Sudden Increase in Resting Heart Rate Charge 3 and Versa

[writergal28]

I have a Charge 3 and my parents each have a Versa (I think it's a Versa), All three of us have recorded sudden increases in our resting heart rates this past week.  There was no firmware upgrade for my device and I do not believe my parents' devices had upgrades either.  Is this a glitch?  My RHR went from the upper 60s to the mid-70s, as did my parents.  I'm 39 and my parents are in their early 70s.

Thanks!

[Heather-S]

Mine has gone up as well.  Usually it's around 56-58 and right now it is 67 which is astronomically high for me.

I think there are some factors at play for me.  1) I was sick about three weeks ago and that elevated me from 58 to 64 within 48 hours.  2) It dropped back down to 62 and then I had a long day of travel with little sleep, not much water or food.  3) I started my period which always seems to elevate my RHR a little.  4) I was on vacation in a warm climate (which can raise your RHR), plus I was consuming alcohol.

All of those factors have greatly contributed to my RHR, I have no doubt.  So I don't think there's a glitch on my end. 

[Colinm39]

I have tracked my RHR since a hip replacement in July 2015.. Why?.. I was amazed at the body's reaction to an operation where my RHR went from 54 to 73 overnight and took weeks to normalize.

Since then I have followed it with minor illness, bad sleeping and seasonal weather changes.  Also a visiting GP changed some medication and that bumped my RHR up and took weeks to normalize

I have also plotted it against my sleeping average heart rate.. since October 2017 because Fitbit stress that we should wear the device at night.

These results are from the Surge, then the Blaze and now Ionic.  The sudden peaks in the sleeping graph are the result of heavy gardening activity on a hot day and the one in late March 2018 was as a result of a fall which really shook me.

The background to all of this is I'm a healthy senior, pre-hypertensive and all of my "bloods" are normal and I'm genetically designed with a low HR and built for long distance activity and not speed..  I have my annual checkups and been stress tested.. So if in doubt always get your doctor to check.

I haven't come up with an answer as to why the RHR definitely dropped around March 2016 and that's when I started using the Blaze then and the Ionic in late October 2017

[Dominique]

It’s probably a coincidence. I see you joined Fitbit in January 2015. I assume you have had other HR-enabled Fitbits prior to your Charge 3, and have seen your RHR fluctuate during that time, Is your current RHR (mid-70s) in entirely new territory for you? FWIW, mine has been fluctuating within a range of about 15 bpm (from low 50’s to mid 60’s).

[writergal28]

@Dominique

Actually, this is my first wearable.  I only had an Aria in the past.

[Dominique]

I see. I believe that, as time passes, you will notice the fluctuations in RHR I mentioned. They’re normal and most likely nothing to worry about.

[Colinm39]

@writergal28You can see from my earlier graph, similar to @Dominique I have a range of 10 bpm RHR, even last night my sleeping HR got down to 43 in a Light Sleep time on a cool night, it got down to 57oF (14oC).. and on the very hot day in the graph the night temperature got down to 70oF (21oC).

@Heather-Shas described the typical reasons for variations and I find on a very hot day my RHR goes up. Hot, meaning 111oF (44oC) last week and now 61oF (16oC) today and I never get thirsty so I have to remember to drink water.

This blog from Fitbit has a good description of RHR and in this blog they say that as we age the RHR increases. I haven't noticed that, maybe as my cardiologist says "I'm genetically built with a slow HR",  and I will be 80 this year..

So while posting this I decided to examine our temperature against my RHR for the last 2+ weeks and from the graph I can probably say my body is adjusting to the higher temperatures. My RHR has increased slightly.  But this is Melbourne weather and we are now in the hottest month of our Summer and I have found since using the HR Fitbits its amazing how our bodies acclimatize.

[emili]

@writergal28.. Hey there.. RHR will go up for all sorts of reasons all the time. Too cold, too hot, drinking more, drinking less, new food, not enough food, colds, allergies- the list is long. I think with the weather being so insane everywhere nowadays, it is more likely that than anything else. 

[muglawi]

@Colinm39Where do you see those cool graphs about your average sleeping heart rate?

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[Colinm39]

@muglawi  I create a manual activity of my sleep period after I sync the tracker..

I have found there is a bug when you enter a start time around midnight for the sleeping and if that occurs I then delete that activity use 12:05am..as the start point.

Also the manual activity must be created on the PC so that you can use it on your phone.

I just enter the averages at regular intervals into an Excel spreadsheet.

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@muglawi wrote:

@Colinm39Where do you see those cool graphs about your average sleeping heart rate?

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