Exercising and Workout Intensity - Sweat level or Heart rate?

I'm sorry I have been MIA lately, but I was slowly slipping on my Weight Watchers plan and I know I was not exercising enough, etc, and I just find that sitting at the computer just doesn't help me with my workouts. Time slips by quickly and I wonder "Where has all the time gone?"

It is helpful to find support online when we are working at losing weight, but obviously, there has to be some balance and getting our tushy off the chair and moving that body is the best thing to do of course.

I do WW online on the Canadian site and I don't spend any time on the boards there, except to report my daily exercises in the Fitness challenge area, and the odd time, like this morning, I catch a post that makes me want to remind everyone who is working at losing weight (note that I'm not saying "trying to" but "working at" losing weight), that working out at the proper exercise intensity is KEY.

Someone this morning mentionned 'sweat' as being a way to measure her workout intensity. I figured I should repost my reply here, in hopes that it will help spread out the RIGHT information in measuring workout intensity.

Here's what I wrote:

Everybody has different body 'settings' when it comes to sweating and some people sweat very easily with very little effort, while others must go all out for a long period of time before they actually start sweating.

Sweat is really not an indicator of how hard you are working during exercise.

The best way to measure your workout intensity is by using a heart rate monitor, and knowing 'your' zones based on your age and resting heart rate.

There is a great free online heart rate calculator here that gives you all the heart rate zones based on your info (Make sure to click the button for "female" because the results are different for men and women):

http://www.fitzones.com/members/Fitness/heartrate_zones.asp

Check your 'resting heart rate' by taking your pulse on your neck or on your wrist (do not use your thumb, use the index and middle finger only) relax and count your pulse for a period of 15 seconds, then multiply the result x 4.

The best way to measure your resting heart rate (RHR) is when you first wake up in the morning and before you get out of bed. Simply count your pulse for 15 seconds beginning on the zero count and multiply by 4. You can do this for 5 days and then average the results. This is your resting heart rate.

Keep in mind that lack of proper rest, stress and lack of proper nutrition, and medication can influence your RHR. One sign of over-training is an elevated RHR. By becoming aware of your RHR you can more closely become in-tuned with with how your body is reacting to different stimulus.

So plug your RHR in this calculator, along with your age, click on 'female' and then click on 'calculate' and that gives you your own target zones.

So when you workout, use your heart rate monitor and write down your results from the calculator, and that way you will know which intensity zone you are working in.

That's the best way to see what level you are working at.

I'm hoping that the above information can help some of my readers too. Good luck everybody!