Exercising Heart Rate Speed vs. Fat Loss
Written on January 8, 2008 – 11:56 am | by Jeff Ainslie
If you see an older heart rate chart in your local gym, you will see that most will have a “fat burning” and a “cardio” range.
The “fat burning” range was based upon studies that looked at the first few minutes of exercise at different intensity levels. It is now accepted that the total amount of calories expended is more important than the intensity for overall fat loss.
We live in a world where fat loss occurs over a 24 hour period, not just when we exercise. At the end of the day, it is still the old saying “calories in vs calories out”. Exercise helps you to increase your negative caloric intake and helps to speed up your metabolism.
When you are exercising for cardiovascular and muscle endurance results, you do need to push yourself to a reasonable level. There is a difference between activity and exercise if you want significant results, but for fat loss, your body really cares about negative calories at the end of the day.
Here is an example: Lets say that you burn 500 calories on an elliptical trainer or stair climber. If it took you 30 or 40 minutes to accomplish this, you still have the same negative calories at the end of the day. Your overall “fitness” workout is better with a higher intensity, but weight loss would be similar.
Think of it this way. If you are a new runner and you go out and try to run as fast as you can for as long as you can, you may only last 3 minutes and burn 25 calories. It is intuitive that if you walked/jogged for half an hour you may burn 250 calories. It’s clear that in this instance, the slower runner has the superior workout if the goal is fat loss.
You do need to be aware of the extremes with regard to heart rate and exercise. The rule of thumb is to subtract your age from 220 to get your maximum heart rate. Think of this as the “extreme danger level”. Once you have this level, don’t exceed 85% of this number while exercising. If you are close to this number, you are close to your maximum safe level of exertion.
For Example: 35 years old
Maximum Heart Rate: 220-30 = 185 beats per minute
Max Safe Exercise Rate: 185 X .85 = 157 bpm
If you are exercising at a lower intensity and your heart rate is very fast, don’t be too concerned. As your cardiovascular fitness increases, your heart rate will lower. If you are on a fitness machine that keeps your heart at a constant rate during exercise, you will find that over time, you will be working out harder and harder at the same heart rate.
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Tags: Exercise, Heart Rate, Heart Rate Monitors
4 Responses to “Exercising Heart Rate Speed vs. Fat Loss”
By Weight Lifting Programs on Apr 29, 2008 | Reply
I’ve never relied on those heart rate charts. In my main gym there are three charts all of which have different “fat burning zones”.
Keep it simple: Safe heart rate + calories burned = fat loss.
By Alex Censor on Jan 25, 2009 | Reply
As an excercise physiologist I can tell you that using the rule “subtract your age from 220 to get your maximum heart rate” and setting your 85% level from that is a very poor, possibly dangerous, way to set your level of aerobic exertion. That sort of rule of thumb, although widely used, is very very innaccurate for about 1 out of every three people it will either badly underestimate or badly overestimate their safe or ideal level.
It sounds very “scientific” but it is sloppy and not as scientifically justified as gyms and trainers seem to think it is. The problem is that individual’s maximum heart rates at whatever age are poorly predicted by that formula. And of course there’s big difference is the wisdom between someone who’s 65 and been running 10K’s all her life running at 85% of her maximum heart rate and someone who’s 65 and been a couch potato and obese going out looking at that chart and trying to run sustained at what the chart says is 85% of his maximum heart rate.
Better to forget looking at heart rate charts, and perhaps even ignore taking your pulse rate, and instead to use this rule-of-thumb:
When you reach a sustained level of speed that makes you just breathless enough that you would find it uncomfortable to carry on a sustained conversation with a person moving alongside with you that’s about (a) the maximum safe level for many persons, particularly if presently not highly condtioned, and it is just above the level that will give you optimal heart and lung and circulatory conditioning. Of course lower levels can also be highly beneficial, and higher levels will be beneficial for those in good health training for competitive sports.
By Susan Pietz on Apr 14, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for the info. My max 85% HR for my age at 147. But my running warm up speed is 5.0 and I am comfortable running this rate up to 5.3 for 40 or so minutes. My HR goes up to about 163, feel good and I have been wondering if I am wasting my time, so to speak, if my goal is fat burning. I would die of boredom if I had to run or elipitcal to keep my HR at 147 or lower.