So I am wondering what I should be aiming for for my heart rate when I work out?

I know everyone's is different, but how do i determine if I need to step it up a notch when working out or need to slow down?

Currently I'm usually at 160ish when working out pretty hard, but I am not sure if thats where I want to be. Any Advice??

I haven't a heart rate monitor and I can't be bothered stopping to try and manually figure out my heart rate - I pretty much go by how I feel. If I am breathing hard and sweating, and yet could carry on a conversation - I am happy. So long as I don't get anerobic which is counter productive.

I believe you need to get between 60% and 80% of your maximum heart rate to be in the 'optimum' zone for fat burning. However, having a little search online, I found a site that said you should be between 50% and 75% of your maximum heart rate.

Your maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age, ie, mine would be 220 - 28 + 192. So essentially I should work at 75% which is 144.

Thanks a bunch! I think I am going too much- I have a heart rate moniter on the handlebars of my ellipitcal. I'll have to slow it down a bit!

Another thing to think about...

I have been told by the personal trainer at my "Y" that in order to shed pounds, you should only hit the fat burning zone. Most machines will give you the range for fat burning, cardio burning, etc.

it might be worthwhile to keep this in mind.

unless you are specifically carrying out sprints, etc, in short bursts, you should be able to carry on a conversation while exercising. if you can't you have probably gone past the aerobic stage to the anaerobic stage. below is a bit of a definition.

at the end of the day a calorie is a calorie, whether it is burnt from fat or carbohydrate, but it might be of interest to you.

The words aerobic and anaerobic refer to energy pathways that are utilised during exercise. Aerobic means "with oxygen" and anaerobic means "without oxygen".

Fat needs oxygen to burn completely so in order to burn fat during an exercise we need to move slowly and smoothly. This enables muscle cells to be supplied with enough oxygen to continue with its aerobic capacity and utilize fat as the main energy source.

Anaerobic exercise requires moving at an increased pace or with greater effort. Exercising this way burns more calories but results in a greater demand for oxygen which cannot be delivered in sufficient quantities to allow cells to continue burning fat. When we breath heavy we start to develop an oxygen debt and muscle cells switch to burning mainly carbohydrates, this fuel burns quickly and does not require oxygen.

Anaerobic exercises such as sprinting or weight training require more effort and up to 95% of the fuel used will be carbohydrates.