Heart Rate Targets For Weight Loss
The target heart rate for weight loss is around 145-155 BPM. This is about 10 beats below the heart rate for maximum fat burning . Your heart will beat like this when youre at rest . This heart rate can be used as a tester to see if you are doing the right amount of exercise.
Your fat-burning heart rate is 70%-80% of the maximum heart rate for your age and gender. In this target zone, your body uses stored fat for energy
Your fat-burning heart rate is 70%-80% of the maximum heart rate for your age and gender. For example, if your maximum heart rate is 200 beats per minute , your target heart rate should be 140-170 bpm.
Usually, the standard heart rate at rest is between 60-100 beats per minute. Heart rate increases with exercise intensity. The more intense your workout, the higher your heart rate. In your fat-burning heart rate zone, your body uses stored fat for energy instead of carbs, resulting in more fat loss. You need to stay in the fat-burning heart zone for a minimum of 30 minutes for the exercise to be fully effective.
| Age | |
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| 150 bpm | 105 to 120 bpm |
According to some claims, low-intensity workouts put you in a fat-burning zone and burn more fat than high-intensity workouts. However, experts refute this claim, as scientists have found that the fat-burning zone occurs at 55%-75% of maximum heart rate.
To achieve maximum fat loss, aim for moderate to higher-intensity workouts and control your calorie consumption.
Fat Burning Heart Rate
You might have seen the “fat burning zone” written on treadmills, cycle ergometers, ellipses and other equipment. Have you ever wondered where does comes from? Well, we have the answer for you! The fat burning zone is simply the range of heart rates that is ideal for fat loss. It can be calculated as a 60-80% of your maximal heart rate.
If you want to find out more about other heart rate zones, check out the target heart rate calculator.
What Heart Rate Should I Target For Weight Loss
Heart rate is the most important factor in knowing how effective your exercise is, especially for weight loss. While any exercise is better than no exercise at all, working out hard enough to keep your HR in the ideal zone is the best way to lose weight through exercise! This is because your heart rate is related to the number of calories you are burning. The higher your heart rate, the more energy you are using up. Additionally, HR is an indicator of your level of fitness. Reaching your target heart rate means that your body is increasing its fitness and in the future, you will perform better.
So what is that ideal zone and how do you know youre there? The short answer is, that your heart rate should be around 50-70% of your maximum for moderate exercise and 70-85% of your maximum for intense exercise. This rate depends on your age but is easy to calculate. The fitter you are, the lower your resting HR will be. You can measure your HR yourself or using many portable devices, including biosensors which can monitor HR remotely. Read on for more information on HR and how to measure it.
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Target Heart Rate For Weight Loss: Does More Mean Less
Originally published January 23, 2018 5:55 pm, updated March 18, 2022
If your goal is to lose weight, there are a handful of ways to make that happen. While adjusting your diet is key, adding exercise will help make your goals a reality. But theres a huge difference between a 20-minute walk-and-talk with your friends and a two-hour brick workout. Both can be effective but how do you know whats really getting you where you want to go? What should be your target heart rate for weight loss?
If youre wearing a heart rate monitor, itll be much easier to tell if youre working out in the target heart rate for weight loss. Data doesnt lie, so consider your monitor your best workout buddy .
Here are three things to keep in mind when youre exercising to lose weight.
What Is The Fat
Your target heart rate is a number that shows your heart is working hard enough â and that you’re burning a worthwhile number of calories â during exercise.
A person’s specific target heart rate depends on his or her age: The older you are, the lower your target should be. But generally, it should be between 50 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate , according to the American Heart Association .
Calculate Your Maximum Heart Rate
Get the formula here, plus a handy chart that breaks down average MHR by age.
Is there a certain target heart rate that encourages your body to burn more fat? The simple answer is yes.
Exercising at around 70 percent of your MHR will encourage your body to use more energy from fat, while exercising at a higher heart rate will encourage your body to use more energy from carbohydrates, according to a February 2011 review published in the journal Clinical Nutrition Espen.
Staying in the so-called fat-burning zone might seem like the best option if you’re looking to lose weight. But in fact, that’s not necessarily the case.
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What Is Your Fat Burning Heart Rate
When you hit your fat burning heart rate, your body starts burning more stored fat than sugar and other carbohydrates.
If your fat burning heart rate is too high, you are going too hard and try slowing down. If it is too low, you may want to push yourself to exercise a little harder, particularly when you are aiming to lose weight.
Generally, the higher the heart rate, the more fat the body torches compared with other calorie sources, such as carbohydrates.
