Exercise and heart rate query

[SNOWMANdymoo]

Apparently my target heart rate for fat burning exercise is around the 150 mark. Tonight i did half an hour on my cross trainer but almost had to do nothing as my heart rate was at 147 with me just doing a steady pace. It almost felt as if i was cheating.

So, was i still burning fat or have i missed something here?!

[LieselVentouse]

I think 140 is enough - thats what my dad always says and he runs marathons

[SNOWMANdymoo]

so what i did tonight was ok then? I wasnt being lazy?!

[LieselVentouse]

God no, and when I used to do more than 140 at the gym the red light used to come on so I think 140 is probably more than enough.

[MuckyAnthea]

ohmygod, I was going to ask the same question - My heart rate goes up to 170, sometimes 180. According to my calculations it should only go up to 159, but when I am at that rate I am not even sweating, this is on the cross trainer too. When I start using my arms and go like billy'o thats when my heart rate goes up to over 170. It does not take long to get down to below 159 though. I have been going to the gym fairly frequently, and feel alot fitter then I used too. But my heart rate worries me.

Great thread, hope some others can help us.

[Mandymoo]

Muckyanthea - i use the cross trainer too and when i use the arm levers my heart rate goes through the roof so i just hang on to the front bar!

I can do 35/40 mins at around 150 (target 159) with no trouble and with hardly anu sweating! I thought exercise was meant to be hard work!

However, dh says that as you get fitter then you will have to gradually work harder to get your heart rate up.

I guess until then we should just make the most of it!

[DimpledThighs]

this might be naughty but I don't trust the machines - esp. as they tell you you burn more on cross trainer than tredmill even though I know I am working harder on the treadmill. I do it by my body now - as long as I am breathing hard but still able to speak (I don't start chatting but just imainge it) I know I am working at the right level.

The fat burning heart rate depends on lots of things: age, resting pulse etc so can't understand why the equipment has a generalised optimum HR.

Anyway burble burble but that's my cynical view.

[Mandymoo]

im using a proper heart rate band and watch type thing now.

tbh i do the same as you anyway and imagine talking while im exercising (sometimes i do actually talk!)

[MuckyAnthea]

I'm going to get myself one of those heart gadgets and test it out.

To be honest, after wearing my pedometer on the cross trainer once, and it telling me I had burnt alot LESS calories then the cross trainer was telling me I had, I have now become untrusting of the cross trainers workout results. The cross trainer at my gym asks for age and weight, this is 'supposed' to give a more accurate record for your heart rate, but I guess unless you wear a heart monitor you have no idea of accuracy.

I shall just keep going like hell for leather on the cross trainer anyway, I only have a small heart ['it looks like a peanut' so my BF told me once after looking at an xray of my chest], so the smaller the heart, the harder it works out, the higher the heart rate...perhaps?