High heart rate and reading accuracy

[Gryzor]

Hello everyone!

I'm 41, 183cms (6ft) and 76kg (167lbs), formerly something of a couch potato (not because I liked it, but because of work), medium smoker (trying to quit), and doing about 6 hours per week of elliptical training for about a month and a half now.

I'm usually reaching a max of 150-something BPMs without pushing myself too hard (medium and some high-intensity rounds), though I keep it up for a bit (my trainings are usually between 45 and 60 minutes). However, my two previous trainings gave me a maximum heart rate of 188 and 181 BPMs respectively. Weird, I thought. Today I saw I had reached 183 and pushed myself just to see. To my surprise, I reached 203. Stranger still, I didn't feel bad at all, was breathing pretty normally and kept on until the music track ended. I got off my elliptical and talked to my wife. I was able to discuss normally without any difficulty at all, and my heart rate was down to 100 within a minute or less.

So, I wanted to ask what this could mean... is it bad? Is it a fluke in my Charge 2's readings? Something else?

Just in case, I'm arranging a doctor appointment (been wanting to for some time now), but I thought I'd ask...

Thanks for listening!

[emili]

it could be all of the above and none of the above. I am going to sternly pick on you for smoking first- that will mess with your HR more than anything. So please.. stop. You are already doing more for yourself, why hold yourself back? It is possible that your Charge 2 would read your HR wrong once, but you are saying this happened more than once- that is unlikely. It is possible depending on what you ate, how hydrated you are, if you ate salt that your HR is spiking when you are pushing yourself. The fact that you are not overly winded, it comes back down quickly and you have no pain or tingles- leads me to believe its just fluctuation because of the activity.. but, I am very pleased you made the appointment. As good intentioned as we are here, we have no idea what we are talking about in any real medical way....

[Gryzor]

Thank you, Emili, your reply is much appreciated. I guess my question(s) boils down to: are heart rates over the theoretical max for your age worrying or not.

Also: yes you're right, and thanks for chiding me. Been wanting to quit for quite some time now, so maybe this (whether good or bad) can be a sort of wake-up call. Sooo... yeah, going cold turkey today, crossing fingers 😄

Thanks again, and have a great day!

[psalmona]

So glad you are quitting tomorrow.  Many tomorrows never come because of procrastination.  There is a huge difference between I am going to quit! and I am going to try to quit  tomorrow.  I hope you stick to the first.

[Gryzor]

...but... I didn't say "tomorrow", did I? 🙂

[psalmona]

Sadly, you did not say "tomorrow".  In my experience "sometimes" never happens unless it changes to "I will quit".

[Gryzor]

Ah, the way you put it it sounded like "tomorrow" was the worse option and I got a bit confused. 🙂

Aaaaanyhow, I'm proud to say that I quit. Of course that's only the first, tiny step, but...

I wish FitBit, as a fitness and well-being app, had some sort of 'quit smoking' function! 😄

[shipo]

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@Gryzor wrote:

Thank you, Emili, your reply is much appreciated. I guess my question(s) boils down to: are heart rates over the theoretical max for your age worrying or not.

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As with so much else in life, it depends.  I say this because some folks, myself as an example, routinely exceed the theoretical max for their age while others cannot even come close to that number.  The calculation to determine maximum heart rate is a gross aggregation/average for all folks; said another way, half the population will have a max above the calculated limit, the other half will be below it, and regardless of which direction your max is, some folks will be off by only a few beats per minute, others will be off by twenty or more.

In my case, 160 is my theoretical max, however, I can sustain a heart rate in the 150s to 160s for an hour or more and have seen it spike up into the high 170s/low 180s when racing or pushing the pace up a long grade.

[Gryzor]

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@shipo wrote:

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As with so much else in life, it depends.  I say this because some folks, myself as an example, routinely exceed the theoretical max for their age while others cannot even come close to that number.  The calculation to determine maximum heart rate is a gross aggregation/average for all folks; said another way, half the population will have a max above the calculated limit, the other half will be below it, and regardless of which direction your max is, some folks will be off by only a few beats per minute, others will be off by twenty or more.

In my case, 160 is my theoretical max, however, I can sustain a heart rate in the 150s to 160s for an hour or more and have seen it spike up into the high 170s/low 180s when racing or pushing the pace up a long grade.

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Thanks for your input 🙂 What you describe is the median actually (half above/half below the value), but I get your meaning and indeed, I got stuck up with the formula instead of reading into it as I should have. So to a certain degree, you're definitely correct! 

I will ask my doctor as well and report back, however. For the time being, since that over-the-max peak value appeared out of the blue, I decided to take it a bit easier, rest for a couple of days in case it was due to overdoing it, quit smoking (resting beat rate fell by 2 in just one day) and try again, at a relaxed pace.

Thanks again!

[psalmona]

interesting!  I have had the same primary physician for about 45 years.  By this time she knows me pretty well so I can pretty well depend on her to know about my fluctuations.  I don't know what I would do with my weird numbers if I listened to some of the physicians who have not known me for so long.

[schmict]

More than likely the Charge 2 readings are inaccurate. Double check your heart rate manually or with a proven technology. I wouldn't rely on fitbit for BPM readings and base any health decisions on it.  Do a search on here in help section for inaccurate heart rate.

[Gryzor]

Thanks for your reply! I will certainly do a search, but I think the readings were rather accurate. One of the nice things with Fitbit is that it actually shows a pulsating heart and you can compare it easily, and I do believe it matched what my finger on my carotid told me. Thanks for the input though, all the info is relevant and helpful.

Anyhow, yesterday I happened to have an appointment with a doctor (a cardiologist I've never been to before). He really didn't seem to care about my HR going to 200 since I had no other symptoms. Before jumping to conclusions it's not like he didn't seem to care at all - he spent almost an hour and a half discussing my general status and going over my blood panel results etc; but although I brought up the specific issue a few times, he was always like "oh, well, ok, so it got there".

He did recommend I get more blood work done, plus a stress test; upon arranging this we stumbled upon another doctor who we absolutely trust (don't ask why I didn't go to her in the first place, long story) so before I do that she'll take a look at me as well.

In the meantime, I found this interesting (though short) thread the other day:

https://www.reddit.com/r/running/comments/4bui18/heart_rate_reached_200_bpm_while_running_today_is/

Thanks again!

[Gryzor]

I'm writing this for anyone out there who may encounter the same issue, but please, please, don't take my word for it; just go visit a doctor, mkay? 🙂

So yesterday I went to another cardiologist; this one is extremely experienced and very well respected in the country's medical community, being the head of the cardiology department of a central hospital. Although, of course, I'm in no position to judge.

She did an ultra and an ECG and couldn't find anything wrong. From my description and the rest of her findings (or lack thereof) she said it's probably a random supraventricular tachycardia but she found me in such good shape that she didn't even recommend a stress test. She basically said that yes, I could have one, but only for psychological reasons, as my healthy status would be cause for more false positives than for useful insights. 

I'm summarising what was said, of course, but her only advice was, keep doing what I'm doing, no need to panic, just take it easy if the HR shoots up.

Hope that helps anyone with similar concerns out there...