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It's obvious that as the weight comes off my HR should be lower for the same workout
Not really. The correlation between your heart rate and your performance is fairly weak.
In terms of weight loss and performance, all other things remaining equal*, if you are lighter, you are moving less weight around, so you'll be faster. This does assume that there's no functional loss associated with the weight loss.
* Not that they ever would be equal - It would be pretty difficult to disassociate weight loss from other physiological gains and functional gains, and if you are using running to lose weight, I would suggest that the torturous stats needed to separate the two would make the results meaningless noise.
tl;dr Skinny is faster than fatty.
NotThamesWater-
It's obvious that as the weight comes off my HR should be lower for the same workout
Not really. The correlation between your heart rate and your performance is fairly weak.
Weak maybe, but I meant as a general trend without going to extremes. If I go from BMI 30 to BMI 25 then I'll be faster for the same effort as I'm carrying much less weight (18kg). Therefore I can put in less effort and go the same speed as before, hence lower HR.
I'm not looking for a detailed correlation between HR and weight, or trying to predict anything. I'm looking for examples from people from before/after significant weight loss. Maybe I'm just hoping for evidence that it gets easier (or you get faster for the same effort).
@Pifko Very interesting but the data begins when he's already in good shape (11st10 and a 2:19 Marathon). Though, as a data nerd, I'm liking the bpm measurement (beats per mile) to keep an eye of aerobic fitness. (Adds column to spreadsheet. Ouch. ~1500 beats per mile compared to his 720bpm.)
( This book by Michael Bane: http://www.amazon.com/Over-Edge-Regular-Odyssey-Extreme/dp/0575400854 has been part of the inspiration for me. I went from wistfully remembering doing lots of cycling when ~15 to getting off my arse and doing lots.)
Greenbank
Anyone got example (anec)data from losing weight and the effect it had on your running?
Right now I can run at a steady 10.5kph (5.40min/km) along the flat and my HR will sit around a comfortable 160bpm. This is me at ~88kg, I'm 5'8" so this is quite overweight. I'm on my way down to 76kg (and ideally 70kg but I will start with getting back to a BMI of 'Normal').
It's obvious that as the weight comes off my HR should be lower for the same workout (all other things being equal; weather, health, etc) but I know it's more likely that I'll end up running to the same perceived effort and going faster for the same or even slightly increased HR. (It doesn't get easier, you just get faster.)
I'm just looking for someone who's got HRM/GPS data from a time when they lost loads of weight who can say: "I used to do x min/km at y bpm and after losing z kg I can now do blah blah blah."