How To Use A Heart Rate Monitor To Find Your Fat Burning Zone

How to Calculate Your Fat Burning Zone Heart Rate

When you’re trying to lose weight and getting regular exercise a lot of people get disheartened by their lack of progress. I’ll admit I’ve suffered from this as well. You work out, work out, work out, you’re eating healthily, drinking loads of water, you should be losing weight!

So where’s it all going wrong?

Ever heard of ‘heart rate zones’?

When you’re working out your heart rate increases, and the harder you work out, the higher the heart rate. However there’s a point where you stop burning fat and start increasing your aerobic capacity. Now that’s not normally a problem, unless you’ve only just started trying to lose weight.

If you’re working out 3-4 times a week and you’ve actually gone above your fat burning zone then you’re going to start getting disheartened with your workout regime as you’re not losing any weight, so what do you do….you work out 5-6 days a week and end up either burning yourself out or getting the shits to the point where you quit the whole thing.

And that’s why you need a heart rate monitor.

Before you actually buy, or at least start using, a heart rate monitor you need to work out your fat burning heart rate zone. So how do you do that? Well it’s actually quite simple, here’s how you do it;

220 (max hr*) – 33 (age) = 187

187 – 70 (resting hr) = 117

117 x 65% = 76 bpm (low end of fat burning heart rate zone) and 85% = 100 bpm (high end of fat burning heart rate zone)

So my fat burning heart rate zone is between 76 bpm and 100 bpm.

*hr is heart rate

This formula is some times referred to as the Karvoven formula, or at least a derivative of it.

How Do I Use a Heart Rate Monitor? -- powered by eHow.com

How to Calculate Maximum Heart Rate and Training Zone Heart Rate

1. Step1

   First, calculate your maximum heart rate, MHR, by subtracting your age in years from 220. For example, a 31 year old has a maximum heart rate of 220 - 31 = 189 beats per minute.
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   NOTE: There are 3 alternative formulas for maximum heart rate, each very similar to the one above. As yet, there is no universally accepted MHR formula, but here are the other 3 in case you are interested. (A = age in years)
   
   1st alt MHR = 205.8 − (0.685)A
   2nd alt MHR = 206.3 − (0.711)A
   3rd alt MHR = 217 − (0.85)A

2. Step2

   Next, figure your resting heart rate, RHR. When you wake up in the morning, count your pulse for 15 seconds and multiply by 4 to find the beats per minute. (Alternatively, count for 20 second and multiply by 3)
   
   For our example, let's say our person has a RHR of 60 beats per minute.

3. Step3

   Now, use the Karvonen formula to determine your training zone heart rate. The training zone is a range that tells you how fast your heart should be beating when you are working out at a 60%-85% intensity level. The upper end is given by the equation
   
   Upper End = (0.85)MHR + (0.15)RHR
   
   and the lower end is given by the equation
   
   Lower End = (0.60)MHR + (0.40)RHR

4. Step4

   For the person in our example with MHR = 189, and RHR = 60, the upper end of the training zone heart rate is
   
   (0.85)189 + (0.15)60 = 170 bpm
   
   and the lower end is
   
   (0.60)189 + (0.40)60 = 137 bpm
   
   So when his heart rate is between 137 and 170 beats per minute during a workout, he is exercising at an intensity level of 60%-85%.

5. Step5

   To find your target heart rate for an arbitrary intensity level "i" (expressed as a decimal) use this formula:
   
   (i)MHR + (1-i)RHR
   
   For instance, if the person in our example wanted to know what his heart rate would be at a 72% exercise level, he would compute
   
   (0.72)MHR + (0.28)RHR
   
   which yields
   
   (0.72)189 + (0.28)60 = 153 bpm
   
   So his heart will beat at a rate of 153 beats per minute in a 72% intense workout.