BPMs

Huggles

Hi Guys

I'm back to pick your brilliant brains. I just got myself a HRM and I want to know where do my BPM have to be before I start burning anything off??

Ta

g'em

TheGooner wrote:

I'm back to pick your brilliant brains. Ta

how can we refuse after such gratuitous flattery

well you're going to burn off calories all the time! But your target heart rate for exercise is generally considered to be about 70-85% of your Max HR, which will allow you to burn calories at a desirable ratio of fat:muscle cals (i.e. you'll burn more fat cals than muscle cals).

Now that's my take on it, but its actually quite a contentious issue!! The way I see it is that if you, like me, are doing cardio primarily to lose weight, then you want to burn lots of calories. Although a lower intensity workout will burn a higher ratio to fat to muscle cals, a higher intensity workout will burn more calories overall. Bodybuilders, or those cutting, will want to retain as much muscle as possible, and so often opt for low intensity to minimise muscle breakdown.

I'm just gonna sit back now and watch the backlash..

t-ha

g'em wrote:

I'm just gonna sit back now and watch the backlash..

Well you won't get it from me! Personally I lost nearly 100lbs in five months last year, took a two week binging break, then went right down to about 7%BF in a further two months - and not once did I do low intensity anything. Edit: that's kind of a lie, but definitely most of my efforts were based in high intensity territory.

I've seen a bit of toing and froing on this issue on this site, and I think at some stage when I have the time I might write up a proper article on the whole area, and maybe get a decent debate going. This weekend maybe?

g'em

t-ha wrote:

maybe get a decent debate going?

what a lovely polite way of saying we'll all be shouting the heads off eachother, squaring up and comparing overall hardness...

babypink

g'em wrote:

shouting the heads off eachother, squaring up and comparing overall hardness...

better watch out for those overdeveloped lats so....might get hurt

g'em

babypink wrote:

better watch out for those overdeveloped lats so....might get hurt

hell yeah.. actually no, who'm I kidding, I'm a total softie, I'll probably put the lats to use to give the world a giant hug one of these days..

Dragan

Just for my twopence, i only every do sprints really, somedays a run if my knees are sore, but when i'm sprinting i'm doing a fast speed for 60 seconds and resting for 30. I also do lots of bag work. This is all what i would call high intensity and i am seeing some great results when it comes to losing the old adipose. I know Transform goes in for the low intensity, so he would best be able to argue that side of it.

Transform

I wouldn't 'argue with any side' as its specific to the individual.

What is you age and previous experience.

Finally i will say it once more for the ones with the hearing difficulties the higher the HR you will burn NO FAT!!!!!!

Gosh i can't wait until my blood web site is finished so i can clear up this a bit more!

hardtrainer

I have to agree with transform on this one, the higher the HR the less fat you burn. Put very basically, the body requires oxygen to breakdown fatty acids for the production of ATP. Where high intensity training is concerned, the first 20 secs of a sprint use creatine stored in muscles for conversion of ADP to ATP (energy), after that you begin working anaerobically until the heart rate increases and delivers enough oxygen to the muscles. During this anaerobic stage very little energy is released for each glucose/glycogen molecule and quite a lot of lactic acid builds up. It's a very inefficient form of energy production.

However, once the oxygen supply to your muscles increases (through increase HR) you can start producing energy more efficiently. At this point you are using mostly glycogen/glucose for ATP production, but also some fat. After approx 20-30 mins the ratio of fat being used increases since fat yields more than double the amount of energy.

There is some variation among people, as always, but for optimal fat burning you need to keep a relatively good pace, but not be completely out of breath, for as long as possible.

Huggles

Ok after studying the manual my HRM arrived with my Max HR is 195. Soooooo should I be aiming for 140-160 BPM....

g'em

perfect. As you get fitter you'll find that it takes more and more effort to reach that heart rate as your heart becomes stronger and more efficient at pumping blood (and therefore supplying oxygen) around your body. Have fun!!

Huggles

I am actually having fun, I never thought that would be the case. Have a head cold at the moment so all workouts make me look like a junkie running to get methadone. Ugh.

My resting HR is 54. Apparently my friend is dead because she has no resting HR LOL