Heart Rate

[Steve]

pretty positive under the 2000 mark for the last two weeks. i got on the scale last monday was 199 and yesterday i was 198. so like 1lbs a week. its better than nothing. so trying to keep myself motivated. im thinking not to eat carbs after 3 in the afternoon. to see if this may help and have two serv of veg at night... i heard someone talking about it at the gym.

You should only be weighing first thing in the morning to get an accurate measure. Anything else isn't giving you anything close to accurate. I'd be willing to bet you lost more fat than 1 lb if you truly were consistent with that intake.

I wouldn't worry about carbs too much after a certain time in the day. The person you heard talking was a boob.

 

[nicci0412]

thanks for your info. i will just try and keep steady with what i am doing then,... i do appreciate you responding to me. i will keep updating if i see many results and im going to keep this positive attitude

 

[Daymon74]

Sustained Heart Rate Good or Bad?

I'm looking for some good feedback on this topic with documented studies, personal experience, and authoritative resources if possible.

I have a treadmill and instead of trying to maintain a set speed, I maintain a target heart rate which for me is between 158 to 160 being safe, and effective. I do 5 minutes warm up, and another 5 minutes cool down with an entire 30 minutes devoted to the actual workout for a total of 40 minutes on the treadmill in total. I start out at about 4.5 (mph?) but end at around 3.8. Not because I'm fatigued, but because my heart rate starts to get in the 168 range if I try to stay at 4.5mph the whole time, which I think is pretty dangerous at my current physical condition. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Basically, I have been slowly decreasing my speed, and trying to just maintain my target heart rate of around 158 to 160 during the course of the workout.

I am just wondering if this will be an effective workout over the long term. I don't do this every day, just every other day. On other days I have an iFit personal trainer card that is inserted into the machine, and automatically adjusts the speed and incline, and switches up the workout with every session. My only fear is my body will get used to this and I will plateau. My speed to begin with will of course increase as I become more fit, but will my body get used to having a sustained heart rate even with increased performance?

Thanks in advance for all your help

 

[jojoluvsu2]

If you are concerned with your heart rate getting too high I'd definetly get a stress test, or other cardiovascular test done to determine if you're heart and CV system can't handle higher heart rates. My aunt recently began to exercise with the goal of losing 100ish lbs (she's 250lbs to start). She got her heart checked, as well as an overall physical just for good measure. The doc gave her a clean bill of health, well as clean as she could be at that weight. Basically she targets for 70% MHR, but because she knows her heart can handle it, it's not a panic of she hits 80 or 85%.

If you're able to get checked out and the doc gives you the OK, its a good thing to get your heart rate up higher intermittently (I"m NOT saying HIIT, that term is thrown around so much!) just plain old intervals of higher and lower intensities. But I can't stress enough to get a stress test or something similar, to make sure you're heart can handle it.

 

[Daymon74]

If you are concerned with your heart rate getting too high I'd

I'm trying not to be so wordy about this, but I can't think of another way to ask the question. LOL

I'm not worried too much about my heart rate getting too high since I know what range it needs to be in for my age, height, weight, and sex to be safe, and try to keep it between 158 to 160. It takes less effort to keep my heart rate in that range further in to the workout, so I reduce my speed a bit when it starts getting higher. I've done some reading about hiit and from what I've read it suggests doing the same thing over and over will cause my body to get used to it and have little or no results at some point.

I know by maintaining a set heart rate, my speed and endurance will increase naturally over time, so today I may have to run 4.5mph to reach the heart rate of 58 to 60, but in two months I might have to run 6.0mph to reach the very same heart rate.

With this in mind, I am wondering if even with the increased performance, will I begin to see fewer results in terms of weight loss regardless of the increased performance due to keeping my heart rate at a constant?

I think you're right about the stress test regardless. This would give me a better idea of where my heart rate should be on a personal level as opposed to a chart

 

[jojoluvsu2]

I know by maintaining a set heart rate, my speed and endurance will increase naturally over time, so today I may have to run 4.5mph to reach the heart rate of 58 to 60, but in two months I might have to run 6.0mph to reach the very same heart rate.

With this in mind, I am wondering if even with the increased performance, will I begin to see fewer results in terms of weight loss regardless of the increased performance due to keeping my heart rate at a constant?

I would think that eventually yes you would see decreased results by just keeping your heart rate constant. When that will happen, who knows! That'll depend on your physiology. I would guess that if you're starting your program with a very low level of fitness, you'll see results for a while just maintaining heart rate. When I'm referring to fitness, I'm not talking about weight but muscle fitness. I've seen many people who are considered overweight or even boarderline obese whose cardio system is in better shape than many people who are considered to be at their ideal weight. But as your cardio fitness improves, results will slow down. That's what happens for the average person, but we're all different, so who knows how your body will respond! My personal experience with cycling; I had been working for weeks at level 10 on the bike. It never felt like it was getting any easier, just the same tiring workout. Then one day I bumped it up to 11 (about 30 watts more). It killed me, but I stuck to it. After a week or so, I went back to 10 just to see, and it had gotten so much easier! My heart rate was lower too. I didn't improve at that level until I tried the next.

Why don't you give your program a try for now, and see how it goes. It's definetly a safe start, you're not shocking your system by jumping into intense exercise right off the bat. If you continue to see satisfactory results, stick with it! If you're not happy, weight loss slows down, or you want a new challenge, change it. You won't know for sure how your body will respond until you get there.

 

[Daymon74]

Then one day I bumped it up to 11 (about 30 watts more). It killed me, but I stuck to it. After a week or so, I went back to 10 just to see, and it had gotten so much easier! My heart rate was lower too. I didn't improve at that level until I tried the next.

By chance did you monitor your heart rate to see if it was the same at level 11 as it was when you first started level 10? I used to do the same thing on the bikes at the YMCA and I had to increase my level every so often to keep my heart rate up where I wanted it.

I'm increasing performance, just not my heart rate.

 

[steevieo]

Heart rate when exercising

How important is heart rate for exercising?

I read a lot of conflicting information. As a 42 year old male my maximum heart is 178.

Supposedly:
60-70% (107-125 for me) of maximum is "fatburning"
70-80%(125-143) is for "endurance"
80-90% (143-161) is "performance"

If I want to lose weight do I keep my heart rate between 60-70%? Somethings I read say yes, other say yes you burn a higher percentage of fat calories at this percentage BUT you burn more calories with a higher heart rate so that is more beneficial.

Are there other benefits of increasing heart rate?