help w/ Heart Rate Monitor usage

[AdamLSU]

I just bought a Freestyle heart rate monitor to use with my running and workout the other day. I used it for the first time today when I ran the 4.5 mile lakes around LSU's campus. I set the watch for the lowest heart rate target zone 50-70% of my max heart rate....which would be between 97 and 137 beats per minute. I am used to running the lakes at a pretty fast pace and I was amazed at how slow I had to go to stay in that target heart rate..I did alot of walking at it took me almost an hour to run something that I can usually run in about 30 minutes. what I really wanted to know is...what are the benifits is running in each of the 3 major heart rate zones...50-70%(healthy heart zone), 70-80%(fitness zone), and 80-100%(performance zone). It also says that the healthy heart zone is the "fat burning zone". so does that mean that I am still burning more fat by running in the lower zone than by running in a higher zone? Thanx

[tamarian]

Hi Adam, welcome aboard.

If you suspect this is causing to exercise at a too comfortable a rate to be a real exercise, you might be right! :) I would suggest 2 things. First, make sure the settings/programming is set up correctly for your device from the documentation. Second, double check the accuracy of the device by doing a comparison with the manual count of your heart rate.

As to the benefits of the different heart zones, I'm not sure about the numbers you listed below, I guess various experts voice different numbers and define the zones differently. What it boils down to is that there's a threashold between a fat-burning zone (aerobic) where your body uses fat as a preferences for fuel, and and a glucose-burning zone (anaerobic). As to the numbers, I thought 65-80% is the fat-burning zone, but it maybe best to see which rate works best for you, by trying different rates.

Wa'il