Monitoring Heart rate

[Nastynav000]

Hey
Im a 21 year old college student, i currently weight 215 and im 6'0 tall. I used to be in extreamly good shape, 2 years ago i was sitting on 170 lbs. But the burdens of college and a job and studying ive been unable to really keep in shape, not to metion the crappy food i eat.
I started running and adjusting my diet last week. Since last monday, i was 223 and today im 215 so i lost a bit of weight. My workout routine is simple, 3 miles in the morning and 3 miles at night. My question is what is the importance of keeping your heart rate at a certain level while running? i been reading how you should keep it below a certain level of bpm in order to burn fat and if it exceeds that you will burn muscle? What exactly is the science behind this?
also, the charts on the threadmills gives you a heart rate percentage based on your age. Well at 21 and weight 215, i figure my heart shouldnt be beating more than 140 beats per minute....but i run at 5.1 mph for a good 3 miles and the monitor says my BPM is like 170-190. Why running so slow is sending up my bpm so high? 5.1 is slow, idk if i'll like running at an even slower pace to keep my heart rate lower. Will my bpm adjust as i run more often? Thanks in advance for any help

[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!

[mtn_sport]

IMO that heart rate sounds "about right". I test VO2max and other performance variables in a lab on people of all fitness levels, and just as ballpark numbers go that is on the low end of cardiorespiratory fitness, but isn't anything to toss out a perfectly good heart rate monitor over.

Individual variability in such things as economy of movement, in conditioning level, proportion of lean mass, etc, taken into account, it makes sense that even a slow pace like 5.1 mph could elicit such a high heart rate.

Toonces said it right, your heart rate will lower for the same pace as your conditioning level improves! I'll also agree with the use of the 60% HRmax guideline for staying in your aerobic zone, though it may just be that any speed of running may put you outside of that zone until you get more fit.

I question your need to stay in the "fat-burning zone". While in this zone, your metabolism is truly selecting fat as the primary source (fat only burns with oxygen). However, higher intensities burn more total calories, including the maximal rate of fat it can handle. By demanding more force production, higher intensities also promote muscle growth, which itself increases metabolic rate and thus burns more daily calories.

I say run! Humans were evolved to run. I am quite sure that after 4-6 weeks you will notice a significantly lower heart rate at those speeds. After that, begin adding intervals of 60-90 seconds of 6-8mph and you will zoom to the next level of fitness very quickly.

Good luck! Running changes lives.

[zayyaz]

I would suggest going over to RunningAHEAD. Lots of great advice over there in a ton of forums. Starting with 6 miles/day might be a little much, be careful.

[Nastynav000]

Thanks for all the informative responses, this is why i've been a member of this forum since 2005 just reading and soaking up all the information i could.

You guys are right about my conditioning, even when i was lifting and in good shape i never had a running regiment that i've begun using the past two weeks. So i figured once my body becomes used to the running my heart rate should slow to a better number.

I definately understand the 8 lbs i lost in the first week was not all fat, probably not even close to being half fat lol so i've prepared myself to see a 1 lb or 2 lb reduction every week or so and not expecting to see a loss of 8 lbs every week.

I figured, in the morning i can keep the 5.1 to 5.5 mph for the 3 miles and then at night drop down to a moderate 4.2 to 4.5 for my other 3 miles? if this sounds like a good way to split up my 6 miles? if not, feel free to suggest the best or better way!!

Also, i dont exactly run 6 miles a day, i definately do my 3 miles in the moring, but some evenings i spend a few hours playing basketball instead of my other 3.

so considering my body is still in the adjustment mode of the running, should i focus on monitoring my heart rate and keeping it within 60% now or should i just wait until my body adjusts and then start the monitoring later on in my regiment?

Also, what do you guys feel about scrapping the 2nd 3 mile run at night and incorporating high intensity and low weights weightlifting? do you think that will complement my runnign in the moring to burn more calories and fat?