Resting Heart Rate increased on holiday

[GiadaM]

Hi everyone,

My resting heart rate, which is usually around 59-60 bpm, gradually increased to 75 bpm when I went from the UK to southern Europe on holiday.

I was only there for a week and I kept my exercise routine, which is mainly walking 10 km a day (easy enough to do on holiday).

After I came back to the UK my heart rate slowly went back to 58 bpm.

The only explanation I can give is the temperature, which was about 10°C higher on holiday... But is that enough to justify more than 15 additional bpm?

Also, if that was the case I would have expected my hr to go up or down quite suddenly. Instead, it took about 6 days to reach the peak and 10 days to go back to normal.

Has anyone experienced anything similar?

[SunsetRunner]

Recently my HR hits higher values but it's clearly related to the weather outside ( unusual, but summer in England sometimes happens 😉 ). My resting HR stays unchanged but I noticed that it raises much quicker when I'm outdoor. Also, my usual workout route has a few splits in which I observe increased HR despite relaxing my activity a bit. All those splits have one thing in common - no shadows. I was going to do some research regarding that topic as I'm interested in how outdoor temperature affects the human heart ( maybe there are some people here who already know some facts ). Mind that this whole panic about resting HR started with fitness trackers and before people didn't even know such thing ever existed and guess what - nobody (almost 😉 ) died 😄 I also fell into that "madness" myself and just in case I consulted my GP and had ECG done. In a case of doubts just consult your GP, but the human body has an ability to self-adjust to the new conditions. Our heart is affected not only by our activities but also an environment and many other things. We are very complex machines. I'm not saying not to worry, I'm just saying not to panic and if you consider that something is not right - see your doctor 🙂

[Baltoscott]

Interesting.  Looking back over the past several months I have not noticed any differences that seem related to heat, and we have had some significant heat waves in the US Northeast lately.  Did you change your wearing habits in any way?  Maybe not wearing it to bed some of the nights while you were on holiday?

Sometimes if you see a large hard to explain change in RHR it may just be a technical glitch that eventually works itself out.  If that is the problem restarting the tracker would likely get it back to normal accuracy.

[SunsetRunner]

I did some research and indeed, the heart rate and blood pressure are affected by the temperature. Looks like, the hotter outside, the higher HR and lower BP. Of course, it has to be considered as an individual response as different people will have different HR changes. It depends on age, gender, fitness level etc.

There are lots of sources describing how it works. For example, British Heart Foundation has written:

"How does hot weather affect my heart?

When the weather is hot you sweat to cool down, but this means that you lose more fluid than usual from your body. This can drop your blood pressure and make your heart beat faster. This is not a problem for most people as long as they drink plenty of fluids, like water or other sugar-free drinks to keep from getting dehydrated."

https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/living-with-a-heart-condition/weather-and-your-heart

[JackieK23]

The same thing has been happening to me and its driving me CRAZY! Funny enough it also started happening when I got home from vacation. Usually my RHR is around 57-59 and its now almost at 70!!! I guess its from the warm weather but I hate it 😞

[Baltoscott]

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@JackieK23 wrote:

The same thing has been happening to me and its driving me CRAZY! Funny enough it also started happening when I got home from vacation. Usually my RHR is around 57-59 and its now almost at 70!!! I guess its from the warm weather but I hate it 😞

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LOL @JackieK23  -- We get a lot of (sometime unintuitive) information from fitbit and similar devices these days, so it is good to keep @SunsetRunner's admonition in mind:

"Mind that this whole panic about resting HR started with fitness trackers and before people didn't even know such thing ever existed and guess what - nobody (almost ) died "

Stay healthy!

[JemimaJane]

I’m in the US and I just returned from a long weekend a few states away where the weather and elevation were the same as the state I left. I noticed my RHR (usually around 68) crept up during my stay, maxed out on the day I left (78), and has stayed there even though I’ve been home for a few days. I’m obviously most concerned about DVT/PE from sitting in a car about 5 hours both ways, but trying a wait and see approach while trying not to panic.

[shipo]

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@JemimaJane wrote:

I’m in the US and I just returned from a long weekend a few states away where the weather and elevation were the same as the state I left. I noticed my RHR (usually around 68) crept up during my stay, maxed out on the day I left (78), and has stayed there even though I’ve been home for a few days. I’m obviously most concerned about DVT/PE from sitting in a car about 5 hours both ways, but trying a wait and see approach while trying not to panic.

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Funny thing, I just got back from attending my niece's wedding in Michigan, my wife and I drove from New Hampshire last week and returned yesterday.  I say "funny" because my resting heart rate, which has hovered in the 42 BPM (plus or minus 2 BPM) for many months, suddenly shot up to nearly 50.  Now I'm back home it dropped to 46 today and I expect it to drop for the next several days as I get back into my usual routine.

[Alicat2104]

Lack of sleep makes mine increase, maybe you were sleeping less with being on holiday?

[SunsetRunner]

I've had the same kind of thing whenever I take a vacation.  I always thought that it was just because of the stimulation and stress of travel making my HR ride higher throughout the day.

[JemimaJane]

Interesting!  I went from MA > VT for a conference, and we were overfed (and oversaturated!) at every meal.  My RHR has dropped about a BPM each day, and I'm at 75 today.  I believe the combination of food and drink is what caused it.  Hope it returns to normal soon!

[Sensitive]

I'm sensitive to alcohol. If I have a couple of glasses of wine it goes up 2 points the next day and if I drink two or three days on the trot it keeps going up. It can then take 48 hours of absenance to come back down again so drinking habits on holiday could be an issue. Even the type of wine seems to be an issue. German wine has more of a negative effect than Spanish - must be something in the wine!

[Alicat2104]

@Sensitive

German wine isn't good for much except stomach stripping 

[LB0716]

Add me to the list of people who googled this in  a panic after vacation! Spent the last 1.5 weeks in South Africa (involving over 30 straight hours of travel EACH way and walking around the city, hiking, and sitting in a safari jeep), and was very concerned to watch my average rate climb...and climb...and climb... Meanwhile my health index has decreased by two points from normal. I would understanding if I was sedentary the whole time, but there really was a good amount of physical activity each day - certainly more than I usually get sitting at my desk. Started the trip at 65 and it's gone all the way up to 78...I've been home two days and it still seems really high - both the average and my heart rate anytime I happen to check it. Hopefully it'll be back to normal soon, but I'm relieved to see I'm not the only one!

[Kleigh727]

Thank you for doing the research! I was thinking I had a health condition or was gaining weight! Super helpful 

[ROBERT10]

My resting heart rate varies with bedroom temperature. In air conditioned rooms at 16C it's about 8bpm lower than in non AC at 25C

[Rams160]

I have just come back from Majorca, and the room was air conditioned, and quite cold at night , my resting heart rate dropped from 68-57 , so glad to hear the same experience 

[Al_fa]

I noticed an increase of my resting hart rate in the days right after increasing my caloric intake (I have a TMMR of roughly 2500-2600 kcal and when I am in lean bulking I increase some days of the week to 3000-3100 kcal). It happens regularly and the increase is from 46-47 to 52.

As soon as I reset my cals for a few days to the maintenance or diet regime the RHR will drop back down. I guess it is the extra powder needed to digest that food. Digestion does take 24 to 72 hours after all.

Thanks for sharing the experience!

[Ronnie0720]

Thats amazing that your heart rate is that low.  I walk/run about 15-20 miles everyday and mine is only in the mid 50's.  When I wake up from sleeping, its in the mid 40's, is that normal for someone that averages 35K-40K steps a day?

[Rams160]

You are fit, I dream of having that rate

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