Resting heart rate reporting too high

[steve617]

I am new to fitbit. I have seen several people reporting resting rate too low, the opposite problem that I am having. I got a Charge 3 to wear while trying to regain strength after surgery.  I am 70, have a stent in my heart, and recently lost part of a lung. Recovery has been good, but I run out of breath quicker than I used to (no surprise there) and wanted the fitbit to see how my heart is reacting to workouts. Charge 3 is almost always reporting my resting HR at 100-109. I would be conerned if I thought that was accurate. But I sat in my Dr.'s office and checked my fitbit while they were running my vitals. Dr reports my HR as 66. Fitbit says 105. I hesitate to say the Dr. is wrong. Should I assume my charge 3 is faulty? Is there a way to recalibrate it? It doesn't seem to matter how tight it is on my wrist or whether it is near the wrist bone or up higher.

Moderator edit: format

[JohnnyRow]

If your newness to fitbit is a few days or less, give it a while get the RHR.  It can take several days worth of data to get a reasonable number.  Also wearing it to bed helps get RHR better.

[steve617]

JohnnyRow, thanks for the tip. Yes, I have only had my fitbit for a week. And I have not been wearing it at night. I did the first night, but the band came apart during the night and the LEDs went off in my face and woke me up. So, it's been siting on the night stand overnights since then. Guess I'll try again.

[J-flex]

If I may suggest you use an approved medical devise to check your resting heart rate.  I personally wouldn’t rely on a fitness tracker for something as important has your HR. I have a Fitbit Blaze ( since discontinued) which has the HR feature.  I’ve compared my BP machine with the HR feature with the Fitbit and the BP machine is accurate every time. I use my Blaze for tracking steps which is seems to do accurately.  I also would suggest the info provided by your Dr is accurate.  Keep moving 🙂

[Dominique]

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@steve617 wrote:

But I sat in my Dr.'s office and checked my fitbit while they were running my vitals. Dr reports my HR as 66. Fitbit says 105.

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What you describe above is your instant HR while you were sitting there, not the same as your resting HR.

Fitbit reports resting HR as a single value for each day. Are you saying the graph that displays RHR for the past 30 days puts all values between 100 and 109? Can you post what a typical 24-hour HR graph looks like for you? This is mine for yesterday:

And this is the 30-day graph for RHR:

I’d be surprised if HR values during your sleep were in the 100-110 range.

[steve617]

Hi Dominique. I guess I mean instant HR instead of RHR. However, instant is still a question. It's my guess that what the Dr. measures in the office is also instant, and the Dr. and fitbit and still 30-40 beats apart. As I sit here on my porch keying this reply, I checked on fitbit several times about 10 seconds apart. It said my instant rate was 116, 94, 107, and 91. I checked a couple of minutes ago on my carotid and got 84, which normally I would consider high, but it is 90℉ and I finished mowing the lawn not to long ago. Speaking of lawn mowing, fitbit always marks it as a bike ride. I can live with that. I would put a 24 hour graph up here, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I can see it, I just haven't fiogured out how to copy it. It's a slow process, but I am getting used to it.

[JohnnyRow]

It sounds like it's not just your resting heart rate, but in general your heart rate is just reading higher than it really is.  That's possible.  Optical heart rates are not equally reliable for all people.  For me it is quite accurate when I am at rest, but tends to read high when I am doing any exercise. 

If you do want something else to occasionally check it, a pulse oximeter like you stick on your fingertip at the doctor's office can be fairly cheap and generally accurate, at least at rest.

[emili]

hey @steve617 . I think you have what you need for your HR question, but I wanted to chime in and wish you a great summer and may all things keep improving... 🙂