Heart rate zone calculator

Are you training in the right zone? Enter your age and see your estimated maximum heart rate and your five heart rate zones. If you know your resting heart rate, add it too: that makes the zones more personal.

Age

years

Resting heart rate (optional)

bpm

Measure it in bed in the morning, before you get up.

Your real maximum heart rate (optional)

bpm

Only if you have ever measured it.

Your estimated maximum heart rate

187bpm

Zones as a percentage of your maximum heart rate.

Zone 1: very light50–60%94–112
Zone 2: light60–70%112–131
Zone 3: moderate70–80%131–150
Zone 4: hard80–90%150–168
Zone 5: maximum90–100%168–187

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The five heart rate zones

Heart rate zones split your effort into five steps, from very easy to all-out. That way you know while running or cycling whether you are really training easy or going hard enough. The split below is the one sports watch makers such as Polar and Garmin use; it is a convention, not a medical standard.

Heart rate zones
Zone	Of your maximum	How it feels
1. Very light	50–60%	Recovery, walking, cool-down
2. Light	60–70%	Easy run, you can chat
3. Moderate	70–80%	Steady, talking in short sentences
4. Hard	80–90%	Tempo run, talking gets hard
5. Maximum	90–100%	Short sprints, all-out

Many endurance athletes do most of their training easy, in zones 1 and 2, and only a small part hard. Easy training builds your fitness without needing days to recover every time.

How this calculator works

We estimate your maximum heart rate with the formula of Tanaka and colleagues (2001), based on 351 studies with more than 18,000 people. It fits adults of all ages better than the well-known 220 minus your age, which comes out too low for older people and was never derived from actual research.

maximum heart rate = 208 − 0.7 × age

If you enter your resting heart rate, we use the Karvonen method. It works with your heart rate reserve: the difference between your maximum and your resting heart rate. Fit people have a low resting heart rate and so get zones that suit them better.

heart rate = rest + percentage × (maximum − rest)

Example: age 30 gives an estimated maximum heart rate of 208 − 21 = 187. With a resting heart rate of 60 your reserve is 127, so 70% is 60 + 0.7 × 127 = 149 beats per minute.

Frequently asked questions

How accurate is a formula for my maximum heart rate?

It is an average. The prediction is off by about 10 beats per minute on average, and more for some people. If you have ever measured your maximum heart rate, for example at the end of a race with a chest strap, enter that instead.

What is a good resting heart rate?

For adults it is usually between 60 and 100 beats per minute. Well-trained endurance athletes are often lower. A sudden change without a clear reason is something to discuss with your doctor.

Which zone burns the most fat?

In the lower zones your body gets a larger share of its energy from fat, but in the higher zones you burn more calories per minute. For fat loss, your total calorie burn over the week is what counts most.

These zones are an estimate. If you take medication that affects your heart rate, such as beta blockers, or have a heart condition, talk to your doctor before training by heart rate.

Sources

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