Find Target Heart Rate for Fat Burning
Exercise is a crucial part of a healthy lifestyle, and it helps to tailor your routine around your own specific goals. If your goal is to burn fat, you might be surprised to find out you could be working too hard. It all has to do with the type of fuel you body uses at various levels of activity, and fat burn occurs most in low-intensity exercise. If your activity is too rigorous, your body will look for carbohydrates stored in your muscles as glycogen. You'll still benefit from the exercise; you just might not be burning fat. To be sure you're body draws its fuel from your fat cells, keep your heart rate in the Fat Burning Zone.
Instructions
1. Calculate your Maximum Heart Rate. This step is simple, just subtract your age from 220. A 27-year old would have a Maximum Heart Rate of 193 beats per minute (bpm). This number is an approximation of how many contractions per minute your heart can achieve at its maximum. NOTE: You should not pushing yourself to your Maximum Heart Rate.
2. Calculate your Fat Burning Zone, which is 60%-70% of your Maximum Heart Rate. With a Maximum Heart Rate at 193 bpm, the Fat Burning Zone is about 116-135bpm. This is enough of an increase in heart rate to accelerate calorie burn, but it's not so much that your body can't draw all of its energy from fat cells. For experienced exercisers, this level of training will seem easy.
3. Monitor your heart rate during exercise. Many fitness centers have equipment that monitors your heart rate for you, so just keep an eye on that. If you're without that luxury, monitor your heart rate at your neck. Count how many beats occur in six seconds and multiply that by ten.
4. Keep going. Most experts recommend you keep up this low-intensity for a full hour. If you can't do an hour, start with 20-30 minutes and work up to your goal.
Tags: Maximum Heart, Maximum Heart Rate, your heart, your heart rate, Burning Zone