heart rate during cardio

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Beerdified
Beerdified Posts: 11 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I am performing some intense cardio in which my heart rate stays above 170 for as long as an hour. Is this bad, good or indifferent? The cardio machines say fatburn zone is 120 - 40, cardio zone is 140 - 160 and anything above is max heart rate zone. Is the max heart rate good, or bad?

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  • Larry7995
    Larry7995 Posts: 55
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    When I am over 170 I am sucking wind so hard that I have to back off a little after 10-15 minutes. That's pretty good that you can keep it up for an hour!
    A guy at my gym that has a degree in this stuff says that I have to back off to 120-140 for fat burning I have a hard time with that concept :)
  • kao708
    kao708 Posts: 813 Member
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    I'm not sure of your age but I found this calculation for figuring your max HR. 170 as a max would put you at age 50. Is that right?

    The most common formula encountered, with no indication of standard deviation, is:

    HRmax = 220 − age

    Are you using a public machine at the gym? If so, are you changing the personal details to reflect your age, weight, etc? It may be using the information from the last person if you didn't change it to reflect your personal details so that number may be wrong.
  • atomdraco
    atomdraco Posts: 1,083 Member
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    Nope. I am like you, heart rate goes up high (up to 180 when I just started). I talked about this with my trainer and she said everyone's heart work differently. Like my trainer, her resting heart rate is like 45-50ish, but when she workout intensive, it goes up to 200.
  • NightOwl1
    NightOwl1 Posts: 881 Member
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    I think there's different and evolving science on this. It used to be believed that in order to burn fat, your heart rate needed to stay in that "fat burn zone". Now, with the prevalence of interval training, it's not so much about what the exercise does for you during the actual exercise, but how it effects your body afterwards. So do a high intensity training may not burn as many calories during the exercise, but it will keep your metabolism high for hours after the exercise, continuing to burn even when you aren't working.

    I would suggest you give interval training a try. Workout 2 minutes at moderate pace, then 1 minute at extremely high intensity, then repeat for 15-30 minutes. That will keep your metabolism boosted like crazy for many hours after you're done.
  • lavaflow99
    lavaflow99 Posts: 61 Member
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    I am the same way. I can get up to 170-180 for long periods of time when I am going all out. But if you aren't any difficulty breathing, chest pain, lightheaded or uncomfortable, I say keep up the hard work :)
  • pwprice59
    pwprice59 Posts: 76 Member
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    mine gets that high, but I typically back it off and keep it between 150 and 160, I guess it does not hurt too much because we have not all dropped dead from it. I also wonder just how accurat the heart rate monitors are on those machines.

    I have never understood either why a lower heartrate burns fat and a higher one does not, that just makes no sense to me. I interpret that as you need at least 120 - 140 to burn fat, anything more is cardio and fat burning.
  • pyro13g
    pyro13g Posts: 1,127 Member
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    http://www.myfooddiary.com/resources/ask_the_expert/fat-burning_zone_myth.asp
  • sarah44254
    sarah44254 Posts: 3,078 Member
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    I don't know what the 'zones' are, but I don't feel like I'm working out unless my heart rate is over 170. Usually at 185 I really start feeling it, and I will get tired pretty quick as it goes higher than that.

    I have a very high resting heart rate (95-110) though, so I'm not sure if my situation is the same.
  • hemlock2010
    hemlock2010 Posts: 422 Member
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    Thanks for posting this. I've suspected for a long time that the whole "fat burning zone" thing was a complete poc. I'm so glad to have an explanation.
    http://www.myfooddiary.com/resources/ask_the_expert/fat-burning_zone_myth.asp
  • pyro13g
    pyro13g Posts: 1,127 Member
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    Heart rate is only measurement of calories burned. That means it doesn't matter what exercise you choose. It all uses fat for fuel in a close ratio. It should be relieving to many .
  • suziehomemaker
    suziehomemaker Posts: 116
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    bump
  • gaeljo
    gaeljo Posts: 223 Member
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    I just read the article http://www.myfooddiary.com/resources/ask_the_expert/fat-burning_zone_myth.asp and I've never believed the fat burning zone versus more intense exercise, I'm not sure this article really unpacked it very well. I guess I'm dense. LOL

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