Raising your heart rate is the key to successful cardiovascular workouts. If you want to lose weight, doing cardio will help burn fat by burning calories. It is easy to confuse the maximum heart rate with target heart rate. To get the most out of your exercise, you need to understand how those terms fit into a weight loss formula. Before beginning a program to lose weight, talk to a doctor to ensure that your heart is healthy.
Maximum Heart Rate
Maximum heart rate is how fast your heart can beat safely during exercise, and as you grow older, MHR becomes lower. For example, a healthy 20-year-old can have an MHR of 200. That person's MHR will drop to 190 when she turns 30. The only way to get an accurate MHR is through a stress test. However, to get a quick estimate, subtract your age from 220. MHR is not the number you should focus on during exercise. This is the highest you should let your rate to go, but not the goal. During your workout, your heart rate should fall within a target range that is lower than the MHR.
Target Heart Rate
Calculating your target heart rate gives you a number to shoot for when exercising. While it may be possible to maintain a routine at the maximum heart rate, it is not necessary or even recommended. Target heart rate is a percentage of your MHR. The higher the number, the more intense the exercise. Many formulas can be used to calculate a target range. Consider 50 percent of your MHR to be the low end of the range and 90 percent the top. That means your pulse rate when exercising needs to fall between those two numbers. For instances, if MHR is 200, than the target range would be from 100 and 180 beats a minutes. If your pulse stays around 140 during exercise, that would indicate moderate intensity.
How Long Do You Need to Exercise?
To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you consume. This forces your body to use fat for energy. Exercise is a part of that process, because it burns calories and, indirectly, fat. The amount of time you spend exercising and the intensity are crucial to dropping pounds. Your fitness plan should include both cardio and strength training routines. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends adults get 150 minutes of cardio exercise a week. To lose weight, you could double that number. An average of 1 hour of exercises that raise your heart rate to at least the moderate stage should lead to weight loss, combined with a healthy diet. Include at least two days of weightlifting or resistance training to increase muscle mass.
Developing a Plan
Once you have all the numbers you need, you can develop an exercise plan that will aid in weight loss. Factors to consider include fitness level and available time for exercise. If you are new to fitness training, start slow. Keep your heart rate near the low end of the target zone. As you grow stronger, you can increase the intensity. Although you need to work out a specific number of minutes each week, you can break that up into 10-minute sessions. If exercising five days a week, start with six 10-minute sessions. Over time, you can increase the duration and intensity of each session and do fewer each day.
References
- Dr. Mirkin.com; Maximum Heart Rate Formula; Gabe Mirkin, M.D.; 2009
- Mayo Clinic; Exercise Intensity: Why It Matters, How It's Measured; 2011
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); How Much Physical Activity Do Adults Need?; 2011
- University of Maryland Medical Center; Exercise - Exercise's Effects on Weight; 2009
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