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Max heart rate & custom zones

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‎03-01-2016 03:13

‎03-01-2016 03:13

It would be useful to be able to adjust the max heart rate & heart rate zones (also to have more zones). I take medication which lowers my heart rate & the standard values are no use.
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‎03-01-2016 03:24 - edited ‎03-01-2016 03:27

‎03-01-2016 03:24 - edited ‎03-01-2016 03:27

Yes it has been mentioned several (!) times that the zones need to be adjustable. Unfortunately there is currently only the option to create one custom zone. I'd like to raise my max HR as it is higher than Fitbit's age restricted limited. Consequently I bounce into wrong zones frequently. At the moment I just live with it.

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‎03-01-2016 03:25

‎03-01-2016 03:25

Under your personal settings there is a little customizing that can be done. 

Screenshot_2016-03-01-06-23-54.pngJ

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‎05-08-2016 21:23

‎05-08-2016 21:23

I had the same issue. I am 65 with a max hr of 183, the fit bit calculated max for me is 155 (220 minus my age of 65) I have got around it by adjusting my age in my profile to 37 (220 minus my max hr of 183 equals 37 this has the effect of bringing all the zones up to realistic levels for me. Fat burn - 91+, Cardio - 128+, Peak - 155+. The zones now are similar to those of my Suunto hr monitor where I am able to specify my Max hr and the jones are adjusted from that. Hope this helps
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‎05-09-2016 07:55

In response to Rich_Laue

‎05-09-2016 07:55

@Rich_Laue wrote:

Under your personal settings there is a little customizing that can be done. 

Like you I created a custom zone and pretty much pushed the zone from absolute minimum (which appears to be 30 BPM) to absolute Maximum (which appears to be 195).  Granted I'm a week shy of 59, but yeesh, the whole 220-59=161 "max" calculation is stupid-stupid-stupid.  Yes, like a broken analog watch it may be correct from time to time, but not for anybody in my circle of friends.

 

Just as dumb as the "maximum" calculation is the arbitrary "minimum" calculation based at least partly on age.  When I was in my teens and early 20s my resting heart rate would often dip below 30 BPM, so while it has gone up as I've gotten older, the overnight heart rate graph provided on my dashboard shows I routinely get down as low as 35 BPM at night and my RHR is hovering between 41 and 42 these days.

 

The folks at Fitbit would be well advised to ignore poorly thought out maxims such as BMI, Heart Rate Zones, and even the adage which says 3,500 calories equals a pound of weight.  I'm sure with the absolutely massive amount of data they now have collected; they can run some deep-dive analysis and come up with some better ways of quantifying how we're doing.

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