The best way to lose weight and to keep it off is to combine exercise with dieting. And the best way to determine how hard you are exercising is to measure your heart rate while you're working out. The harder you exercise, the faster you burn calories, and the best way to measure your effort level is with a heart rate monitor.
How You Lose Weight
The only way to lose weight is to burn up more calories than you consume. Since a pound of fat is equivalent to 3,500 calories, you need to create a 500-calorie deficit every day for a week to lose one pound. That means each day you either consume 500 fewer calories, burn 500 additional calories or burn an additional 250 calories while consuming 250 fewer calories.
Exercise
According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, you need to exercise between 45 and 60 minutes a day to lose weight. The harder you exercise, the faster you burn calories, and the longer you exercise, the more calories you burn. But significant weight loss can only be achieved by combining exercise with dietary restrictions. People who exercise but don't diet will become firmer and more fit, but their loss of fat will be counterbalanced by increased muscle mass, and their weight loss will be minimal.
Using Heart Rate
Tracking your heart rate during exercise is a good way to measure of how hard you are working. Moderate exercise, such as brisk walking, elevates your heart rate to at least 50 percent of your maximum heart rate, which is determined by subtracting your age from 220, according to the National Institutes for Health. Vigorous exercise is anything over 70 percent of your maximum heart rate.
Calorie Burning and Heart Rate
You burn calories at a faster rate when you elevate your heart rate. For instance, a 165-pound man riding a bicycle at less than 14 mph and putting forth a moderate effort will burn about 600 calories an hour. The same man cycling at more than 20 mph at a vigorous effort level with burn 1,200.
Measuring Your Heart Rate
According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, you can measure your heart rate either with a heart rate monitor or by taking your pulse. A heart rate monitor typically involves wearing a chest strap with a built-in transmitter that sends information to a wrist monitor. Taking your pulse rate involves stopping your exercise and pressing a finger against your carotid artery in your neck, counting your pulse for a 10-second period and multiplying by six. A heart rate monitor is considered to be more accurate and doesn't require that you stop exercising.
Member Comments