Polar Heart Rate Monitors for Healthy Weight Loss

from PolarUSA

If you are reading this article, you are trying to lose weight or manage your weight. You probably already know that the key to healthy weight loss is the combination of exercising right and eating right. Many people fall short when planning a weight loss program because they just don't know what exercise to do, how to exercise and most importantly, how hard to exercise. This heart rate training for weight loss article was written to help you develop an effective and healthy weight loss program and will explain how to use Polar heart rate monitors for weight loss based on heart rate and being in an effective target heart rate zone for calorie burning. A Polar heart rate monitor is a tool that will help pace you so that you can exercise longer and burn more calories. If you exercise too hard in the beginning, you will most likely quit before you get the real benefit. We have all seen the person that gets on the treadmill, cranks it up to 8% grade and 8 mph, runs for a short while thinking that harder and faster is better, and then gets off exhausted. All they did was waste a workout. The essence of healthy weight loss is calorie burning and that will only occur during exercise that is long enough in duration for it to occur

How to create your own weight loss program with a Polar heart rate monitor

Your first goal should be 30 minutes of aerobic exercise. The reason that you need to exercise for 30:00 is that after 20 minutes of exercise, you will start burning more calories, and burning calories is essential to healthy weight loss and optimum health. Your body needs time to warm up and it isn't until after the warm up period that you actually start burning calories and benefitting from your aerobic workout. It's like lifting weights. The first 10 reps you do are like a warm-up, and the last 2 are the ones that really give you the benefit. How do you get to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise so that you can really burn calories? By using heart rate training to pace yourself and knowing your heart rate for the duration of your workout. Starting out too fast will only mean that you will fatigue sooner and abandon the exercise session. With a Polar heart rate monitor, you will know how hard your heart is working and you will stay within an effective calorie burning and fat burning zone. Staying within this target zone will also mean that you can exercise for longer and longer periods each time that you exercise, burning more calories and fat calories every time.

Heart rate training weight loss is the key to success

There are people that exercise very leisurely and wonder why they can't lose any weight. If you workout too slowly, you don't get the exercise benefit.

Here's how it works

There are specific Target Zones (TZ) that help to guide you to the right intensity for weight management. A target zone is a high and low heart rate range that is based on a percentage of your maximum heart rate. Using a formula based on your age, you can figure out your maximum heart rate. You then take percentages of that to get your Target Zones.

Key Target Zones for Weight Loss

Example:

Elaine is 45 years old and she wants to lose weight. She exercises three days a week, sometimes for 10 minutes, sometimes for 20 minutes and she's not sure how hard to exert herself.

*Her estimated max heart rate is 220-(age) 45=175

The recommended target zone is 60-70 %
60% of 175=105
70% of 175=123

Elaine should walk at least three days a week for a minimum of 30 minutes and keep her heart rate between 105 and 123 for effective weight loss. IT'S THAT SIMPLE!

Polar heart rate monitors show you your calories burned

The Polar OwnCal™ feature will track your calories burned more accurately because it calculates consumption right from your body by using your heart rate. Almost all of the other calorie functions you see on watches or equipment are based on formulas. To see this, just step off your treadmill while it is still going and watch the calories continue to accumulate while you stand still.

Polar heart rate monitors give you your target heart rate zone

Polar heart rate monitors have exclusive features that listen to your body and then help guide you to an effective workout. The Polar OwnZone feature on many models will automatically establish your effective Target Zone for each day's workout during a brief warm-up period. Its a great alternative to the formula calculations explained above.

Make sure to read Getting Started With a Polar Heart Rate Monitor

Click here for a wealth of additional information in the Weight Loss Resource Center