Obese and can't reach cardio level on fitbit
creesama
Posts: 128 Member
So I was using our elliptical and going as hard as I could for 20 minutes with tons of sweat and legs starting to turn to jelly. My heart rate was up, but never stayed in the cardio range. Is it going to take more strength and endurance before I reach the cardio level? I didn't push further as I was starting to feel unstable. It's embarrassing to be honest, luckily it's in our home instead of a gym. I can say it's felt less awkward since losing 22lbs, but I've still got a long way to go here at 252lbs
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Replies
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You are doing cardio with an elevated rate, which is good. Better than sitting.6
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Ok 👌 I guess I just don't understand fitbit's gauge of what is/isn't cardio according to heart rate.L1zardQueen wrote: »You are doing cardio with an elevated rate, which is good. Better than sitting.0 -
How old are you and what was your heart rate range?1
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It just takes time. When my rec center opened in June, the first month I used the ellipitical it said my heart rate was in the 30% range. As july is ending , my heart rate is now in the 50% range. Still not the training range but getting better.
Keep working and consistently make the effort to get faster or ride longer and you will begin to see improvements. I can't tell you how soon you will improve because we all start our fitness journey with different bodies, but you will improve as long as you keep doing it.1 -
Fitbit is using your age and resting heart rate to come up with your “zones”. If you click on the heart rate part of the app, it says “personalized heart rate zones” and you can click on that to see what its calculating as each of the 3 zones.
What they define as “cardio” is 60-85% of your heart Rate reserve (which they are calculating as your resting heart rate + (200-your age-your resting heart rate)x the percentage (60 for low end, 85 for high end).
Sometimes on easy runs I don’t hit “cardio”. But that’s OK. I’m doing the work and getting the exercise.
Fitbit also isn’t 100% on detecting your heart rate. Fitbit is also using genetic formulas (your max heart rate may or may not be 200-age).
As you get more fit, you will be able to push yourself more. But also don’t put too much stock in what your Fitbit is telling you. If you’re working reasonably for whatever workout you’re doing-then it’s fine, no matter what Fitbit says.6 -
The upper end of heartrate is genetically determined. Yours might simply be lower than average. Just ignore this. You're moving. That's important
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Heck im not obese and i still couldnt get a good reading on that thing. Im curious: when you manually check your heartrate (count your pulses over a one minute time) does what your watch match your count? Mine never did when working out1
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I never check the heart rate on my Apple Watch, on any of the exercises I do- weights, walking, running, yoga, Pilates.
Results speak.
We can get so invested in electronics (I’m looking at YOU, fat% measuring electronic scale!) and tracking accuracy that we lose track of what really matters.
And not a Luddite here. I looooooooves me some electronic gadgets.
You got off your butt, my friend. That’s half the battle right there.10 -
I agree that electronics are a good tool, but can also be distracting for the overall goal (I have seen more than once on here people asking about putting their trackers on their ankles so that they can earn steps while biking). I am very aware of my HR on my Garmin, it’s part of the reason why I have one (I have intermittent issues with my HR and palpitations), but I don’t pay too much attention to the zones during exercise... you know you are working your butt off - great job!! Don’t let the electronic device discourage youspringlering62 wrote: »I never check the heart rate on my Apple Watch, on any of the exercises I do- weights, walking, running, yoga, Pilates.
Results speak.
We can get so invested in electronics (I’m looking at YOU, fat% measuring electronic scale!) and tracking accuracy that we lose track of what really matters.
And not a Luddite here. I looooooooves me some electronic gadgets.
You got off your butt, my friend. That’s half the battle right there.
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Increase the resistance on the machine, and your heart rate will go up. The difference between fat burn and cardio burn is where the body gets its calories for oxidation. In cardio, it has to happen fast, so it uses sugars (glucose stores) because it takes less energy to oxidize quickly. In fat burn, the body has a little more time to gather the energy to oxidize, so it can keep more glycogen (glucose) stores for when it needs it. It is not as black and white as that, as a runner out for a slow endurance run will deplete glycogen stores as well. But the body will find the most efficient way to accomplish kinetic movement from potential energy.
If you can’t get your heart rate up, the body is not facing enough resistance to a motion. Increase that resistance.
To check for error, count your heart rate manually, and compare that with the fitbit. Sometimes, it doesn't read correctly. There are many times I get frustrated as I am running up a mountain, and it says my heart rate is 94 bpm. :-)2 -
I think the issue is the range that the Fitbit is looking for - if the range is set incorrectly, it won't register as whatever it considers "cardio level"
I'm sure there's a way to personalize it to your age/height/weight etc but I am not sure how.1 -
I rarely workout hard enough to stay in the cardio range for long.
I lost over 80 pounds that way. It's more about the food. Exercise is good for you and cardio range is good for your heart etc., but it's something that takes consistent conditioning. If it's important to you, you'll get there. One day at a time.
