If you have AFIB, consider the following

[charltonjohn50]

I have been a fitbit user for over 2 years . I am a very active 66 year old man who goes to the gym everyday . Before I had a fitbit I would check on my health through a BP monitor and at the gym on top of any tests done by my GP or health advisor. I always had a low resting heart rate between 45 and 50 and good BP 125 over 70. Once I had my fitbit I thought I could rely on it and lost count of the people I have recommended it to. About 3 months ago I started to feel more tired working out but as I do a lot of long haul travel I would check my HR on fit bit and put it down to jet lag etc . Even when the equipment at the gym was telling me my HR was 160 as my fitbit HR was showing 120 I preferred to believe it. To cut a long story short I was admitted to hospital because my heart rate was 150 and was diagnosed as having AFIB. At the time the hospital were panicking that someone had a resting heart rate of 150 my good old fit bit was telling me 65 ....a little bit high for me but ok. I got a friend to wear my fit bit to check it was not faulty and it had the same reading as their own fitbit they were wearing. The consultant said that fitbit and other devices cannot pick up the variations when the heart is jumping around in AFIB so having read so many conflicting reports on this it is very scary because I can prove it is useless. Last week I purchased a chest monitor which almost mirrored the readings of the gym equipment and to my phone but the readings on the fitbit are always totally different. over a 4 day comparison resting the fitbit is reading between 15 to 20 beats lower than the chest monitor and when exercising reading 40-50 beats lower!!

For this reason I certainly now know it cannot be used if a person has AFIB and think that Fitbit need to come up with something better and some words of warning too. AFIB is a very annoying condition to arrive on someone who is a dedicated gym goer and mine has not been resolved as yet . After one cardioversion I am still on meds which themselves affect how good exercise makes you feel. My concern is that my problem could have been detected maybe 3 or 6 months ago before it got too bad and therefore noticeable. I believed unwisely the fitbit data was correct which continued showing how healthy my heart was even when I was in re suss at the hospital

Moderator edit: format/subject clarity

[YojanaFitbit]

Thanks for sharing your experience @Murf13. I'm glad to see that you were able to confirm that you needed to get some help regarding this condition. The heart rate in atrial fibrillation may range from 100 to 175 beats a minute. I hope you're okay.