Running or walking

My wife and I are looking to lose some weight and are trying to get back to running regularly, plus making better food choices. We read about trying to keep our heart rate in the aerobic zone for maximum fat burning and last night tried to both run and keep ourselves in that zone.

For my age, my (calculated) maximum heart rate is 170 and to stay in the aerobic zone, I needed to keep my heart rate between 118 and 133 bpm. I found this almost impossible. My normal running pace is on average around 5:40 minutes per KM. When I tried to keep my heart rate in the aerobic zone, my pace was on average 8:10 minutes per KM. At times, it felt like I was just jogging on the spot whilst trying to relax enough to keep my heart BPM down. I did 5.5k in 45 minutes, averaging 138 BPM

Compare that to our previous 5k (with some walking at the start) of 33:13 minutes with an average BPM of 134! A faster 5k (on my own) was 28:33 minutes with an average BPM of 162.

I know that in theory, I should be getting fitter from running, so my heart rate whilst running faster should stay low but I just can’t run that slow. We might as well have been walking at pace instead. However, the slower run did show that I had burned more calories than the previous, faster run.

Of course, the calculations, rates and limits are just generic, based on age, so there will be differences compared to how fit you actually are. I might have to find a better way of calculating my maximum heart rate.