Exercise zones wrongly displayed in Fitbit Dashboard

[zetland01]

I use a Charge 5

My max heart rate is 146, so peak zone should be 124-146, and cardio zone 102-123.

When I jog / walk briskly for an hour (including hills), Fitbit histogram summary shows:

Peak =19 mins 

Cardio=29 mins

Fat burn= 6 mins

However the Fitbit graph on heart rate vs distance, show Peak Zone color for at least 90% of the walk, and this is reflected in the heart rate plotted. My heart rate is in the range 120- 180 95% of the time.

1) Fitbits histogram and graph are inconsistent. Peak should be more >40 mins if graph is correct, 

2) I feel fine - is heart rate 160 - 180 a problem for a 74-year old male?  Resting is 59.

[charleskn]

I might suggest a screenshot of the graph and other screens to illustrate your problem.

As for your heart rate, Fitbit uses the standard "220 - age" formula, which tends to run low for most folks, I believe. I would manually check your heart rate when you see high readings like this, and I suspect you'll find that the tracker is giving an erroneous reading. My Charge 4 does this on occasion, but not consistently. Any length of time near your actual max heart rate would have you pretty exhausted, as this requires an all out effort. The max heart rate is also not a number "never to be exceeded". It's just a number of what your maximum HR is likely to be, which declines as we age.

Your RHR doesn't really affect your max, but creates what they call a heart rate reserve.

[t.parker]

This is a bug reported some time ago.

[zetland01]

Thanks charleskn, very helpful.

[LZeeW]

@zetland01   The heart rate zones you calculated are for active minutes.  The Charge 5 awards active zone minutes.  The zone minute heart rate zone calculation uses your resting heart rate as part of the equation.  You must use the Fitbit mobile app to view your detailed results.  You can't use the web dashboard to view your exercise details and heart rate zones.  It can only show active minutes.  This will make more sense to you if you view your results on you mobile app.

You can see your heart rate zones on your mobile app by tapping on the zone minute icon on your Today screen.

[t.parker]

@LZeeW my understanding is that @zetland01 refers to this bug:

This is from my today's run. The minutes are in fact correct but the graph has shifted colours (113min cardio became peak on the graph). It's an issue reported some time ago, still not fixed (not that I am surprised).

[zetland01]

[zetland01]

I added a screen shot later in the string.  I should have made a reply to your comment....

[LZeeW]

@t.parker  @zetland01   In all honesty, I stopped analyzing the original post in detail when I could see that @zetland01 was using the active minute heart rate equation, not the zone minute equation.  I agree with you about the heart rate color bug.  It is one of several bugs in the web dashboard.  All of these bugs have been around for a couple years.  I think it is safe to say that they won't get fixed.