Unmotivated to Exercise? Get Yourself A Heart Rate Monitor!

This little gadget is the reason I have maintained my weight loss, and even lost a bit more since my gastric bypass four years ago. Nobody was as unmotivated as I to exercise. I had a $100 a month gym membership and had gone maybe twice in 8 months. I never felt comfortable in the gym. So, I tried jogging at home and doing sit-ups / push-ups, but I never felt like it was worth it because I didn’t have a clue as to how much it was helping… that is, until I bought a heart rate monitor!   A heart rate monitor looks exactly like a watch, and you can get them in sporting equipment and fitness stores. They are not expensive ($20-70) I think. Most styles come with a strap you wear around your torso which sends the heartbeat signal to the watch. When you wear it, you can begin measuring your heart rate upon starting any kind of exercise and it translates this into calories burned. Since they are very accurate, you know exactly what any given workout is “earning" you in real time, AND you have real time guidance to know if your heart is beating fast enough for it to be doing you any good (or too fast – which is dangerous). Most models then allow you to save your workout data over time, which then provides an extra layer of motivation, because you can see your results over time.   The major reason I avoided exercise before was I never had a good idea of how much I really needed to do, how intensely, etc. It’s like going to a job and having no idea what your hourly wage is. You don’t know if you’re making $10 an hour or $2. Now I know what I’ve earned, whether it be after 10 minutes of vacuuming or an hour jog.   The kicker is – when you use this thing for a little while you learn very quickly that you don’t have to do much to burn calories! In fact, if your heart rate is too fast you move beyond optimum fat burning and into cardiovascular training, which is not what most of us need. It sounds like a joke when I talk about dancing around in my living room for 30 minutes daily listening to music, but in that 20 minutes I have burned 350 – 400 calories (depending on my average heart rate)! Even if I only did that 3 times a week, that’s 1,200 calories! I always knew when I mowed the lawn I was burning calories, but I didn’t “count it" because I didn’t know how much I was burning. Well now I definitely count it, because it’s 1800 – 2200 CALORIES BURNED! I had no idea.   So I hope this helps. Everyone has their own thing that works for them – this is what worked for me. And no, I don’t work for a heart rate monitor company, I promise!

Heart rate monitors are great! I am not so sure you burn 1800 to 2200 calories mowing the lawn though? Most of us DO want to work in what you refer to as the "Cardiovascular zone". Not sure if you were refering to the Anaerobic Zone. Yes, we all want to burn fat, by working in the lower end of your optimal heart zone you accomplish this, but for long-term health and overall fitness, we want to be cardiovascularly fit... At least I do. When we go into Anaerobic zones, we burn carbs instead of fat, when we work within our zones we are in Aerobic state and will burn fat. A heart rate monitor alone will not tell you how many calories you are burning, and even if it did, you would want to have a resting metabolic rate taken to gauge what your caloric intake should be. Anyways, I am with you on the heart rate monitor, not so much on the  2200 calories burned mowing the lawn. I wi**** were true. If it were I recommend we all cancel our gym memberships and have the most immaculate lawns in the neighborhood! Hell, I would get up at 6 every morning and mow my lawn, heck, I would probably mow the whole neighborhood's lawn, and follow that with a mowing of the local football fields. Unfortunately, I am not too sure that's the case, howvever I am sure it is great to get the heart rate up and burn some calories while getting the house in order. As for dancing for 30 minutes in the living room, as long as it doesnt involve leotards, jazz flutes, and sequins, you should be ok. LOL just messing buddy, welcome to the board, thanks for the input and don't be a stranger. I hope I didn't come off looking like I was busting your chops. We all have our own opinions, that's what makes this world great!! Peace...

-Dan
www.trimywill.com

My lawn takes me a good 2.5 hours to mow, so while my average heart rate during that time is not particularly high (unless it's the hottest day of the summer)  I do burn up to 2200 calories.  Everything you said it should do it does... in fact, it regularly has you measure your resting heart rate and has you input your current weight, height, etc. so that the computations are as accurate as possible.  I agree that a long-term goal is working towards cardiovascular fitness, which means including workouts in that zone.  My point with the zones was more that most people think that one must always be up in that zone or they're not really working out, so they are killing themselves unnecessarily on the treadmill and consequently getting burned out from exercise completely.  The best is finding a balance of workouts in the fat-buring zone and the cardio zone.  No leotards or sequins for me, but there are probably some jazz flutes in some of my more funky songs from the 70's in my dance mix.  There is an alternative version of the very popular "Jungle Boogie" by Kool and The Gang made famous by Pulp Fiction called "Jungle Jazz" that is the same exact background song, but instead of vocals, there is this crazy funky jazz flute.  If anybody appreciates Funk music, you gotta search for "Jungle Jazz" by Kool and the Gang.  The nice thing about living alone is that you can do whatever you want in your living room and nobody else knows!

