See your target heart rate for fat burning, cardio, and peak effort, based on your age.
| Zone | Intensity | Target BPM |
|---|
Enter your age and, if you know it, your resting heart rate. The page estimates your maximum heart rate and lays out five training zones with a bpm range for each. Without a resting rate it uses a percentage of maximum; with one it switches to the Karvonen method, which measures the same zones against your heart rate reserve instead.
Take the resting rate properly: first thing in the morning, before you get up, counted over a full minute on two or three separate days. A rate taken after coffee is not a resting rate.
Age 30, so the age-based maximum is 220 − 30 = 190 bpm.
| Zone | Percent of max | Karvonen, resting 60 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 — very light | 95–114 | 125–138 |
| 2 — light, base | 114–133 | 138–151 |
| 3 — moderate | 133–152 | 151–164 |
| 4 — hard | 152–171 | 164–177 |
| 5 — maximum | 171–190 | 177–190 |
The two columns differ by 11 bpm in the easy zones and converge at the top, which is how the reserve method behaves: it subtracts the resting rate, takes a percentage of what is left, then adds the resting rate back. Both columns agree that the top of the range is 190. They disagree about what "easy" means, and the Karvonen version is usually the more honest one for someone who is fit.
The 220-minus-age formula is a population average with a wide spread. In 2001, Tanaka and colleagues published a regression based on a large sample that estimates maximum heart rate as 208 minus 0.7 times age, and reported roughly a ten-beat standard deviation either side of any estimate. At 30 the two formulas differ by only a few beats; at 60 they differ by more. Treat any predicted maximum as a starting point, and a measured one as the truth.
Zone training works because different efforts produce different adaptations. Zone 2, the conversational band, builds the aerobic base that makes everything else possible. Zone 4 is where hard intervals live. Most people spend too much time in zone 3 — too hard to recover from, too easy to drive adaptation — which is why the polarized approach of mostly easy with a little very hard is popular.
A heart rate strap beats a wrist optical sensor for intervals, because the wrist reading lags when effort changes quickly. And heat, caffeine, dehydration and illness all shift the number for the same effort, so a single high reading is data, not a diagnosis.
It is an average. Individual maximums vary by around ten beats either way, and the formula is least reliable for people over 50 and for anyone with a long training history.
The band around 60–70% of maximum, where a higher share of the calories burned comes from fat. Total calories burned are lower there, so it is not automatically the best zone for weight loss.
Cardiac drift: as you sweat and lose plasma volume, the heart beats faster to deliver the same blood. It is normal on long efforts and a reason to pace by feel as well as by number.
A chest strap is more responsive, which matters for intervals. A watch is fine for steady work if it fits snugly.
No. It is arithmetic applied to a formula. If you have a heart condition or are starting from inactivity, talk to a doctor before training in the upper zones.
Both methods start from 220 minus age. That estimate is an average, not a stress test.
Last updated: November 2, 2026. Reviewed by David Liu.