Why Should I care about my Heart Rate?

Ready to take a deep dive into benefiting your future self? Let's look at the benefits of using a heart rate monitor to monitor workouts and track progress. First things first: Why is it beneficial to track your heart rate? In a nutshell, using a rate monitor gives you cold hard data about what’s happening when you get hot and sweaty. Our bodies change in different ways when we’re consistently participating in cardiovascular activities at low intensities, at high intensities, and when doing intervals.

Most of the time we’re pretty successful going by feel and can guesstimate what intensity we’re at— just like when you look out the window to check the weather before you leave the house. In the same way when you’re not quite sure you take a coat anyway, using a heart rate monitor is great verification that you’re working at the intensity that you want to.

Wear it Baby Technology has made data experts of all of us, especially when it comes to exercising. Where just a few years ago most of us had no idea exactly how many steps we took in a day, how far we ran or what our pace was, wearable devices now leave this information – literally – at our fingertips.

One piece of information that stands out is your heart rate. That number alone can tell you a lot about your workout, your recovery and your general health.

But it’s also possible to overexert yourself, and a heart rate monitor can alert you to that danger, too.

The higher your heart rate gets, the more calories you’re burning. But the higher your heart rate is, you’re burning more carbohydrates than fat for energy because your body can’t burn fat fast enough. By using a heart rate monitor during a workout, you can adjust your energy output to match your heart rate to the best level to burn fat.

Burn the fat more than the Carbs

Using a heart rate monitor, you can figure out your current heart rate zone during exercise. First, you’ll need your maximum heart rate which you can get by subtracting your age from 220. For example, if you’re 35, your max heart rate is 185. At this point, you can figure out what heart rate zone is best for burning fat.

At 50-60% of your maximum heart rate, you’re using 85% fat to burn calories. At 60-70% of your maximum heart rate, that drops to 65% fat being used. And at 70-80%, you’re only using 45% fat to burn calories.