Heart Rate Help Please!

[cajunthunder]

Okay, I've been working out faithfully, doing cardio (elliptical mostly) 5-6 days a week, and doing functional training 3 days a week with my trainer. Yesterday, I did my cardio after our workout (bad idea), and she had me wear one of their heart rate monitors. Well I stayed between 155-159, but I was so tired from my workout with her, I couldn't do more than 10 minutes.
She's been telling me I need to kick it up more with my cardio, but I go as fast as I can.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out what my fat burning rate would be because I really think I should be losing more fat than I am, and I'm worried I'm losing the muscle I'm gaining from working with her!

Help! :help

[cajunthunder]

I found the formula for figuring this out - I think. So my Maximum Heart Rate would be 178? And to burn fat I should stay around 65% of that, right? Which would be 115.7. So do I stay right around that number? If that's the case, then I'm guessing my heart rate has been way too high for most of my workouts :sadblinky . Which could also explain why I haven't been able to workout as long as I think I should be able to at this point.

BTW, I ordered the Polar A3 Heart Rate Monitor. :joy

Thanks for any help!

[Esther]

Hi Monica!

I use Phil Maffetones 180-minus-age formula, which is supposed to be the best for fat-burning and endurance. For a 40 year old, the maximum heart rate would be (180 minus 40) 140 bpm, with a target zone starting 10 beats less, ie 130 to 140 bpm. If I work out at a higher rate than this I conk out pretty fast!!

Here's a link to a pdf file you can print out and study which outlines his system pretty well.

http://www.teammudge.org/training/TrainingLogIntro2.pdf

I found this really really useful and I've just bought the book to go with it, which is really brilliant for us lo-carbing exercisers. Let me know what you think :nod

[Iapetus999]

I haven't looked into Maffetone yet but here's what I've noticed:

At 140 BPM I feel like I'm barely working out.
BUT if you work out at 140...you can do it for way longer which is more effective than 10 minutes at 160.
It's really the length of time that will improve your cardio.
On the other hand...intense workout where your heart gets over 90% max also will cause fat to be burned for hours after your workout.
I'd recommend you go slow for your workouts....but maybe once a week throw in a quick sprint/rest/sprint workout
(google HIIT or High intensity interval training for more details...I credit it with a lot of my weight loss)