Heart rate help please.

C

chrismu

0
First post here, thanks in advance. I'm 36 and in the past 18 months I've lost around 90 pounds and now weight 215. I jog and ride a stationary bike quite a bit and have most of the 18 months. I also do some weight training a few days a week.

My resting HR is generally between 44-49 BPM. I've really struggled for a while now to get it elevated above 140 for any extended period of time. I've just recently acquired a HR monitor to help me target a range that will help me shed these last few lbs. I have the range set at 145-155 but just can't hardly get there and when I do, I feel like I'm killing myself.

Today, on the recumbant bike, I rode in intervals. I did 3 minutes fast, 2 minutes slow. I've been doing this for a few weeks to see if I can get the HR up during the fast 3 minutes. It takes at least half that time to get it to 145, then I have to really push it hard to get it to 155, to the point that I'm uncomfortable and clearly my legs are tiring. To get it elevated to 145-150, I have the resistance at about 60%, my RPMs are 89-91, and I'm at 24.5-25.5 MPH. When I ended, at 34 minutes, I has rode 12.7 miles, avg speed was 22.4 MPH, max HR was 155, and avg HR was 129.

When I jog, I generally do 3-4 miles. I haven't used this HR monitor yet but I've checked it using an app a few times and I rarely surpass 140 unless I'm at the end of the run and in a sprint. I generally pace at about 8:30-9:00 per mile.

Hopefully that is enough background for someone to tell me if I'm expecting too much and should just be happy where I'm at or is my body just a wuss and can't keep up and I just need to push harder to get that HR on up to burn more energy.

Any help is appreciated.
 
Congratulations on your 90 pound weight loss. You should be very proud of yourself. Not many people have the dedication and will power to maintain a diet and exercise program long enough to achieve results like that!

A few thoughts on heart rate and fat loss:
1. any heart rate info you see is based on some average person, some people have larger or smaller hearts and their heart rate is just different than the norm
2. although you may burn more fat while you are exercising at some particular heart rate, you burn many times more fat after exercise, for up to 48 hours, during the recovery period, due the the amount of energy your body requires to repair the damage caused by exercise. Therefor to maximize fat reduction you should target your exercise for maximizing the post exercise energy requirement rather than the during exercise energy burn. The methods that most maximize post exercise energy requirements are HIIT and resistance exercise.
3. although you have been very successful with what you did to loose 90 pounds, a some point many people find that resistance exercise is more effective at changing body composition than straight cardio. note generally if you have a calorie deficit (eat less than you burn) you will loose weight. If you include resistance exercise in your routine you will tend to loose more fat and less lean body mass.
4. You did not say anything about your diet, current body composition, goals, height, etc, all of which can have some bearing on recommendations for what to do next to continue your progress or maintain your current weight.
 
Thanks for the reply. I have started working in resistance training. I had hit a plateau and have used the weights to help move a little since then. I've lost a few more pounds since doing that but still have about 15 lbs to go.

My diet is pretty strict for the most part. I have about 6 main meals that I alternate every few days for breakfast and lunch and then improvise healthy choices for dinner. Breakfast on day one is a shake that has 4 ounces organic milk, 1 ounce POM juice, about 1/3 c of blueberries, 3 strawberries, 1/3 c 2% Greek yogurt, 1/3 c carrots, spinach leaves, and a scoop of protein powder. 2 hours after I have Ezekiel cereal for my whole grain, and then lunch is a salad with most all colors with 1/3rd can red kidney beans and 2-3 boiled eggs, with evoo italian dressing. Afternoon snack on that day is generally fruit. Then dinner will be an average size portion meat with a vegetable and a starch usually.

Alternate day will be a larger breakfast, steel cut oats with a tbl spoon all natural peanut butter, cinnamon, flax meal, and a little honey with two eggs. Two hours later, fruit, lunch is a tuna salad sandwich. Afternoon snack is usually another fruit, but a small one. Dinner is the same make up as the other one. Occasionally I'll do a healthy snack in the evenings but nothing crazy. I have a cheat meal every Friday and then sometimes again on Saturday.

Overall, I feel I have a pretty good diet down.

My height is 6'3"

Current body composition: This one, I haven't the slightest clue. I haven't looked in to that at all I'm afraid.

Goals: My face, shoulders, arms, and legs are all pretty lean, but I carry fat still in my chest, back, sides, and belly. I want to trim on down and reach my ideal weight of about 200 lbs and mainain it, give or take 5 lbs.

Thanks
 
You have trying harder from the fast day and it brings result gradually. I believe you have noticed that. What i like to tell you that don't expect quick result. It would take time.

Your current routine is perfectly fine for yourself until you are fine. Keep it up for next few months.

Can you restructure your daily routine after few months since what i have noticed that you want to burn more energy? Follow the advanced routine more strictly after that.

We have a wrong notion about weight loose. Maximum people think that if they work hard they would able to lose their weight dramatically. This is utterly a wrong idea. Losing weight largely depends on proper dieting. No matter how long you try you would not lose your weight as your expectation if you have poor dieting or wrong one. So maintain a proper diet along with your hard works. Hopefully you would get your result.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top