Cardio Fitness Score suddenly Dropping.

[Brandon74360]

My cardio fitness score yesterday was about 55 but now it has suddenly dropped to a score of 30.

Help me, please.

[Omerta]

I believe that this score has to do with the resting hr, so the lower resting hr, the higher cardio fitness score. My resting hr is 71-74, so I have a very low cardio fitness score. Imagine that I go 4 times a week at the gym (not to take selfies 🙂 ) and I do some running and walking the dog every day. For now, that score is not quite believable. 

[Brandon74360]

My resting HR is typically 65 so i dont know what could be happening. Sorry about bad spelling or anything I had low battery and low LTE

[Colinm39]

@Brandon74360To add to @Omerta post this link will help you evaluate what is going on..

I can't help directly because I'm one of those fortunate people genetically inbuilt to have a high Cardio Score and a RHR of around 52.. Whenever I have a medical procedure I have to warn the monitoring staff that my HR can get down to 43.. All passed my my cardiologist because my GP's over the years have been concerned.

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@Brandon74360wrote:

My resting HR is typically 65 so i dont know what could be happening. Sorry about bad spelling or anything I had low battery and low LTE

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[Cushionhead]

Hello. I had this yesterday. My score was 46 and suddenly dropped to 28. My resting hr today is 58. My only change is that I am doing the couch to 5K and did a week 3 run yesterday with GPS. I don't understand why the big drop. I'm just going to see how it goes on over the next few days. 

[Colinm39]

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@Cushionheadwrote:

Hello. I had this yesterday. My score was 46 and suddenly dropped to 28. My resting hr today is 58. My only change is that I am doing the couch to 5K and did a week 3 run yesterday with GPS. I don't understand why the big drop. I'm just going to see how it goes on over the next few days. 

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@CushionheadWelcome... In this link Fitbit stress to ensure your weight is correct..

Extract from the link

How does Fitbit measure my cardio fitness score?

Your cardio fitness score is determined by your resting heart rate, age, gender, weight, and other personal information. For best results, make sure your weight is correct in your Fitbit profile. Also, wear your tracker or watch to sleep for a better resting heart rate estimate. Your cardio fitness score will be shown as a range unless you use GPS for runs.

[Emasullivan]

Mine was in the high 40's a while ago, and dropped to 29 and I cannot get it to change for the life of me! I wouldn't say my cardio fitness it amazing but I go to the gym most days a week and do classes too ! Resting HR is usually mid to low 60's too so not awful but I've always had a faster heartrate than most. It's how it drops so dramatically which seems bad, surely cant be accurate

[Cushionhead]

Thanks for the replies.

I think for me it has something to do with using the GPS when doing my couch to 5K runs. It's a mix of running and walking so far. Maybe all the stopping and starting fitbit thinks I'm unfitter than what I actually am?? I did a run today and I have moved up from 28 - 30. Hopefully I'll get back to where I was.

[Jimmy713]

Same problem - dropped from 40 to 33 out of nowhere.  Something not right. 

[Cushionhead]

I'm just ignoring it now. It hasn't budged upwards from 30.

I've stopped using GPS tracking as the distances it was giving me was incorrect. 

It would think I'd run about a 1/3 less in distance that I actually had and giving me a time per mile longer than it was. I would delete the exercise and then log it again with correct distance.

But despite that and having a resting heart rate of 54, running 5km 3 times per week it wont move up from 30, I'm sure I'm fitter than the average 47 year old woman!

[KM18FL30]

Same for me. Resting heart rate in mid 50s, lots of time chasing toddler and running 6-8 miles per week with daily 1 mile walk, and moderate weight loss. Cardio fitness a uddenly dropped from 40something to 29. Guess it’s not a useful feature! I’ve looked into the calculation and FAQs on the website. Just seems to be “broken.”

[BRD111]

It happened to me tonight. My resting HR is 52, my fitness score was 49. After my workout tonight my score dropped to 36. Wow,,, fitbit has things to fix. I'm on my 3rd Ionic since February. So disappointed. 

[SaraCasey]

I have just had the same issue . My RHR has always been 51-52 and cardio fitness 45 range but today is showing 30. Used the gps for 15 minutes ... not sure why this seems to affect it so dramatically. 

[Colinm39]

Here is the Fitbit Help on Cardio Fitness..  There is plenty of reading here.

I don't use the GPS now and my RHR is 52 and Cardio Score is 42-46, it may move up and down 1 point ever since Fitbit were measuring this.  I must admit when I was using GPS I never ran, I only walked.

[Whistler888]

Without GPS Cardio Score was ranging 53-57 -> With GPS is calculating 51.  Has been consistent the past month with pretty much zero variance.  Is very odd why the big drop some users are seeing.

[SaraCasey]

I did read the Fitbit help section in cardio fitness but it doesn’t give any information on why using GPS would give a conflicting reading from the norm. I’ve been 45 range consistently for years and only used the GPS once and dropped to 30. Makes me wonder what reading is actuate 😂 maybe I’m not as fit as I thought. 

[Whistler888]

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@SaraCasey wrote:

I did read the Fitbit help section in cardio fitness but it doesn’t give any information on why using GPS would give a conflicting reading from the norm. I’ve been 45 range consistently for years and only used the GPS once and dropped to 30. Makes me wonder what reading is actuate 😂 maybe I’m not as fit as I thought. 

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Yeah not sure why you would have so much of a drop.  Something is probs amiss with the inbuilt software calc.  For me always have GPS on when outdoors so there is a lot of data for that.  But personally take the VO2 calc somewhat with a grain of salt anyways.  Normal method is in a controlled clinical indoor test with mask.  Having a math calc on a watch doing a VO2 estimate is probs not that accurate.

[Colinm39]

@SaraCasey Before Fitbit released their Smart watches I have periodically done the Rockport Walking Test and also measure my 2 Minute Recovery HR from intense activity. This allows me to accept or reject Fitbit's Cardio Score. So far they are all comparable and it allows me to accept what Fitbit's cardio score.

Behind that I had a treadmill stress tests @Whistler888 mentioned which gave me my Vo2Max

In other topics others have mentioned when they adjusted their physical settings they experienced jumps or falls in the cardio score but not as much as you posted...

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@SaraCasey wrote:

I did read the Fitbit help section in cardio fitness but it doesn’t give any information on why using GPS would give a conflicting reading from the norm. I’ve been 45 range consistently for years and only used the GPS once and dropped to 30. Makes me wonder what reading is actuate 😂 maybe I’m not as fit as I thought. 

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[Shuffler29]

I’ve just had exactly the same thing happen to me! Not using GPS again! 

[BRD111]

I'm on my 3rd ionic. This one works.