[tooncesthecat]

Wow! Lots of questions...let's see...first, you will burn the most fat if you keep your HR at ~60% of your max HR. Take 220-your age and multiply the result by .6 to get this figure. 170-190 BPM is quite high but this could be accurate if you are not in good cardiovascular shape. I might suggest taking your HR manually with a good pulse reading and a stopwatch. If it really is this high, you'll have to slow the pace! If it's not, get rid of your heart monitor and get a better one or use your finger and stopwatch as mentioned. Third, your HR will lower as you become more conditioned as long as you are doing the same workout. In other words, running the same route at the same pace. It's a good sign as it means your body is improving its efficiency of oxygen exchange, energy delivery, etc. Now about burning muscle, probably not likely unless you have depleted all of your glycogen and fat stores. The body has a hierarchy of energy resources and it will burn glycogen first then fat. Muscle means your staving to death, literally! If you're eating decently, you won't have to worry about this. Lastly, great job losing 8 pounds in a week and a half. Now the bad news - it wasn't all fat, just fluid. Not a knock on you, just simple physiology. You have to burn 3500 calories above your calorie consumption to lose 1 pound of fat. 8 pounds would mean a deficit of 28000 calories. Impossible in that short of a time span. But you're doing the fight thing and that's what matters, so the fat will come off, just give it some time!