Target Heart Rate Zone to Burn Fat

Your target heart rate is the desired range of heart rate during exercise. When exercising, it’s important to understand what your ideal target heart rate is so your heart and lungs will receive the maximum benefits of a successful workout.

Your target heart rate depends on many factors such as: individual physical condition, gender, health, and previous training.

When exercising, your heart rate should be within your own, personal range at all times. When burning fat, your target heart rate should remain in a lower range, which enables the body to take up enough oxygen so the cells utilize stored fat.  If your workout is within a higher target heart rate, you will burn more calories but those will first come from carbohydrates instead of fat.

To properly calculate your target heart rate follow these steps:

1. To do this subtract your age from 220 to find out your maximum heart rate, so if a person is 30 years old then:
   Maximum heart rate..   220 - 30 = 190 beats per minute
2. Then multiply your maximum heart rate by 65%:
   190 x 65% = 123.5 beats per minute
   123 beats per minute will be the lower range of the zone.
3. Now work out your higher range by multiplying your maximum heart rate by 85%:
   190 x 85% = 161.5 beats per minute The example reveals a target heart rate of 123 - 161

To check your heart rate during a work out:

• gently place your index and middle finger on the inner part of your wrist
• count how many beats in 10 seconds
• multiply the number by 6

You can also use an automatic heart rate monitor so you can concentrate more on exercising effectively to burn more fat.