What is the best heart rate for fat loss?
Is the LifeCycle machine’s chart correct? Will I loose more at a heart rate of 132 than I will at 160? I am doing 20-40 minutes of cardio 5 times a week depending if I do weights that day or not. I am doing the ‘Hill’ program because I like the challenge. I rotate between the bike and the eliptical. This is all in conjunction with a Weight Watchers program of 24 points or less. I am 32 years old and I weigh 213 lbs. I have a bit of muscle with a bench press max around 300 lbs. Thank you in advance.
February 27th, 2011 at 7:03 pm
You’ll lose more fat at a lower heart rate. You will raise your metabolism high and have it high for longer if you get your heart rate at the higher level. It will burn calories, not fat, but the way to lose weight is to expend more calories than consume.
February 27th, 2011 at 7:07 pm
The optimum heart rate for fat loss is 65-85% of max, computed the following way.
Your max heart rate is 220 – 32 (age) = 188
What’s your resting heart rate? Let’s say it’s 64.
188 – 64 = 124
64 + 65% * 124 = 144.6
64 + 85% * 124 = 165.4
So 144 to 165 is your optimum heart rate for fat loss.
Within this range, higher is better.
If you go higher, it’s anaerobic and you’ll get tired very quickly.
Incidentally, 20 minutes is on the marginal side for cardio. If your priority is clearly to lose weight, give it more emphasis.
Though if you’re doing a LOT of lifting, you could actually be gaining muscle while you’re losing fat and not be losing that many pounds (which is fine, right?) – in which case you should be more concerned about your body fat composition. Ask a trainer where you work out if you can have your body fat measured – get a baseline established and then see where you’re at in a few months.
February 27th, 2011 at 7:25 pm
yeah just don’t get too carried away… Cardio is great to do but keep the heart rate at a steady pace. Your heart is much like eating lunch… you don’t eat on say.. roller coasters for a reason right? Your heart is the same way, it doesn’t like going for those rides either. keep at a pace and stick with it….
February 27th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
First thing, to lose wieght doing cardio, you should be doing about 60 mins nonstop, warm up for the first twenty, keep it at a steady pace for twenty and then slow down for twenty, as for heart rate, 132 is better.. otherwise you are burning more oxygen, not fat for energy.