Increased Heart Rate/High BP

[coachp]

I take a beta blocker for high blood pressure and I was wondering if it is causing me not to lose weight. The reason I came up with this crazy idea is my heart rate during some intense exercise (treadmill 3.5-4.5 with an incline of 15) I can only get my hr up to 120 tops.....I am going to talk to my family doctor, but I have been doing this cardio an hour at a time 4x a week....and no real weight loss....I feel great, and I hit the weights 3-4x a week as well.....splits.

I am really confused, I want to lose weight (255 now) but definately want to lose more, please help!

thank you so much

[threenorns]

how's your diet? what and how much of it are you eating?

[coachp]

Well,
I eat a bowl of rice cripsies, some fruit for breakfast, skim milk
yesterday I had some spagetti and some sause for lunch (prob 2 servings)
for dinner I had 2 egg beater omlet with turkey and a pinch of cheddar cheese...with 10 baked tortilla chips w/salsa.

I had a bomb pop for dessert.

I know need more veggies....it is something I work on, salads, carrots etc at least 3x a week...just had an off day. I try not to snack,

I have been trying to eat better. I was on the treadmill 4.0 speed, 15 incline for 30min...said it burned 670 cals...then was on the recumbent bike doing random profile for 30 min at level 8.....burned 180 cal....drove 10.8 miles...During the treadmill my hr never got above 110....

tomorrow I do chest/legs

I have cut out alot of breads, but I know I need more veggies...I take a multi-viti in the morning.....my concern is over my lack of high heart rate when i am exercising to get to that fat burning level.

[threenorns]

there's no such thing as a "fat-burning level" - if you're permitted to by your doctor, you go as hard as you can for up to 16 minutes for best fat-burning results.

but that will avail you naught if you're eating too much or your macronutrients are out of whack.

use www.fitday.com to track and monitor your intake - you might be surprised. start by trying a 40/40/20 protein/carb/fat split and see where that takes you over the next six weeks.

I've talked to people who take beta blockers and they apparently do result in a much lower heart rate. That's all I know.

[threenorns]

ooooooooooooooh, so *that's* why they asked if i was taking heart medication when my pulse went from 80 to 66 in less than 30 seconds and went lower than that shortly after - i told them my resting pulse was about 58bpm and that's when they asked.

[coachp]

This type of beta blocker or medicine for high bp makes it hard for me even when I go all out.....breathing heavy all that to get my heart-rate up to 130-140 range. I am going to try today to go all out sprint on the treadmill for 1 minute intervals and see what happens then. When I was sick about 8 months ago with pancreititus I was measured sometimes with a hr of 33-46 in the hospital. My doctor has previously told me that the heart rate scales you see on treadmills do not apply to me, but what I am curious about is what scales do...and how do I know I am getting a great cardiovascular workout. I sweat like a pig either way but that never tells you anything lol

thanks for the feedback just the same

[Firehawk]

I take a beta blocker also, have for the last 3 yrs but for a heart arrhythmia and i can assure you it doesn't cause weight gain. In fact, i had started taking it and gained a lot of weight, went to the pharmacist and asked if weight gain was a side effect. They said it wasn't. So i realized my fat ass was just eating 6000 calories a day on minimum and i put like 20 lbs on in that month. That's whgat prompted me to start losing fat. I lost fat just fine while on the blocker.

make no mistake, on the blocker, you will have a lower heart rate and it will be much harder to get up there. I think when you come off of it though if you do, come off slow and be ready to re-condition your heart becasue it'll be high with minimal work for a littel bit. I came off mine for awhile before and that's exactly what happened to me.

[drdjsmm]

This website explains beta blockers fairly well:

http://www.tmc.edu/thi/betameds.html

Hope this helps!