What Should My Heartrate Be At?

Question

I'm 19, 5'3 and 124lbs. I just recently joined the gym and I wanted to know what I should keep my heartrate at while working out to produce the best weight loss results. I'm currently only on Cardio machines like the treadmill and elliptical.

Answer 1

Your maximum heart rate is approximately 220 minus your age. In order to get the most of your workout, aim for a rate that is at least 75% (fat burning, sustained long workout of at least 20 minutes) but not more than 90% (athletic and/or interval training) of your maximum. Your gym should have a monitor for you to use.

Answer 2

With all due respect, Lyn is confused. If you're starting out, its unlikely you could maintain 75% of max long enough to be effective, even if you knew what your max was (every individual is different). Unless you're a trained athlete, you'd probably bail out or collapse before you got to 90%.

As a beginner, ignore the heart rate numbers on the machines. You're better off going with percieved exertion until you're experienced enough, and in good enough cardiovascular shape to figure out what your heart rate numbers are for various goals and workout protocols.

For maximum fat burning, you want to be going fast enough that you're breathing hard, but can still converse. Recommended MINIMUM is at least 30 minutes. Its better to go longer if you can. If you can't, keep working at it.

Lynn, for your benefit, the fat burning zone is generally thought of as between 60 and 70% of max. Following your generic number calculations, that would make the theoretical number for a 20 yr old 120 to 140 obviously a very broad range.