Читать книгу The Little Book of Calorie Burning - Литагент HarperCollins USD, Ю. Д. Земенков, Koostaja: Ajakiri New Scientist - Страница 14

This is the kind of work-out that makes your heart beat faster and makes you hot, sweaty and out of breath. Admittedly, none of this sounds particularly pleasant, but aerobic exercise repeated steadily for at least 15 minutes a day is the best way of burning fat. In fact, scientists have figured out that if you exercise at a level that brings your heart rate up to between 60 and 80 per cent of its maximum, this is the optimum ‘fat-burning zone’.

To work out your own fat-burning zone, subtract your age from 220 to get your maximum heart rate. So, if you are 30 your maximum will be 220 – 30 = 190. Multiply that figure by 60 per cent and you get 114; multiply by 80 per cent and you get 152. Your optimum fat-burning zone is between 114 and 152 beats per minute.

To measure your heart rate, you just need a watch or stopwatch with a second hand. Take the pulse in your wrist (in the groove just below your thumb joint) using the fingers of the opposite hand and count the number of beats in 15 seconds, then multiply by 4 to get the number of beats in a minute.

If you are aged 30, as in the example above, your target heart rate would be between 114 and 152 beats per minute – equivalent to 28.5 to 38 beats in 15 seconds. Any fewer and you are not exercising hard enough; any more and you might be overdoing it.

Note: if you can’t feel any pulse at all, you might be dead but it’s more likely that you are feeling in the wrong place. Try again.

Aerobic exercise isn’t just good for weight loss; it also helps your heart and lungs to function more efficiently and keeps you healthier all round. It burns more calories than other forms of exercise and helps to boost your RMR, so it is definitely the weight-watcher’s friend.