You're lapping the people sitting on the couch. Keep it going.
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cmriverside wrote: »I rarely workout hard enough to stay in the cardio range for long.
I lost over 80 pounds that way. It's more about the food. Exercise is good for you and cardio range is good for your heart etc., but it's something that takes consistent conditioning. If it's important to you, you'll get there. One day at a time.
You're lapping the people sitting on the couch. Keep it going.
The fat burning "zone" is a myth anyways. When you contract a muscle, you burn energy. Not likely going to get much more if your heart rate is elevated.1 -
Thanks for all these insightful and encouraging responses!! I feel a lot better about it all. I'm just new to using a fitbit and it was irritating to be doing a "cardio" workout but not seeing "cardio" on my watch. I'll definitely keep at it, as long as I'm sweating I'm considering it a win.6
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If you could talk anywhere from only a short sentence at a time to just a few words, before you had to get back to breathing - you were actually in your cardio zone.
As you get more fit, where the HR happens to be when that occurs will go up.
If you get to point of only a word at a time before you better breath - above that zone.
If you can get a whole sentence in easily and could keep going - below that zone.
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psychod787 wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »I rarely workout hard enough to stay in the cardio range for long.
I lost over 80 pounds that way. It's more about the food. Exercise is good for you and cardio range is good for your heart etc., but it's something that takes consistent conditioning. If it's important to you, you'll get there. One day at a time.
You're lapping the people sitting on the couch. Keep it going.
The fat burning "zone" is a myth anyways. When you contract a muscle, you burn energy. Not likely going to get much more if your heart rate is elevated.
For weight loss purposes, you're right.
"Cardio" isn't just about weight loss.
Fitbit is going to adjust calories regardless of 80bpm or 140bpm. The whole "cardio zone" thing is just weird.2 -
If you could talk anywhere from only a short sentence at a time to just a few words, before you had to get back to breathing - you were actually in your cardio zone.
As you get more fit, where the HR happens to be when that occurs will go up.
If you get to point of only a word at a time before you better breath - above that zone.
If you can get a whole sentence in easily and could keep going - below that zone.
Excellent, thanks for this tip! An easy way to gauge where I'm at!0 -
Just keep going. My run today was incredibly slow. My knee is acting up, I'm wearing a mask, and it was hot out. But I got out there. That's a win. You're winning too. Keep at it. My goal right now (since I can't swim or lift because my gym is closed) is building new habits. That's what got me fit in the first place. When the COVID rug got pulled out from under me, I ended up walking and running waaaay more than my knee or feet are used to. Scaled back. Started again. Lost some fitness, but building it back. And as we go, we learn more and more. What I'm learning now is quite different from what I was learning 5 years ago, but still valuable. It's ongoing. You're out there! That's a win. 2
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Duck_Puddle wrote: »Fitbit is using your age and resting heart rate to come up with your “zones”. If you click on the heart rate part of the app, it says “personalized heart rate zones” and you can click on that to see what its calculating as each of the 3 zones.
What they define as “cardio” is 60-85% of your heart Rate reserve (which they are calculating as your resting heart rate + (200-your age-your resting heart rate)x the percentage (60 for low end, 85 for high end).
Sometimes on easy runs I don’t hit “cardio”. But that’s OK. I’m doing the work and getting the exercise.
Fitbit also isn’t 100% on detecting your heart rate. Fitbit is also using genetic formulas (your max heart rate may or may not be 200-age).
As you get more fit, you will be able to push yourself more. But also don’t put too much stock in what your Fitbit is telling you. If you’re working reasonably for whatever workout you’re doing-then it’s fine, no matter what Fitbit says.
Furthermore, if you're still pretty new to cardio, it's possible that your resting heart rate is relatively high. It's also possible that if your Fitbit is new, it thinks your resting heart rate is high, when it really just hasn't been tracking you long enough to have a clear picture.
Either way, if a heart rate reserve calculation of "aerobic zone" uses a high resting heart rate, it can push the calculated/estimated "aerobic zone" up to a level that may be hard for a relative beginner to achieve. That, on top of issues with age-based estimates of heart rate max being inaccurate for a fair fraction of the popuation. Don't worry about it.
Mr. heybales is correct: Perceived exertion is a good guide. As long as you're challenging yourself (but not exhausting yourself to the point of wet-noodle-hood), you're doing great. You're getting fitness, health, and calorie expenditure benefits. Keep up the good stuff!