If you are a beginner looking to start, aim for the lower range of your target zone and gradually build up. With time, you will be able to train comfortably at up to 93 percent of your maximum heart rate.
In a 2016 study, researchers observed that wearable activity trackers accurately measure heart rate during walking and running activities.
How To Measure Your Target Heart Rate Without Any Guesswork
The best way to figure out your target heart rate is to measure your pulse before starting your workout. Try counting your pulse for ten seconds and multiply by six to get your bpm.
If youre exercising for fat-burning, make sure to stay within this range! A higher heart rate is more efficient at burning fat than other calories. The ideal heart rate for fat-burning will vary from person to person.
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How To Maintain Weight: Healthy Nutrition And Weight Management
Understanding your fitness level and limitations is critical to developing a successful workout routine to keep you in the fat-burning zone. Switching it up between low and high-intensity workouts can keep you motivated, burn more calories, and help you achieve your healthy weight goals.
How To Stagger Your Workouts
Performing the same workout every day leads to a plateau, a point at which the exercise loses effectiveness. Alternatively, hitting it too hard can lead to burnout. Thats why its important to stagger your workouts. To do this, make sure to include both moderate-intensity and high-intensity cardiovascular exercise in your overall fitness routine.
For example, perform 30 to 45 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio exercise, such as walking or swimming, three days a week. Up the intensity for the other two days five days total and perform vigorous workouts such as running or cycling.
If you choose to do high-intensity-interval training, you can reduce the total amount of time. For example, do sprints alternating with jogging intervals on the treadmill for 20 to 30 minutes.
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How To Find Your Fat
There is a perfect heart rate zone tailored to each individual, which burns the most fat.
Stay below this zone and you arent maximizing fat burn. Go above this zone and youre only burning the food in your stomach, not getting rid of your body fat. And you might be surprised to learn the intensity level is fairly low, and you should aim to workout slightly longer at that lower intensity.
Max Heart Rate = 220 your age x .66
To use heart rate in your own training, start by calculating your maximum heart rate. Multiply your age by .66. Then, subtract that number from 220 and you have your estimated max heart rate. For example, if youre 30, your maximum heart rate is roughly 200. This is the most accurate way to calculate max heart rate without using technology, according to a 2017 study published in the Chinese Journal of Sports Medicine.
Once you know your max heart rate, you can calculate heart rate zones. These zones are designed to give you an idea of how hard to work during your training session. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends sticking to 6476% of your max heart rate for moderate-intensity activity in your fat-burning zone.
Endurance athletes who dont want to push themselves should stay in this range. Most weightlifting workouts stay in this range as well. For a 30 year-old with a max heart rate of 200, the range extends from 128152 beats per minute.
For The Best Workouts Know Your Target Heart Rate
Fitness, Heart Health, Wellness
We know exercise is good for us and has been shown to have many mental and physical health benefits, including burning calories to help lose weight. If your goals for exercise include weight loss, how do you know if youre doing too much or not enough? One way is to monitor your heart rate, which is the number of times your heart beats per minute whether you are at rest watching TV or hard at work climbing a mountain.
Although a normal resting heart rate can range from 60 to 100 beats per minute, UNC cardiologist Christopher Kelly, MD, says a resting rate of 60 to 85 is typically the norm.
The truth is that for most people, a normal resting heart rate is probably 85 or less, Dr. Kelly says. Having a heart rate of 99 when youre sitting, resting and minding your own business, although technically defined as normal, is really not.
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Fitness Heart Rate Zone
The fitness heart rate zone is from 60 percent to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. This is the higher end of the moderate-intensity exercise zone. You will be breathing heavier but will still be able to speak in short sentences. You burn more calories per minute than in the healthy heart zone because the exercise is a little more intense. You are going faster and therefore covering more distance. The calories you burn depend on the distance you cover and your weight more than any other factors. In this zone, your body fuels itself with 85 percent fat, 5 percent protein, and 10 percent carbohydrate. You get the same health benefits and fat-burning benefits as the healthy heart zone. An example of a workout in this zone is a brisk walking workout.
It Sounds Obvious But What Is A Fat
Your target heart rate is the number of times your heart should beat per minute to ensure your heart is getting exercise without being overworked. Sticking with that rate also means youre moving at a pace thatll promote calorie burning and help you lose weight.
Fat-burning heart rate is a bit of a misnomer, though.
Your body will burn fat or carbohydrates for energy during physical activity, depending on how hard youre working. Exercising at a moderate pace, with your heart rate slightly elevated, burns more calories from fat. Crank it up to a vigorous, heart-pounding pace and your body eventually switches to burning more calories from carbs.
