posts "bump" what does that mean???? I had that posted under one of my topics by someone but I didn't know why.
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