Along with eating low fat, to lose weight, you need to exercise. You can just go out there, and start running, but if you are out of shape, chances are you are jut going to get tired, burned out, and possibly injured. You need to start slowly! Thats where a heart rate monitor comes in.
With a heart rate monitor, you can exercise intelligently. Yur heart rate is a great indicator of your effort level. If you are out of shape, it doesn’t take much to get your heart rate up. When you get into better shape, you will have to physically work harder to get your heart rate up.
When you raise your heart rate up to a certain level, you enter the aerobic zone. In this zone, you are burning mostly fats. As you increase your level of effort, your heart rate increases, and you begin to enter the anaeobic zone. In this zone, you begin to burn more glycogin (sugars), and less fats.
Fats are like charcoal, and glycogen is like lighter fluid. The charcoal will burn slow, but for a long time. The lighter fluid will burn fast, but we gone quickly. You need glycogen to get the fats to burn. But as you go anaerobic, you are burning just the glycogen. Also as you go anaerobic, your body starts producing lactic acid faster than it can get rid of it. This is what makes your muscles sore after a hard workout. And when you burn all the available gycogen, your body wants to stop. Working out in the aerobic zone, also increases your chances of injury. And repeated anaerobic workouts will wear your body down.
So for the most benefits, it’s best to stay in the aeobic zone. This is where the heart rate monitor comes in. It allows you stay in the zone. It tells you when you need to speed up, or when you need to slow down.
If you are just starting out, a basic heart rate monitor such as the Polar FS1 will work fine.
A couple excellent books on the subject are Heart Monitor Training For The Compleat Idiot by John L. Parker Jr. and also High Performance Heart by Phil Maffetone.

Posted by Rob in Exercise on February 15th, 2007 |