Nick

How timely.

On sale today at woot.com  19.99 + 5 dollars shipping
http://www.woot.com/

Warranty: 1 Year Sports Beat

Features:

• Fast, easy, and accurate heart rate monitor
• Transmitter belt is used to count your heartbeat and transmit the data to the watch or other compatible device
• Works with all Polar compatible exercise equipment
• Most treadmills and stationary bikes that utilize wireless heart rate technology are able to pick up the signals from the chest strap and monitor your heart rate without the watch
• Heart rate transmitter and watch have a maximum transmission range of about 62.5 centimeters or 25 inches
• You can wear the watch on your wrist, strap it to a bike, or exercise machine
• User profiles help you keep track of your fitness index, calorie count, and fat burn
• Intelligent training program enables you to complete exercise cycles effectively, the program will monitor your heart rate and allow you to check the calories consumed and the percentage of fat burned
• Time/Date (12 or 24hr)
• Alarm
• Calorie Couter
• % of Max HR
• User Menu
• Personal Profile
• Chronograph
• Hi/Low Alarms
• Timer
• Memory
• Bike Mount
• Water Resistant to 30m

In the box:

• Reebok Precision Trainer XT Heart Rate Monitor
• Heart rate transmitter belt
• Mounting bracket
• 2 x CR20232 lithium batteries – already installed, one in the watch and another in the heart rate transmitter belt
• User Manual
• Warranty Slip

i got one for christmas and I love it!

I want one, want one, but at woot.com it came up with a wrench set or something of the sort, could you please post the website again. Thanks

The optimal fat burn heart rate truly is a misnomer.  That is NOT where you want to be.  You burn so many fewer calories in that zone that you're not getting any real benefit of exercising at all.

The more research done on exercise, the more they show how important it is to get 30-45 minutes a day of intense activity for overall health and disease prevention.  I'm not talking just fitness.  You need at least that or more for fitness.

I don't have a heart rate monitor because there's no way I could run with one on, but I do see their usefulness.  I"m glad it worked for you, but be careful telling people that they don't really have to exercise because that is just plain false.  Yes, every movement we make burns calories, but that's not where we see the benefits of exercise.  That's where the intensity comes in.

Linn

Linn,

I never said people don't have to exercise... that was never my message.   Quite the contrary - I said that people have to work within at least a minimum target heart rate in order for their workouts to be successful and effective, which is precisely why you need a heart rate monitor.  Your definition of "intense activity" is dependent on so many variables that only a good heart rate monitor could help sort out, and I don't understand why you wouldn't be able to wear one. 

For example, to reach a consistent sustained heart rate of say 150, person-by-person, it's going to depend on such things as:

- current weight
-current body fat percentage
-current cardiovascular fitness
-age
-resting heart rate
-current health

To just tell everyone they need to get out there and work out "intensely" for 30-45 minutes a day is dangerous I believe, because without measuring HOW intensely you are working out, somebody could really be in trouble.  A 48 year-old woman who is currently 250 lbs may not realize that she will not have to exercise as "intensely" as the 28 year-old 150 lb. male on the treadmill next to her to both be at a 150 heart rate.  While it may not look or feel intense, she may get there by a moderately-paced walk on no incline, while he is running at a 5% incline to be at 150.

We both agree, everyone needs to get their working heart rate to a reasonable level in order to be truly exercising, but because what it takes to get there is so dependent on so many variables, one MUST have a heart rate monitor to know what they're doing, in my opinion, and to know that there are ranges that are deemed healthy by certain standards.  For me, 150 is intense enough.  I don't need to be at 170 in every workout and nobody else does either. 

We need to define and measure "intensity."

Nick

I have to agree w/the OP that a heart rate monitor can be a great motivator. It definitely was for me. It gives me a target to shoot for and the feedback of seeing calories burned is a great plus and keeps me coming back. I think it can be a valuable tool in your weight loss/fitness journey.

I forgot to say... if my post caused you to get a heart rate monitor AND it made a positive difference in your life, please send me a message via my profile!  I definitely want to hear from you, but since I don't follow any boards I probably would miss it if you posted a new thread.  Let me know if it changed your life, like it did for me.  And if you think it's worthless and you blame me for making you waste your money, I guess you could let me know that too, but I hope there aren't too many of those.

Nick