Optimal Heart Rate for Burning Fat

Till the recent times, people were only bothered about losing weight or to build their bodies. However, lately people have understood the importance of working out to ensure the fat percentage in the body is at its optimum as well. It was often seen that people who workout regularly, yet suffered from high body fat percentage. After research, it was found that they do not workout in the right heart rate zone, due to which they were not able to burn fat in the body. Using the target heart rate formula proves to be of help in finding the appropriate heart rate for burning fat, as the heart rate for burning fat is different for different people and is also different for men and women.

Target Heart Rate for Burning Fat

When people want to lose weight, cardiovascular exercises are recommended. However, along with weight loss, it is important that the person also aims for fat loss. Hence, it is important to know the fat burning zone before they actually start working out. Many times, it is seen that people push themselves beyond limits, which can prove to be dangerous for the body and also may not help in achieving the target.

This brings us to the question, what is the optimal heart rate for burning fat. There are many opinions about the same. However, most experts agree that 60 to 70% of the maximum heart rate is the best to achieve fat loss. This does seem to be a large window. However, a person who has been leading a sedentary lifestyle for a very long period of time will be recommended to work out at 60% and a person who has regularly been working out and is in better shape will be recommended 70%.

Now you will want to know why is this the right heart rate for reducing fat percent in the body. It is so because the number of calories burned from fat during workout are high at this heart rate. A person can go beyond the recommended heart rate and will be able to lose weight, but the number of fat calories burned during workout will be far lesser. Therefore, the ideal heart rate for losing weight will be a little higher than the heart rate for burning fat, as a higher heart rate will provide a metabolism boost.

Formula for Calculating Ideal Heart Rate for Burning Fat

The appropriate heart rate for weight loss is different for men and for women. Also, the appropriate heart rate is different for different ages. Here is the formula to calculate the maximum heart rate for both men and women.

Maximum Heart Rate for Women

226 - Age

Maximum Heart Rate for Men

220 - Age

We will take an example to understand how to calculate the optimal heart rate to reduce the fat percent in a woman of age 26 years, who leads a sedentary life. In the example mentioned below, the appropriate heart rate percentage is considered to be 60% of the maximum heart rate. According to the above mentioned formula, the ideal heart rate is

226 - 26 = 200 200 * 60 / 100 = 120 beats per minute

There are other benefits of working out in the fat burning heart rate zone. Other than decreasing body fat, it also helps in lowering blood pressure and cholesterol. It also helps in decreasing the risk of degenerative diseases. People who have suffered from injury can also workout in this heart rate zone. Also, the chances of injuring oneself are far lesser in this zone. Although the benefits are similar to that of the warm up zone, the intensity of fat burning is far more in this zone. It is best to talk to a health care professional to find out the ideal heart rate for burning fat in each individual case and workout accordingly.