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My experience has also been that wrist based HRMs are not as accurate as chest strap ones (I was getting some bizarre numbers from my Garmin Fenix while running before going back to the chest strap)
Don't fixate on HR zones but on perceived effort instead. Most of your workouts should be at an intensity where you can carry on a conversation with the occasional hard one thrown now and again.3 -
I'm not sure how much scientific basis there is for those "zones" anyway. Working in the "fat burn" zone still has cardiovascular benefits (particularly if obese), and working in the cardio zone still burns calories (and thus fat). Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good by trying to stay in a certain zone. Work hard, sweat, don't work yourself up to the point of a heart attack, and you'll see results.1
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There is scientific bases for the zones and zone training when you have actual sport related goals that can benefit from specific adaptations that are made, improving fat burning to improve endurance, improve lactate uptake to improve sprinting, zone to avoid because nothing but stress, how long of effort in that zone, ect.
None of which is likely useful to average cardio workout and goals of getting fit and burning some calories.
About the only non-sport I can think of is the fact the Fat Burning zone used to be called the more properly termed Active Recovery zone.
Do a hard workout one day that leaves muscles sore or tired needing to recover, and you could still do cardio in that zone to usually aid healing. And therefore be prepared for the day after for another hard workout.
For those that don't want to truly take a day off, an interval type week you might say - hard, easy, hard .....4 -
psychod787 wrote: »cmriverside wrote: »I rarely workout hard enough to stay in the cardio range for long.
I lost over 80 pounds that way. It's more about the food. Exercise is good for you and cardio range is good for your heart etc., but it's something that takes consistent conditioning. If it's important to you, you'll get there. One day at a time.
You're lapping the people sitting on the couch. Keep it going.
The fat burning "zone" is a myth anyways. When you contract a muscle, you burn energy. Not likely going to get much more if your heart rate is elevated.
The higher your heart rate is, the less fat you're burning. The whole reason your heart rate goes up when you exercise is because you need to supply more oxygen to the working muscles to keep up with the energy demand of the exercise. At a certain point you just can't get enough energy quickly enough to keep up by using oxygen to unlock the energy stored in fat. So you add another source into the mix, one that doesn't rely on oxygen. Anaerobic meaning "not aerobic." As the intensity goes up, more of the energy is coming from carbohydrate and less from fat.
That's relevant in the sense that you can run a 5K on glycogen, but not a marathon. When you're doing the kind of endurance activity where carbohydrate is limited compared to the length of your event, you need to pace yourself. You mostly stay in the fat burning zone so that you have glycogen available to go very high intensity at the points where it matters most, like the sprint at the end of a race.
For weight loss, none of this is relevant. Your body is going to replace both with food you eat. Calories are what matters for weight.
But it's good to understand what's going on, and not declare real things myths just because they don't apply to a particular situation they weren't created for. I mean you wouldn't say bikes are myths because they can't fly like in ET.4 -
I'm not sure how much scientific basis there is for those "zones" anyway. Working in the "fat burn" zone still has cardiovascular benefits (particularly if obese), and working in the cardio zone still burns calories (and thus fat). Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good by trying to stay in a certain zone. Work hard, sweat, don't work yourself up to the point of a heart attack, and you'll see results.
Zones absolutely have a scientific basis (but aren't as clear cut as most people think).
People training for Olympic and World Cup races generally do 80 % of their training in the fat burning zone. Of course this has benefits for your health and fitness. All exercise does (unless you're overdoing it).
If you're exercising for fitness or health, you need to be going at all intensity levels. Going as hard as you can all the time is a terrible way to try to attain most fitness goals for many reasons.6 -
I think my fitbit is adjusting itself as I workout more because yesterday I hit cardio and peak and today I hit those for even longer periods of time. Regardless, I'm just happy to finally feel motivation to workout, have some time to myself, and feel like I'm accomplishing something each day. Thanks again everyone for tips and info, I'm learning a lot and it's because of people on here 😀6
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NorthCascades wrote: »I mean you wouldn't say bikes are myths because they can't fly like in ET.
Wait - what??!!
I thought I just hadn't hit that point in my training yet - childlike enjoyment of the riding and trust in it happening.3 -
Ha, so remember how I couldn't reach cardio a few days ago? Well the next day I hit cardio and a tiny peak, yesterday was mostly cardio and peak, and tonight was 86% peak😬 I felt fine during and right now after. Is this more of fitbit figuring me out?0
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The restingHR side of the equation - it still has no idea of the HRmax side of it.
Now it may swing out of reality going the other direction.2 -
Perceived Exertion is a valid way to judge your workout. If you were borderline uncomfortable, short of breath, and able to speak short sentences that is a 7-8 on a ten point scale. You are the best judge of what is challenging for you.2
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Thank you Heybales and NorthCascades for your informative replies. Threads like this are why I read the comments on MFP. "You can run a 5K on glycogen but not a marathon" -- new information to me, very interesting and helpful.
I learned at some point that all exercise starts out as anaerobic, but if you do it long enough your body switches over to burning stored fat instead of glycogen. Even a leisurely walk, if it lasts long enough, is eventually an aerobic exercise. Is this accurate?1
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