I'm new to the Zone...been on about a week and I think I understand the concepts reasonably well now. I've never had a weight problem in my life until recently...and, you guessed it...never exercised either. Now, I'd like to start. I have access to a treadmill but I need to understand heart rate monitoring. I'm a 60-yr. old female, 170 lbs. Is there a formula to calculate your heart rate theoritical max....and, then what levels I should strive for as I start an exercise program. I know just enough about this subject to be dangerous...so, would appreciate any helpful tips from the forum.
Thank you very much.

There are usually some charts that you can find online, will have to look around. I know there is a formula, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it is!

I can help you. You have to determine your maximum heart rate. The formula is 220 - (your age) = maximum heart rate. In your case 220-60=160. Dr. Sears recommends from 60% to 80% of MHR for best results in the zone. I think it cant be dangerous If you keep your heart rate around 60% which means 96 hits per minute.

Thank you so much......OK! now I know where to keep my heart rate range......so, it's off to the treadmill. I need to drop about 20 lbs. and I'm more anxious to get fit. I think the weight loss will come with adherence to the healthy eating plan in the Zone. Thank you again.
Hannah

Hi Hannah,

Since you're new to exercise, start out slow, upping the pace and length of time little by little. To avoid injury warm up a little first, then stretch , and then pick up the pace. It's important to warm up the muscles a bit before stretching them When you're finished, same thing, do a cool down at a slower pace for 5 min and then end with the stretches.

There's another way to keep your exercise aerobic without HR monitoring. It's called perceived exertion. Use a scale fro,m 1 to 10 to rate how you're feeling, with 1 beingnotexerting , to 10 being extremely overexerting I (as in can't breathe). Stay at a 4 or 5 and you'll be in the aerobic range. Another way to judge it is to see how well you can talk as you exercise. If you can sing, you're not exerting enough, if you can't manage to talk you're exerting too much for it to be aerobic.

Have fun!

Thanks for the formula, Alexander! I knew it was something like that, but could not remember exactly!

Thank you all for your help. I lost 5 lbs. my first week in the Zone. I'm only doing 30 mins. on the treadmill at a fairly slow pace and I had no problem keeping my HR in the range suggested by Alexander...hopefully, I'm not as out of shape as I feared and I can increase the intensity level a little after a few weeks. I feel much better too (energy level) as I get the hang of the Zone.