: Increased heart rate during the night Hi am 138kgs (300 lbs) and recently bought a DVD for aerobic exercise. I've started doing this every evening before bed. The problem is each time I exercise I don't sleep well, since

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First off, excellent work on taking charge of your fitness. If weight loss is a big goal, make sure you double your efforts in the diet and nutrition area. Eating 500 calories is very easy, but burning 500 calories via exercise is very hard. As an example, an average blueberry muffin has 426 calories.

Meanwhile, at 300lbs, you would need to run for two miles at a 10mph pace to burn that muffin off. Never underestimate the amount of calories in food and the work involved in burning them off.

Specifically answering your question:

Your heart rate can stay elevated after exercise, usually as a result of EPOC (excess post exercise oxygen consumption) or because of excessive waste products that need to be removed from tissues. I don't think there is a lot of quality research in this area to be concrete about time lengths, but it looks like you can have an increased heart rate somewhere in the 10% range even a couple of hours out.

More than heart rate, you might also have increased blood pressure, adrenal activity, and all the other normal results of exercise.

A lot of people (myself included) don't do well exercising close to bed time. The middle of the day is best for me, the early morning I can pull off but I don't like it, and the evening is bad (especially for hard workouts).

You should run your results past your doctor for sure, but don't give up and great work on taking a big step towards fitness.

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I tend to agree with the person above. Exercise DVDs have limited effectiveness and should probably not be used as a first step. Starting with a 20 minute brisk walk every day is a good way to get started. Losing weight can be boiled down to burning more than you intake. That is naturally easier said than done but some little steps like parking far away from your destination when you drive some place and taking the elevator instead of the stairs are good starts.

As far as work out timing, generally it is a good idea to avoid working out within two to three hours of trying to go to sleep. Most people get their best results both sleeping and in their workout giving significant time (2+ hours) before bed. In general this will lead to better sleep. There are varying opinions on working out when you get up but some subscribe to the philosophy that it jump starts your metabolism.