Cardio fitness level lowered

[CeriEds]

Hi all.... Can anyone help ?... My cardio fitness score always been between 41-43 .. (checked daily) When I checked today it has gone down to 30... My fitness level has not altered significantly. .  Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what has gone wrong ??..  I'm 41...9.5 St and 5 ft5...  My resting heart rate usually around 47.

Thanks folks!

Moderator edit: Clarified subject and removed personal info

[LanuzaFitbit]

Welcome to the Forums @CeriEds.

Thanks for bringing this up and sharing all of those details! Let me help you figure out what is going on. 

It is possible that you were tired or have had some outside factors causing your score to go down. For example, coming out of a cold or some other ailment could explain why the score went down like that. Could that be the case?

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[murjd17]

My fitbit has done this to me before as well. In my case it was caused by a run where the GPS did not log the distance correctly. It shorted me about 20% on the distance but calculated the run time and tracked the HR correctly. When the app did the math my score dropped from a 55 to a 51 overnight! I was not happy to say the least. I eventually figured out how to calibrate the GPS in my phone to improve the accuracy. As I've built new routes in my neighborhood I've also tried to find routes that aren't through areas with a lot of trees in case they would interfere with the GPS signal.

One other potential cause for this is if you'd not previously logged a run with GPS (whether built in on your fitbit or connected to your phone - depending on the model you have). In that case the fitbit app would have been estimating your cardio score and shown you a range. Once you log a run with GPS it has better data and can crunch the numbers and give you an actual score. Sometimes this results in a drastically different number than before.

[CeriEds]

Thanks for your reply... I think something similar may have happened to me.... I only walked to the shop and my fitbit recorded a heart rate of 194!!!! Out of interest were you able to adjust the score or did you just have to wait for everything to sort itself out again?

Many thanks

Ceri


Sent from my Xperia by Sony smartphone

[CeriEds]

Thanks for your reply... I think something similar may have happened to me.... I only walked to the shop and my fitbit recorded a heart rate of 194!!!! Out of interest were you able to adjust the score or did you just have to wait for everything to sort itself out again?

Many thanks

Ceri


Sent from my Xperia by Sony smartphone

[murjd17]

You can't adjust the score but you could try deleting the activity that is skewing your cardio score. Not sure if it will fix things but it is worth a try if you care about the cardio score more than the logged activity. I ended up waiting for things to sort out on their own because I didn't want to delete the run.

[Caz29]

Trying to bump this thread.

I noticed my cardio fitness score took a hit after I switched from nighttime to daytime runs. It is significantly hotter during the day where I live and, as a result, running is significantly harder on the body during the day.  Does Fitbit consider such data when calculating fitness scores?  I know my device is aware of things like outside temp and elevation gained during an exercise, so it's reasonable to expect that these things would be factored into the equation.  Someone who runs in 80 degree 90% humidity is going to have a higher HR than someone running in 60 degree breezy weather, even if they adjust their pace.

On a slightly unrelated note, I also noticed my resting HR value increased in the day following a big family dinner.  I admittedly overate ( a lot) so obviously my HR was higher as my body was digesting food for much of the night and most of the morning. I was wondering if that could also affect my fitness score.