Average heart rates while exercising

[MeatLips]

Question for the running gurus:

I'm not at the most ideal weight, but I've dropped about 20 lbs over the last four months and I've been running on a treadmill every morning now. I've been slowly increasing my time over the last four months from an average time of 30 to 40 minutes to an hour and I've moved up from running three days a week to five days a week. I usually do about 4.3 mph. Keep in mind that I started this couch2 5k thing probably three years ago, so I've been running this way for a long time. Everything has been a gradual process.

When I was doing this with my Fitbit Blaze, I was typically staying within my targeted heart rate, which is about 148 or 85% of max given that I'm now 45. That made me pretty happy. Now I've just upgraded to a Fitbit versa 2 (which I'm very much taken with) and my first run with it it came back with a significantly higher heart rate. It was putting me at peak heart rate for most of my run, approximate 158 to 163. Essentially 93% of max. 

Suffice to say I found this extremely concerning. I'm very protective of my heart health and I have no desire to damage my heart or strain it. I don't usually feel extremely out of breath while running, In fact, I feel just fine. It certainly doesn't feel like I'm pushing peak heart rate for the entire run. But sitting down later with a clock and counting my heartbeats for 30 seconds shows that the Versa is actually pretty accurate. It made me wonder if I had been overstressing my heart during my runs and the Blaze was not reporting accurately.

I guess I'm looking for some opinions here. And some useful advice. I'm 234 lbs but I find I cannot relax during the day if I don't run in the morning. I don't want to stop running, but 4.3 mph isn't really that fast in the scheme of things, so I'm a bit perplexed as to why my heart rate was so high.

Anyone else noticing the Versa 2 is reporting too high or am I just doing this all wrong?

[JohnnyRow · Accepted solution]

First, it's great that you have been losing that much weight, and at a reasonable rate.

I would question the heart rate reading accuracy if you re not feeling close to max effort and gasping for breath.  You say you counted heart rate with a clock sitting down later and it was accurate.  That does not guarantee the rate was accurate when you were running.  Optical heart rate trackers are most accurate when at rest.  If they have accuracy problems, it is generally when exercising.

One thing you could try to allay your concerns, at a bit of extra $, would be to buy a low-end chest strap heart rate monitor.  It is certainly not as comfortable and doesn't provide all the information fitbit does, but chest straps are generally accepted to be  most accurate for heart rate, especially while exercising.  I am not suggesting replacing the fitbit, but only as an add-on to check the fitbit heart rate accuracy and ease your concerns.  The ideal would be if you knew someone who had one and would let you just borrow it for a run to compare heart rates.

Another cheaper option would be to get a finger clip-on meter like they use at doctors office to read your SPO2, and also give heart rate.  It wouldn't keep any record but you could try that just to spot-check heart rate during run, although I have never tried one of those while exercising to know if that affects their accuracy.

[MeatLips]

I'm starting to think the Versa is just lying to me about my heart rate. I'm gonna take your advice and find a good heart rate monitor to wear on my chest. For now, I'm just going to continue my usual runs for an hour each day.

I don't have any chest pains, no chest tightness, I'm not crazy out of breath. I'm not such an uber-athlete that I can perform at peak heart rate for an hour and not expect my heart to not explode. 🙂

Thanks for the reply!