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Aerobics/Please help with the understanding of heart rate.

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Expert: - 5/21/2008


Question
Hello,

can you please tell me what my target heart rate should be when doing cardio for fat loss.  I am a 32 year old male 6 ft about 195lbs.  I do cardio about 3 times a week for 60 mins. I think it should be 141 to 153 at a level of 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate.  I don't understand what this means?   Are they saying to have my heart rate around 147 bpm for 65% of the work out.  So in a 60 min workout it should be at this number for at least 45 min of the workout?

Answer
What they are saying is that you should exercise at an intensity of about 60% - 70% of your maximum heart rate during cardio training, rather than 60% - 70% of the time or duration that you're exercising.
Your estimated maximum heart rate is 188 (220 - 32).  60% of that is 113 beats per minute, 70% of that is 131 beats per minute.  So your 60%-70% target zone is 113 -131 beats per minute.

Hope this helps.

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