Heart rate above 'Fat burning heart rate'

[SamiG]

My 'recommened' heart rate is between 121 and 141 for fat burning while doing cardio.
My new program at the gym is hard work and alot of interval training, and my heart rate is always above the 165 mark the whole session.... sometimes peaking to 180
Is this an issue? will this help my weightloss or hinder it?

I dont really understand what happens if your heart rate goes above the 'recommended' rate and if its a good thing or not?
Also when my heart rate is that high it doesnt bother me... i just want to do the right thing to loose weight!

[yogibbear]

How old are you?

I'm 24 and my heartrate is pretty much bang on 175-ish when running. That's pretty much topping myself out. The formula for max heart rate is 220 bpm - your age. For an approx that's good enough for us non-athletes. So my max is:

220 - 24 = 196.

Then anywhere above 85% is pretty damn high and not recommended / not sustainable.

0.85 * 196 = 166.6

Therefore when I'm hitting 175 i'm over maxxing my heartrate which means I'm probably burning myself out. Which from a lose weight perspective is great. But from a sustainable exercise pattern is pretty stupid if you want to keep your body in tip top shape. The 175 is unsustainable and I find when I try to hit a more sustainable 160-ish I can keep going for longer. Obviously I just put a setting in my heart rate monitor to beep at me if I go over 170-ish then I slow down and focus a little on my breathing. My average HR is lower than the 175 but I have hit ~185 at times. All of this while running. Not while doing gym work.

The reason why you don't want to get your heart rate too high is you risk going into cardiac arrest and / or fainting, etc. basically it's not pleasant for your heart rate to go that high. Hence the general advice is ~85% is pretty sustainable. With the ultimate window being somewhere between 70-85% ish. However obviously it's just a formula so as with all things everyone is different and the formula is pretty stupid when you think about it, so you can actually get your maximum heart rate tested by a professional sports scientist if you REALLY needed to know, but that's really for extreme athletes.

[SamiG]

Thanks for your informative reply! Its helped alot! It made alot of sense.
I am also 24. Form your descrption it sounds like our heart rates are kind of the same when working out which to me is relieveing lol.

[Linda Wooldridge]

Hi there, I think it is definitely advisable to keep your heart rate around the 80% mark because if you go above that you may be putting too much stress on your heart. The other thing you have to monitor with interval training is how long it takes your heart rate to lower after the more intense sessions. If your heart rate goes sky high during the intense interval, but then recovers quite quickly it should be fine to keep going the way you are going as long as you feel ok. Pushing yourself cardiovascularly means that you will keep getting fitter, which means your heart rate will come down over time anyway unless you keep upping your intensity. You are still burning calories at a higher heart rate, but the experts say that around the 75% mark it is more ideal for fat loss. At the end of the day it is calories in versus calories out, that's why trainers now adays love interval training cause it really burns lots of calories!
Hope that helps.

[SydneyPT]

Don't worry about that 'fat burning zone' with the heart rate range that people are telling you. It is all about how many calories you burn during your workout.
The harder you push yourself, the more you burn.