Excercising to lose weight - how important is heart rate?!


Question: My fiance & I joined the local YMCA and went to work out for the first time last night. I am really out of shape and want to exercise to improve my health and ultimately lose weight.
On the exercise machine (treadmill that has variable incline) it showed "fat burning" and "cardio" heart rates. My heart rate for most of the time was below both of these, for the last 10-minutes or so it was in the 'fat burning' range.
Was my 30-minutes useless because I didn't get my heart rate up enough?
Should I shorten the time in order to get my heart rate up enough to hit these 'targets' (I'd probably fall over if I tried to go that hard for a full 30-minutes)?
Or is this OK as I'm just starting out?

For example, it said 114 bpm was 60%, 123 was 65% 'fat burning', and 133 was 70% cardio.
For about the first 20 minutes I was between 116 - 118. But for the last 10 minutes I was between 125 - 128.

How important is the heart rate stuff?
What do you advise?


Answers: My fiance & I joined the local YMCA and went to work out for the first time last night. I am really out of shape and want to exercise to improve my health and ultimately lose weight.
On the exercise machine (treadmill that has variable incline) it showed "fat burning" and "cardio" heart rates. My heart rate for most of the time was below both of these, for the last 10-minutes or so it was in the 'fat burning' range.
Was my 30-minutes useless because I didn't get my heart rate up enough?
Should I shorten the time in order to get my heart rate up enough to hit these 'targets' (I'd probably fall over if I tried to go that hard for a full 30-minutes)?
Or is this OK as I'm just starting out?

For example, it said 114 bpm was 60%, 123 was 65% 'fat burning', and 133 was 70% cardio.
For about the first 20 minutes I was between 116 - 118. But for the last 10 minutes I was between 125 - 128.

How important is the heart rate stuff?
What do you advise?

for heart health, your goal should be getting to that rate, but don't try to do it from the start, work up to it over time, or you will hurt yourself.

These zones are just gibberish.

Muscular fuel use is very simply organised, because you have different muscle fibres that burn each type of fuel. Chemically, sugar is an explosive; it burns powerfully and runs out quickly. Fat burns slowly, and lasts a long time (like a candle).

GENTLE movements (which won't raise your heart rate much) are performed by fibres that burn FAT. ('slow-twitch' muscle cells)

POWERFUL movements (which boost your heart rate) are done by 'recruiting' fibres which burn SUGAR. ('fast-twitch')

(There are some 'mixed type' fibres that can burn both fuels, but they still obey the laws of physics; they can only burn fat while contracting gently, and they need to burn sugar if they're going to do powerful work.)

The harder you work, the more sugar you're burning. Working more gently burns more fat.

Burning sugar will make you tired and hungry, so it's a 'false economy' to work really vigorously in order to burn more calories. You'll need to stop sooner, and eat more. most of the 'recovery' processes burn sugar too, so the idea that increased metabolism during rest will be beneficial, IS ANOTHER MYTH.

Fatburning fibres are 'fatigue resistant'. they will keep contracting indefinitely without tiring you or increasing your hunger. If you are working gently enough to burn ONLY fat, then you will be able to keep doing the activity continuously, all the time, without stopping.

In reality, most activities use both types of muscle contraction, but your heart rate is a good guide to the 'mix'. Using a lot of sugar-burning fibres will raise your heart rate quickly. Fatburning work doesn't.





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