I have recently been getting more into my cardio workouts now that I am in a bit better shape, and had a question about heart rate and duration. My cardio of choice is the elliptical machine (bad knee) and I like to use an interval hill setting. The last week I have been doing 60 minutes with a five minute warmdown, at a fairly vigorous resistance setting. My average heart rate for the hour is about 175, but a good portion of it is in the high 180s with a max of 195 or so.

My goal is to lose some weight and reduce my bodyfat percentage, and I am doing this cardio about 3 or 4 times a week along with a five days of freeweights.

I have seen posted that to burn fat you should be working at 65-75% heart rate, but is doing higher intensity going to give me less positive results? At the lower heart rate I don't feel like I am doing anything.

Another note, during my college swimming years I was a distance swimmer and butterflyer, is it possible that I just have a very well developed cardio system?

When you over-do it like that, you're putting your muscles at risk. search for something called "cortisol" if you want more info.

as for the possibility of your cardio condition being better than the standard "220 - age = max hr" - i have no clue. It might be a possibility, but i wouldn't risk it if i were you.

Keep your HR at around 70-75% is my best advice.


I have recently been getting more into my cardio workouts now that I am in a bit better shape, and had a question about heart rate and duration. My cardio of choice is the elliptical machine (bad knee) and I like to use an interval hill setting. The last week I have been doing 60 minutes with a five minute warmdown, at a fairly vigorous resistance setting. My average heart rate for the hour is about 175, but a good portion of it is in the high 180s with a max of 195 or so.

My goal is to lose some weight and reduce my bodyfat percentage, and I am doing this cardio about 3 or 4 times a week along with a five days of freeweights.

I have seen posted that to burn fat you should be working at 65-75% heart rate, but is doing higher intensity going to give me less positive results? At the lower heart rate I don't feel like I am doing anything.

Another note, during my college swimming years I was a distance swimmer and butterflyer, is it possible that I just have a very well developed cardio system?

over 75% it starts to put you out of aerobic and into anarobic. At this point and higher you will burn less calories. If thats your goal get a heart rate monitor and stick around 70-75% and chart your progress.

Heres a quick example according to my bike computer, which allows for my age, heart rate, weight ect.

45mins at 60% about 700 calories burned
45mins at 65% about 750 burned
45mins at 70-72 about 840 calories burned
45 mins at 85 about 650 calories or alittle less burned.

Not to mention doing 45 mins at 85 or above is hard day in and day out, at least for me. After alot of advice last year I stopped doing these higher levels, since I restarted this year at the lower level I have been making better progress....with what seems like less work. 45 mins 6x per week at about 70-75%.

your running at way to high, yout going to loose muscle and cramp up.

Since your 23 you should be training between 128 to 167 beats per minute

(220-23) = 197

197*.85 = 167
197*.65 = 128

over 75% it starts to put you out of aerobic and into anarobic. At this point and higher you will burn less calories. If thats your goal get a heart rate monitor and stick around 70-75% and chart your progress.

Heres a quick example according to my bike computer, which allows for my age, heart rate, weight ect.

45mins at 60% about 700 calories burned
45mins at 65% about 750 burned
45mins at 70-72 about 840 calories burned
45 mins at 85 about 650 calories or alittle less burned.

Not to mention doing 45 mins at 85 or above is hard day in and day out, at least for me. After alot of advice last year I stopped doing these higher levels, since I restarted this year at the lower level I have been making better progress....with what seems like less work. 45 mins 6x per week at about 70-75%.

I think you'll be burning more calories if your heart rate is at 85%, but less of those calories will be from fat. So if you did that work out it might be closer to something like...

45mins at 65% about 500 calories burned, 400 fat / 100 muscle
45mins at 85% about 700 calories burned, 350 fat / 350 muscle

I have to disagree with the other posters here.

According to your post, you're keeping your heart rate at about 90% for 60 minutes. I don't think that is possible. Something is off here. If you are "recently getting into more cardio" and you get your heart rate up to 90%, I'd bet you can't keep it there for more than 15 minutes.

