Calculating optimal fat burning heart rate for your workouts!

For those that missed Saturday's session with the trainers, they went over how to calculate your resting heart rate, you maximum heart rate as well as your heart rate to put you in the optimal fat burning zone while working out.

Here's how it works.

Resting Heart Rate: While at rest, find your pulse (using two fingers at your neck seems to work best). Count how many beats in 10 seconds and multiply that number by 6. That is your resting heart rate.

Maximum Heart Rate: Take 220 subtract your age and that would be your maximum heart rate. Meaning, if your heart got up to beating that fast, you'd probably be dead. For example, 220-42 is 178 which is my maximum heart rate.

Now to determine the optimal fat burning zone for your heart rate, this is what you do.

Fat Burning Zone Heart Rate: Take your Maximum Heart Rate and multiply it by 60% and 85% to find the lower level and highest level or the "zone" in which you should maintain your heart rate while working out. If you maintain your heart rate within this zone, you will be burning fat instead of just sugar.

So for example, my max heart rate is 178 x .60 = 106.8 is the low end of my zone and 178 x .85 = 151.3 is the high end. So while I'm working out I need to maintain my heart rate between 106 and 151 to stay within that fat burning zone. The closer I am in my zone, the more fat i'll be burning etc.

While working out, take your pulse for 10 seconds, count how many beats, multiply by 6 and that's my heart rate.

I think I may buy a heart rate monitor because I tried taking my pulse while on the elliptical and it's hard and I don't like stopping in the middle of my workout because the machines usually stop the timer and tracking etc...good luck staying in THE ZONE!