Staying in the fat-burning zone might sound like your best bet if youre trying to lose weight. But the fact is, it doesnt matter if the cals you burn through exercise come from fat or carbs. You just need to burn calories, period.
So, what heart rate should you target to ensure youre working hard enough to reap the benefits of exercise? For weight loss and overall health, you need to exercise at a moderate pace for at least 150 minutes per week or a vigorous pace for at least 75 minutes per week.
- To exercise at a moderate pace, aim for 50 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate.
- To exercise at a vigorous pace, aim for 70 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate.
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Dont Obsess Over The Fat
People and gym equipment alike love the term fat-burning zone because it makes everything seem so easy. Work out in that desired zone for a while and bam, youre back in your high school-era jeans! The reality, of course, isnt quite so simple.
Heart rate can can guide your workouts to be more efficient, ultimately helping you burn more calories and lose weight.
Heart rate can be a valuable indicator of how hard youre working during exercise, but there are many other factors that can affect weight loss, says NASM-certified personal trainer Anthony Baugh. If used correctly, it can guide your workouts to be more efficient, ultimately helping you burn more calories and lose weight. But, Baugh says, the fat-burning zone people talk about isnt one size fits all.
Generally speaking, when youre working out, youre within one of five HR zones:
Exercise Intensity For The Target Heart Rate Formula Explained
To understand the target heart rate formula for weight loss you need to understand what happens in other heart rate zones
- 50% 60%: Youre exercising at 50% to 60% of your max heart rate. This could be walking, or light exercise that allows you to maintain conversation. Here, your body is burning sugars in the blood as energy. Youre generally able to sustain this zone the longest amount of time.
- 50-75%: Youre exercising at 60% to 75% of your max heart rate. This is your target heart rate zone for weight loss. Here your body breaks down fat to use as energy.
- 75%+: Working at over 75% of your max heart rate puts you in the aerobic zone. While performing vigorous activity, about 45% of the calories you burn are fat. But youre burning a higher number of overall calories compared to the other heart rate zones. You generally sustain this zone the shortest amount of time.
Why do you burn less fat the harder you work out? Once your heart rate increases, youre not taking in as much oxygen. You cant oxidize fat fast enough. Your body turns to another, more readily available energy source to provide fuel for you glycogen, also known as carbohydrates.
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Burn Sugars |
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150 bpm |
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What Factors Influence The Ideal Heart Rate For Jogging For Weight
As with all cardiovascular exercises, the ideal heart rate for jogging for weight-loss is based on your fitness level, age, current activities, and other medical conditions. If youre unsure about your ideal heart rate for weight-loss jogging, consult your doctor or health professional.
It is important to exercise safely and avoid injury. To help you achieve your weight-loss goals, you can calculate your ideal running heart rate using a fitness monitor.
How To Measure Your Heart Rate
Technology has made monitoring your heart rate during exercise easier than ever. Wearables, fitness trackers, and mobile apps use sensors and algorithms to collect detailed data on your heart rate zones.
Some of the best available tools to measure heart rate include :
- Activity trackers
- Taking it manually during exercise
Studies have shown that chest straps and wearable fitness trackers are relatively accurate at continuously monitoring heart rate. Ultimately, the device you choose for monitoring your heart rate comes down to personal preference, budget, and convenience .
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Effectiveness Of Targeting Fat
While a fat-burning heart rate sounds like an appealing way to lose weight, it’s not the only consideration. You can think of weight loss in simple terms of total caloric intake minus calories burned.
Caloric intake depends mainly on the consumption of macronutrients, like fat, carbohydrates, protein, and more. These contain variable amounts of calories per gram, ranging from 49 calories/gram.
Fiber also plays a role in caloric intake, since insoluble fiber is not absorbed.
Furthermore, studies have taken into consideration the role of the “gut microbiome” in weight loss and metabolism, as well as the number of health conditions a person has.
The Link Between Heart Rate And Fat Loss
During a workout or ride, your body requires more energy. Thus, your heart pumps faster and harder to send oxygen to your muscle cells to break down more glycogen and fat to fuel your muscles.
While 1 gram of carbohydrate contains 4 calories of energy, 1 gram of fat contains 9 calories. This makes glycogen a less dense form of energy storage that is readily broken down into glucose, as compared to fats.
As such, glycogen is your bodys first source of energy during exercise. Since high-intensity workouts require more energy quickly, you tap on glycogen rather than fat in your body for fuel. Your body only taps on to the next fuel, fat, when you start to run out of glycogen.
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