How are you measuring? I remember measuring on a treadmill with my fingers on my neck for 6 seconds, multiply by 10. I thought I was doing like 75%, but it just wasn't consistant. I found out this is not reliable when you're moving. I also tried using the machine's sensors -- put your hands on the silver parts of the handle. That's better, but still not accurate consistantly. Then I got a Polar heart rate monitor. It has a strap you wear around your chest. The strap sends signals to a watch you wear. That is accurate.

So, how are you measuring? I doubt you have an accurate measurement, but if you are confident you do, I would suggest you visit a physician because 90% of your maximum heart rate should wear you out quickly.

I have to disagree with the other posters here.

According to your post, you're keeping your heart rate at about 90% for 60 minutes. I don't think that is possible. Something is off here. If you are "recently getting into more cardio" and you get your heart rate up to 90%, I'd bet you can't keep it there for more than 15 minutes.

How are you measuring? I remember measuring on a treadmill with my fingers on my neck for 6 seconds, multiply by 10. I thought I was doing like 75%, but it just wasn't consistant. I found out this is not reliable when you're moving. I also tried using the machine's sensors -- put your hands on the silver parts of the handle. That's better, but still not accurate consistantly. Then I got a Polar heart rate monitor. It has a strap you wear around your chest. The strap sends signals to a watch you wear. That is accurate.

So, how are you measuring? I doubt you have an accurate measurement, but if you are confident you do, I would suggest you visit a physician because 90% of your maximum heart rate should wear you out quickly.


Thanks for the input everybody. The elliptical machine at our office gym has the heart rate sensors on handles, and displays it on the screen as you are going. Then at the end, it gives the average heart rate for the entire workout, max heart rate achieved etc. I am not sure how precise it is, but I don't have any reason to doubt it either. When i say "recently getting into more cardio" perhaps I should have said "recently been getting onto the elliptical machine at the gym regularly". I have been doing othe cardio related activities such as swimming and basketball on a for fun basis, just not for training purposes. I do not think that it would be unprecedented to have a heart rate of 175 for 20 or 30 minutes straight, and I am sure that others with swimming backgrounds such as John will remember doing sets of 100's on intervals of 1:10 or faster that would create heartrates in that range. My question was more as to whether training at higher heart rates would a less positive impact on my bodyfat lowering pace. It sounds like the consensus is that I am only burning up muscle by training at that intensity for that duration, and that I should cut back. Anybody else have any thoughts? I would especially be interested to hear from other people who had high cardio impact sports in their backgrounds ie swimming, distance running, etc. Thanks

I was thinking the same thing -- no way that is accurate.

But a watch and that'll help get a better gauge. When I go 90% for a couple minutes I'm ready to puke.

And yes, you could have a refined cardio system, but no way that refined. If your cardio is really THAT refined, you may want to stick a bar of cryptonite in your pocket to slow you down. :lol:

I could go with someone who keeps their heart rate at 90% for 20 minutes, maybe even 30 minutes, but not 60 minutes.

There is great debate here about the values of low-intensity cardio vs. high-intensity cardio. I'm kinda in the middle, I've been trying to keep my hr at about 80% for about 35 minutes, but that really wears my out. I don't think I could go much longer than that. Others alternate low and high intensity in the same week.

The advocates of high intensity (HIIT) cardio say that you can only keep it up for about 20 minutes. Look at John Stone's HIIT training -- it is pretty typical, I think. He goes for 23 minutes, and the 90% hr is only for one minute at a time. Also, the 23 minutes includes warm up and cool down.

I would be very interested in hearing from people with swimming or long distance running in their background to know if that might make a difference, but I seriously doubt it. Those things will help your cardio conditioning. You'll be able to faster on the same heart rate, but it will not allow you to stay at 90% forever.

I'm open to demonstration that I'm wrong here. In fact, I kinda hope I am wrong. But my understanding and experience say otherwise, so far.