Tools of the Trade

After letting it sit idly for 2 months, I finally got out the heart rate monitor that goes with my Garmin fitness watch.  I couldn't bear to put another thing on me, in the midst of horrible heat and humidity so I never used it.  Well, now that I'm back to cross-training regularly, I thought it would be a good idea to track my heart rate to make sure I'm working in my "target" zone.  I haven't taken physiology in oh.... 10 or 11 years and since I don't work in the cardiac field I'm a bit rusty on what this means.  After some quick internet research, I came to find that for a female, 31 year old, my target heart rate should be anywhere from 108 - 170.  Apparently there's a wide discrepancy on this subject, so if anyone has a more accurate formula for determining your THR, I'd love to see it!  So with this new knowledge, I strapped on the HR monitor for this morning's 5.5 mile run.  I didn't look at my watch once, because I wanted this to be a true baseline.  The result....I averaged 88 beats per minute with a MAX of 158 bpm.  Did I mention that I did my "hilly" route??  So my first thoughts are either that the HRM must be as "accurate" as my Garmin foot pod (the day of the marathon, it said I ran 27.97 miles) or I'm running at a seriously comfortable pace.  I certainly feel like I'm working hard when I'm running.  I'm out of breath when I stop running.  I'm sweating.  Apparently these aren't good indicators!!  Wouldn't you want the bulk of your run to at least be within the minimum of your target range, for optimal calorie/fat burning?  These are the things I will now search out.  Maybe instead of focusing on mileage, I'll focus on heart rate training.  I need to drop about 10 pounds and this may be a better way to do it?

Another interesting tool that I got a chance to use is indirect calorimetry.  Essentially by  measuring the amount of oxygen the body consumes, it calculates the number of calories you burn in a day at rest (called your resting energy expenditure or REE).  Well, since I did this at the end of the day, after activity, food and caffeine, my results would be more of a Total Energy Expenditure. With that said, my results showed that I expend 1915 calories a day.  In order to lose weight, I'd need to cut down to 1415 calories daily, to lose 1 pound a week.  Not too shabby, especially if I include my exercise in there.  I found a really interesting website that helps you calculate your needs to maintain your weight or lose weight and will even come up with meal plans for you!  Hey....that's MY job!  In any case, since the majority of people don't have access to a dietitian, here's the site:  http://www.thedietdiary.com/diet/nutrition/RestingEnergy.html .  Pretty interesting (for a dietitian at least).