Current heart rate much lower than "resting heart rate"

[Adrienna27]

Is it normal to consistently see a current heart rate while resting that is significantly lower than what Fitbit is showing as the day's resting heart rate? How does Fitbit figure what resting heart rate is for a given day?

[Malcolm-in-glas]

Adrienne, your patience is astonishing.  I'm screaming at the response and it's not even my question!  I don't know if anyone knows from where Fitbit plucks the RHR number.  I'm very disappointed with Fitbit, mine can't even measure distance right (it measures a calibrated mile at anything between 1.2 and 1.4 miles so tells me I am running much faster than I am)

[Colinm39]

Since I last posted, Autumn in Australia noe and my RHR this week has been a consistent 54. While I type this, the actual HR is 53.  But my genetics are a low HR normally. It gets down to 47 while asleep. I'm happy with what my Ionic id reporting. 

[Oregonmama]

It keeps getting stranger. Last night I was taking a quick break from work
when a favorite song played on Pandora. It was a fast paced dance tune, so
I started dancing (right after going up and down a flight of stairs) and
danced vigorously for about 5 minutes. I sat down took a few deep breaths
and checked my pulse on the Fitbit. It was 78. My “RHR” yesterday was 77.
Today it is 79. RHR isn’t what Fitbit is claiming. I hadn’t even had a full
minute of recovery, but that’s the number they are using.

[TPaleo]

I will ask for all of us. What was the song?

[Oregonmama]

I Hate Myself for Loving You by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

[techprof]

Pretty normal occurrence for me too.

[Tylani]

 Here too.. I'm glad I'm not the only one :):)

Will it help to get a fitbit premium so I can see my all time low from the day? I can now only see the graph and not the actual numbers.

[LZeeW]

Hello @Tylani and welcome to the Community.  This thread got hijacked, so let get back to the original post.  Fitbit's RHR algorithm is proprietary.  It uses your heart rate data when you are at rest, awake and asleep.  So it is very common to see your live heart rate lower than your resting heart rate.  You don't say what model Fitbit you use, but some of the smartwatch models have this as part of their programming.  If you tap on your heart rate tile, then one of the graphs, you can expand it and rotate it to landscape.  You can lightly press on the graph and see a number.  You can press/hold and slide along the graph.  This is an average over five minutes.  You usually see your lowest heart rate when you are asleep.  Premium gives you a sleeping heart rate and it shows an average heart rate over one minute.  But I would NOT pay for Premium just to see this.

What model Fitbit do you use?

[sanctum11]

Anyone else think its silly the moderator just peaced the heck out of this conversation when asked a legitimate question?

[Adrienna27]

Yep, but I gave up on getting any reasonably useful data out of this "measurement" a long time ago.

RHR should not be "a proprietary algorithm."  If we don't know exactly what goes into an algorithm, then the output figure is equally opaque and therefore non-useful.

In any case, my heart rate measurements from my Fitbit don't seem to be all that accurate anyway.  They vary wildly for no apparent reason and I have often spotted my Fitbit thinking I have a heart rate of 120+ when the device isn't even on my wrist.  If it's recording inaccurate data to start with, it's of course going to produce an inaccurate result.

Between this and several other issues, I don't bother to expect my Fitbit to provide any useful info anymore except for the time, date, and my step count. That's disappointing given that it's supposed to do much more than that, but it is what it is.

[ManuFitbit]

Hi Everyone.

Please make sure to review the information provided here earlier about the accuracy of resting heart rate.

In order to have the community better organized, I'll proceed to close this thread. If you want to share ideas, have any inquiries or need help about other concerns please visit the community to start a new topic.