Heart Rate

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laineylynnfit
laineylynnfit Posts: 369 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
For those who were obese and mostly sedentary before exercising:

I would like to amp up my cardio work outs but what I'm doing now keeps me within (and mostly to my max heart rate). I am ready but it's obvious my heart rate is not. I have learned that after being sedentary for long periods of time (eating unhealthy, etc) it's common for heart rates to shoot up fast to max but was told that after I work out for a while, I will have to work harder to get my heart rate up. I know everyone is different but did anyone have this problem and if so, for how long? I have been working out for 5 weeks now.

According to Mayo Clinic, my heart rate target zone is between 137-166. I don't let it get past 157, I slow down when it goes beyond or hits that. It's usually in the 140s or upper 150s when I'm doing "intense" part of my interval exercise. I do 20 min on Treadmill at speed of 3.0-3.7 and incline from 0-5.0. On elliptical I do incline of 6-9 with resistance from 16-18. I hope this makes sense.

Replies

  • laineylynnfit
    laineylynnfit Posts: 369 Member
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    bump.
  • hagamivida
    hagamivida Posts: 129
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    Unless you are a LOT older than me, the Mayo Clinic numbers are not your max heart rate. Those are likely the "fat burn" area.
  • hagamivida
    hagamivida Posts: 129
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    So therefore you can go higher than that. It doesn't mean you need to be at those all the time. Mixing it up is good for you. Nor does it mean if you go above that you aren't burning fat/calories.
  • p0stdramatic
    p0stdramatic Posts: 372
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    You're 25 years old, so your max heart rate will be somewhere around 195. Just work out harder. I started out doing workouts at 90-100% of my max. It's good to spend some time in all zones.
  • tross0924
    tross0924 Posts: 909 Member
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    If you don't feel dizzy, short of breath, have chest pain, or feel like you're about to die you can go higher. "Target zone" isn't max. you've got 2 more "zones" to go through before you hit the "max" heart rate.
  • BeautyFromPain
    BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
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    Maximum heart rate is actually 220 minus your age (:

    i am 19yo so mine is 201 (:
  • p0stdramatic
    p0stdramatic Posts: 372
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    You burn more calories above your target zone, but a higher percent of fat calories are burned in your target zone. You're still burning fat above your target zone, and in many cases more than the target zone because the higher amount of calories burned trumps the % of fat calories in the target zone.

    http://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/on-fitness/2009/03/03/the-fat-burning-zone-a-fitness-myth-debunked
  • Happyguy
    Happyguy Posts: 90 Member
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    The published heart rates are very conservative. I have never found a formula that even comes close to predicting my max heart rate. Even most treadmill tests end before they take you to your true max (they don't want you to have a heart event while in their care).

    As a male in my mid 40's I recorded a max of 205 on three occasions. I ran it up that high more than once because I wanted to make sure I wasn't getting a bogus reading. Check out a chart and see who is supposed to have a max heart rate that is that high.

    If I had just gone by the standard formula's I would have never gotten anything out of heart rate training.
  • laineylynnfit
    laineylynnfit Posts: 369 Member
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    Unless you are a LOT older than me, the Mayo Clinic numbers are not your max heart rate. Those are likely the "fat burn" area.

    Hmm, I looked at my research again and on livestrong.com my max is 195. I originally read it wrong. Sweet.

    The reason why I was so worried about go over is because at the end of last year, a month or so after I bought my gym membrship, I had what was likely a exercise-induced hypoglycemic attack at the gym. I knew nothing about heart rate so I was trying to get my HR up to 170 and did and it didn't help that I only had a 1 cup bowl of Special K before the gym that morning and hadn't eaten since 3 the afternoon before. The guy that helped me out told me that I don't want to get my heart rate up that high yet since I just started exercising but now that I'm a few months in, sounds like I CAN amp it up a little bit :)

    Thanks for the input.

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