How do I adjust heart rate zones on Fitbit app?

[Specky]

Hi! Does anyone know how to adjust the heart rate zones? The instructions say:

But if I complete step 1, step 2 does not have an option for "Heart Rate Zones":

Thanks in advance!

[JohnnyRow]

On phone app, tap heart rate tile, then gear icon near top right.  And there might be another place you can get to it.

Location might have changed, but documentation should have kept up with that.

[LZeeW]

@Specky   Your screenshot shows an Activity & Wellness option.  Tap on that > Heart Settings > Heart Rate Zones > toggle Custom Zone to On and enter your desired settings.

[Specky]

Sorry Jonny but there is no option to adjust the thresholds there. The only option is for changing the inactive hear rate notifications which is something else.

 

[Specky]

Hi LZeeW, same as my reply to Jonny: there is no Heart Rate Zones option. The High and Low Hear Rate just deals with notifications about Heart Rate exceeding thresholds when inactive. It doesn't change the peak/cardio/fat burn thresholds.

 

[JohnnyRow]

You can set one custom zone, but you cannot change the regular zones other than setting your own max heart rate.

Like the quote from your first post

Instead of using the 3 heart rate zones, you can create a custom zone.

[JohnnyRow]

[t.parker · Accepted solution]

@Specky to the screen posted by @JohnnyRow you'll get by tapping "Heart Health" under "Exercise" (you can see it on your own screenshot).

The zones cannot be customized on Fitbit. The only thing you can change is maximum HR which will change the zones range (based on your resting HR and max HR). If you want to specify each zone individually, you can't do it.

[Specky]

Ahah! Thanks T. Easy once you know where to look!

[Kuriketto]

Hello, does this work on the sense, or just the versa? I have a sense and narcolepsy, so i want to make my fitbit alert me if i start dozing off, but my "low heart rate" options are still alot higher than my resting heart rate?

[peggy.m518]

Has anyone noticed that Fitbit has changed the heart rate zones - Fat burn used to be ninety to one hundred seven and is now ninety one to one hundred eight (the app would not let me use number range, Cardio used to be one hundred eight to one hundred thirty and is now one hundred nine to one hundred thirty one. How can that be? By the way - do you know of any doctor that any exercise with heart rate less than 90 is not beneficial? That is what fitbit is messaging. Talk about misinformation! Get rid of heart rate minutes as the primary tracking and go to real time 60 seconds in an minute and 60 minutes in an hour - only truly scientific method especially when they keep changing the parameters. 

[JohnnyRow]

@peggy.m518  One factor in your heart rate zone calculation is resting heart rate.  As resting heart rate changes, so can you zone limits.

[peggy.m518]

My heart rate has remained the same for the last week - usually only varies
by 1 bpm over the last several years and the zones have not changed until
yesterday.

[t.parker]

@peggy.m518 this is not what HR zones are for. It doesn't mean that below 90bpm (or in my case it would be 106bpm where the FatBurn zone starts but I customize my zones such as the threshold between Peak and Cardio is set to my LTHR) is not beneficial. HR zones define thresholds for specific metabolic effects (at least this is what they usually mean, what they mean in the Fitbit ecosystem I don't know until this day). It has nothing to do with being beneficial or not. It's like @JohnnyRow says, Fitbit takes into account resting and maximum heart rate. The difference is called heart rate reserve and this is what is used to compute your zone thresholds (+RHR). However, changing RHR even 1-2 beats wouldn't change zones that drastically. The only thing I can think of is that you may be using a custom max heart rate (probably you don't as you haven't mentioned it). This is the only thing that may alter your zones that much. About the science, well, there is more science in the zones tied to the metabolic effects rather than using active minutes (AZM are not quite science either, it's more of an attempt to get people to push harder and earn minutes rather than collect them). To get old active minutes all you had to do was start tracking exercise and sit and do nothing and minutes were piling up just because you were tracking exercise. AZM need more effort and premium you for increased intensity (although, I don't find AZM to be a useful metric, just my opinion) as they are based on time in zones not time in exercise. In other words, following AZM is more beneficial in terms of a variety of effects on your body but it doesn't mean not earning AZM (not reaching the fat burn zone) isn't beneficial. Most of the platforms would categorize lower HR as "recovery" which is also very beneficial. My problem with Fitbit zones is that a) there are only 3, b) I can't totally customize them c) I can't set thresholds only using max HR to match my RPE so the Fitbit model has no meaning for me (it doesn't translate to effort). On other platforms, I can customize each zone and use different models to better match the effort. Because this is what it really is. For example, when you get into Peak you should be past your anaerobic threshold and the fatigue should be piling up quickly when you go into Fat Burn you should be able to continue with that intensity for hours and below Fat Burn, you go into recovery. Cardio is more like Tempo/Threshold (approximately, a half-marathon racing effort). This is how I understand those zones based on other systems but as I said, I can't match the zone thresholds to my RPE (rate of perceived effort) due to the limitation of the Fitbit platform so not particularly useful for me. No issues however with AZM because when the HR sensor works (and most of the time it doesn't, Sense 2 isn't too accurate) I get those minutes because I exercise in those intensities. People who want to get minutes and can't go into such a level of effort should adjust maximum HR to better match the zones to what they want them to be. Just make them work for you. It's not set in stone.

[JohnnyRow]

"However, changing RHR even 1-2 beats wouldn't change zones that drastically"

@t.parker  peggy's zones only changed 1 bpm - not that drastically

---

[t.parker]

@JohnnyRow I understood that was a change of her resting heart rate fluctuating like that. If it's about zones then it's totally normal.