Heart-Rate Zones & Maximum Heart Rate

Quick answer: the American Heart Association puts your maximum heart rate at about 220 minus your age, and your target zone at 50–70% of that for moderate exercise and 70–85% for vigorous. At 50 that is a maximum of about 170, a moderate zone of 85–119 and a vigorous zone of 119–145 beats a minute. But 220 − age is one of several published equations, and they disagree: at 50 the others give 173 and 179 (and 162 for women). Every one of them is an average, with an error of about 11 beats a minute either way.

How to use it

Type your age. You get your maximum heart rate from each published equation, and the AHA’s moderate and vigorous zones worked out from each one, in a table you can hold next to your watch. Choose Woman if you are one — one equation was measured in women only. And if you take a beta-blocker or any other medicine that slows the heart, say so: the page then stops showing zones, because the AHA says yours may be lower, and gives you the talk test instead.

Why four equations, not one

220 − age is the number everyone quotes and the one the AHA’s own chart uses. It was never worked out from a large group of older adults. Tanaka’s 208 − 0.7 × age came from pooling 351 studies and nearly 19,000 people, then checking the result in a laboratory; it found no difference between men and women and that 220 − age runs low for older people. The HUNT study’s 211 − 0.64 × age measured 3,320 healthy Norwegians on a treadmill and agreed. Gulati’s 206 − 0.88 × age came from 5,437 women’s exercise tests and found that the usual sum overestimates women’s maximum.

This page shows all of them and averages none of them. An average of four equations is a fifth equation nobody published.

The error nobody prints

An equation that takes only your age can only give you the average for people of your age. The HUNT researchers put a number on how far real people sit from it: a standard error of 10.8 beats a minute, which they say “must be taken into account”. So a watch reading above your “maximum” is not, on its own, a sign that something is wrong — a real maximum ten or more beats from the average is ordinary. Symptoms are what matter: chest pain, severe breathlessness or feeling faint mean stop, and call for help. Only a supervised exercise test measures your own maximum.

If you take a beta-blocker

Some medicines hold the heart rate down however hard you work. The AHA’s own advice is that they can mean a lower maximum and a lower target zone, and that anyone with a heart condition or on medication should ask their health care professional what their heart rate should be. Until you have that number, use the talk test: in moderate exercise you can talk but not sing; in vigorous exercise you cannot say more than a few words without pausing for breath. It works on any medicine and at any age.

The “fat-burning zone”

Neither the AHA’s target heart rate guidance nor the CDC’s guide to exercise intensity mentions one, and this page does not compute one. What both describe is moderate and vigorous activity. A zone labelled “fat burning” on a machine or an app is a label on a slice of the moderate range, not a separate guideline.

Worked examples

Age 60. 220 − age gives 160 (moderate 80–112, vigorous 112–136); Tanaka gives 166; HUNT gives 173. The honest answer is “about 160 to 173”.

A woman of 40. 220 − age and Tanaka both give 180, HUNT 185, and Gulati’s women-only equation 171 — so her moderate zone could start anywhere from 85 to 93.

Age 50, on a beta-blocker. No zones. The AHA’s advice is to ask the prescriber what the heart rate should be; until then, the talk test.

FAQ

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