Readiness Score / Recommended Heart Zone Minutes scoring too high

[matthewibbs]

I have an issue I've raised with support now a couple of times and wondered if anyone else sees it or has any recommendations about how to deal with (or if you just want to tell me I am being dumb / missing something obvious, that's OK too).

My recommended daily heart zone minutes (HZM) seems to be coming in quite high. E.g., on an Excellent day it tells me to go for 83+. This can be quite tough to achieve and if I don't hit it then I am not active enough it the next day it tells me I am ready for another excellent day and the cycle starts again.

On a Good day the range is 50 - 80. Poor (which rarely happens - see above) is 'take a day off'.

For reference, my weekly goal is 250 HZM (100 above the weekly recommended IIRC) and I even set my goal to 7 days of exercise to see if that made a difference. It seemed to reduce it slightly as when I was going for 5 days exercise it would regularly tell me to do 90 - 100 on an excellent day.

But the main issue really is that something feels awry with the recommendation and it snowballs due to it being too high a goal for one day.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[MarioDings]

Hi, @matthewibbs , I didn't see this post before.  I wonder, did you set your heart rate zones manually? If not, you should ajust them. I think set the max heart rate higher. There are different calculations about max heart rate.

I'm not sure what you mean with the range 50-80.
You also tell me you easily get to 250 HZM per week. I get this week 904 HZM and I set my max heartrate to 164 (should be 152 =  220-68) 

Today I had a conversation with a man who told me he ran a full marathon in 4 hours 15 minutes at age 69.

[matthewibbs]

Hey Mario, thanks for the reply. 🙂

HZ rates are automatically set at the moment but tbh I don't think that's the problem. From what I can see, they're pretty much correct based on my effort / exertion and increasing my max HRZ would only make it more difficult to get to the HRZ it is recommending on a daily basis.

For clarity: On a GOOD day the range is 50 - 80 HRZ.
I.e. we have LOW / GOOD / EXCELLENT recommendations daily in the Fitbit app that is based on recent factors including how active one has been.

Today I had a conversation with a man who told me he ran a full marathon in 4 hours 15 minutes at age 69.
Amazing stuff 😄

[RiekoC]

Hello & welcome @matthewibbs ,

Glancing at your account, it looks like you recently started using a Fitbit. It may take a bit more wearing your device to establish a more reasonable realistic daily Active Zone Minutes/HRZ.

The other thing to keep in mind is that this is a recommendation. As long as you meet/exceed your weekly HRZ, you are doing what you need to do to maintain good cardio health. There really isn't a negative impact to your weekly score or health if you don't meet Fitbit's daily recommended HRZ. This is something I had to learn and accept for myself. Otherwise, I would feel bad that I didn't meet the recommended goal. It took a bit for me to realize that I didn't need that additional stressor in my life. If I'm able to reach the recommended daily goal, yay for me. If not, the focus is on reaching/exceeding my weekly goal, which has not been a problem.

As for your weekly exercise goal, I suggest making it one that is sustainable. You're more likely to stay on track that way. This was another lesson I had to learn and accept.

Hope you find my musings helpful. 

[matthewibbs]

It's been around 10 months, got the Pixel Watch on release. The problem only started a four or so months back when I changed some settings. So far Google Support have been mostly replying with 'IDK LOL, try resetting / ask the community'. Hey ho. 😞

I like your take on this - focus on a higher time-frame.

I guess I'm just stumped on why it started happening in the first place bc it starts to make the Fitbit experience rather frustrating / redundant because it's a vicious cycle.

Fitbit: Get 80+ HRZ today
me: I can't
Fitbit: then you are a lazy person
Fitbit the next day: Get 80+ HRZ today
me: WTF?

and so it goes on... 😂

Appreciate the reply! Many thanks!

[RiekoC · Accepted solution]

Hi @matthewibbs 

You're so welcome. I'm glad you found my response helpful. 

The amusing part of your viscous cycle conversation is that it isn't Fitbit that says "then you are a lazy person". That's us telling ourselves we are "lazy" because we didn't meet the recommended target (been there / done that). The switch in mindset to meet the weekly goal is what keep us on track and out of therapy. 😉