by Cactus Mitch

Created on: October 19, 2008   Last Updated: November 12, 2008

The Best part of Heart rate Exercise: You get to, EAT MORE while loosing!

Aerobic exercise is the difference. People, (and even lab rats,) eat more and maintain, or even loose weight while on an aerobic exercise program. So well proven is aerobic exercise that the heart rate charts and even monitors are on nearly every piece of exercise equipment in the world made after Covert Baily's book "FIT or FAT. Baily a research bio-chemist discovered that metabolism changes radically with as little as 12 minutes a day of aerobic exercise.

Baily was puzzled to find that "fat" people, in general, EAT LESS than "fit" people! He found the difference was how bodies metabolized the food. Fit bodies just don't convert food into fat the way that under exorcised bodies do.

He found that the key was exercise of the large muscles of the legs and back, sufficient to raise the pulse to 80% of its maximum, for just 12 minutes a day, produces fitness, or simply "aerobic" exercise. His suggested regime requires as little as a quarter hour a day. Pain is not the goal as in some exercise programs. Any slight discomfort in the beginning stages of aerobic exercise should not be so great as to discourage most people.

The basics:

Approximation your maximum heart rate.

Start with number 200, subtract your age.

Compute 80% of that number, which is your approximate heart rate for aerobic exercises.

An example for a 50 year old.

200 50 = 150

80% of 150 = 120 beats per minute, approximate cardio, or aerobic heart rate.

Practice taking your pulse when engaged in your regular activities physical or not. Then, when you gradually begin your heart rate monitored exercise program, you have a baseline reference. If experiencing any drastic change, in your pulse rate, pain, or breathing, get expert help.

Professional advice when contemplating any radical changes to your diet, or exercise program is very important. Learning how to take your own pulse, however, is not inherently dangerous. Taking your pulse is the first step and is easy for some and difficult for others. Now days even nurses at doctor's offices routinely use electronic sensors for this purpose. Most electronic blood pressure monitors report pulse, but are not suitable for wearing while most kinds of exercise like jogging. Learn to take your own pulse, if you can. For many years now joggers have been seen in every city with their fingers against their necks and looking at their watches as they jog-in-place waiting for a traffic light to change. They

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