Inaccurate heart rate when walking uphill

[Berengal]

I've had Ionic for almost a month now and I've noticed that the heart rate monitor fails whenever I walk uphill, showing a heart rate of less than 100 when it's at least 140.

This walk should clearly demonstrate the problem as I hold a steady pace both uphill and downhill but uphill I'm between 80-100 all the way while downhill I'm between 120-140. On the relatively flat part right before the top it seemed to work for a short while and my measured heart rate shot up to 170 peak, which is about what I'd expect going up that hill (150-170 bpm for the whole climb). On the final climb it again loses signal once I start climbing and the final reading was 116 bpm. Once I got my shoes off, 30 seconds after stopping the exercise on the watch, it said my heart rate was 150 bpm.

I have tried wearing it every way imaginable: low on the wrist, high on the arm, tight, loose, on top of the wrist or underneath in every combination to every degree. In every case I get a good reading on flat or downhill ground but a poor reading going uphill. It works fine getting everyday heart rate and it also works fine on other exercises. I've done spinning and circuit training at a gym and it had no problem capturing heart rates above 150 on either of those.

[MarreFitbit]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community @Berengal! I'd like to start saying that your tracker can have difficulty finding a signal, typically due to the tracker's fit. For example, wearing your band tightly may constrict blood flow in your wrist and affect the signal. We recommend experimenting with how high you place the tracker on your wrist. When you're not exercising, wearing the tracker just above the wrist bone--as you would a watch--typically works fine. However, moving the tracker up a couple inches can be helpful during high-intensity exercises or exercises that cause you to bend your wrist frequently. If you haven't already done so, please review our recommendations for wear and other tips shared by @SantiFitbit. 

If you're wearing the tracker correctly and the heart rate setting isn't turned off, try changing the setting (either Auto to On or On to Auto) and then syncing your tracker. The change won't take affect until you sync. If heart rate still doesn't appear after the sync, try restarting your tracker and wait at least 60 seconds before checking heart rate again.

Give this a go and let me know how it goes! 

[HiTekDrifter]

I am actually getting the same kind of behavior, except that for me, walking/hiking uphill seems to register correctly (90-105 BPM on a 10% average grade), while walking back down the same path makes the tracker go through cycles of an HR going from ~55-70 BPM (which is correct, i.e. matches me manually taking my pulse, and I am definitely not sweating like I do going uphill in my 'Fat burn" zone), then over the course of a couple of minutes, the reported HR steadily rises up to over 140 ("Peak" zone), which is absolutely wrong, then it shows "-- --" for awhile (probably seconds, but seems like minutes when you are staring at it wondering what the heck is going on), then restarts the cycle down in the 70s, and goes through the same escalating HR cycle.   This behavior repeats for me every time I do the hike, and even does so in the morning when I first walk downstairs (with HR actually in the 50s or high 40s).   I have tried several levels of tightness, and on both wrists, but the same behavior happens.   By now, I just take the Ionic off my wrist when I start downhill, lest I get a report of a few hundred extra calories burned.   So it's a Real Problem, IMO.  Do you have any other good ideas for settings that can be altered to fix this?  Thanks in advance!

P.S.  My Ionic does correctly register Peak HR when I am running or swimming hard, about 80% of the time, the other times the HR shows dashes or a bad rate.   But it is walking downhill the is the most consistent trigger for a bad heart rate.   And yes, I have discounted heart arrhythmia, which I have had in the past, but don't have these days.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[HiTekDrifter]

P.S.  My Ionic does correctly register Peak HR when I am running or swimming hard, about 80% of the time, the other times the HR shows dashes or a bad rate.   But it is walking downhill the is the most consistent trigger for a bad heart rate.   And yes, I have discounted heart arrhythmia, which I have had in the past, but don't have these days.

[rubikus]

I have the same or at least a very similar problem with my Fitbit Ionic. When using the "hiking" mode outside, the heart frequence drops after some time to a too low value, usually around 15-20 minutes. Doesn't matter if hiking up or down, even if I don't sweat much. When I pause the exercise on the watch a few seconds and then continue, it will catch the frequency again for a few minutes and then drops again. Changing wrists left/right, watch loose/tight doesn't do any difference. Interesting thing: When I'm using the watch in the gym and select training as exercise, it works fine. I can sweat a lot, especially on the threadmill and wear the watch where I want, loose or tight, it will always work. Is there anything done different in the various trainig types in the SW detection? To me it looks like it could be a software problem.

[EdsonFitbit]

@HiTekDrifter @rubikus Thanks for visiting the Fitbit Community.

There is some factors that can affect the heart rate readings. Please make sure you are following our recommendations to wear your Fitbit Ionic on this article. Additionally, if you haven't done it already, please perform a restart by following these steps.

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes.

[HiTekDrifter]

I tried all that stuff months ago before bringing it up on the forum, and the problem is not that. Or perhaps the watch wristbands just were not cut out for my forearm physique.   Maintaining the watch position at 2 finger widths above the wrist bone is difficult on my forearm, which tapers substantially at that point, need, but even when position is maintained, the wild inaccuracy of the heart rate during actual physical activity continues unabated.

[rubikus]

Hello @EdsonFitbit I read all the articles and tried a lot. Changing positions, other arm, even wearing it reversed. I even shaved my arm! Also tried the resets as suggested multiple times, also with switching off/on heart rate detection. Did a test with the "threadmill" program again today. I walked steadily at 15% inclination 5km/h. After 25 minutes heartrate drops from 145bpm to about 100bpm. Interesting thing: When I stop an activity in a condition of wrong heart rate and start the activity "training", it will immediately jump back to the real, high values. And that is in every arm position. Is there anything done different in the heart rate detection in the different activity modes? Seems to me that the "training" is more stable.

[rubikus]

Screenshot of the test done today

[EdsonFitbit]

Thanks for your responses. This information has been passed through, but may not be able to provide a fix in the immediate future. Our team will monitor the situation, and we will keep our team informed of the impact to you and other customers. I understand that this isn't the resolution you're hoping for, but rest assured we're always working to improve our products.

I appreciate your patience and look forward to getting you back on track.

[rubikus]

Hello @EdsonFitbit, thanks for the reply. If they really analyze it I'm okay with waiting longer, but there needs to be a solution at some time so I can keep the Ionic and stay with FitBit. If there is any measurement data or information on my device that would be useful for the developers just let me know.

[EdsonFitbit]

@rubikus Thanks for your kindness.

If our team is in need of any information we will let you know, we appreciate your willing to help us resolving this situation as soon as possible.

Keep on stepping.

[rubikus]

Yesterday I updated the firmware from 27.32.10.20 to 27.32.12.19.

Today I went to the gym for a test.

First, I started with the activity "threadmill". As you can see in the attachment threadmill, already after 11:35 the heart rate drops from 145 to 104bpm.

I keep on walking at the same speed and inclination and start the activity "training". In the attachment training you can see that the heartrate continuously stays between 140 and 160bpm, which is a realistic value.

To me it looks like there really seems to be a difference in the various activities.

ThreadmillTraining

[kamac413]

Hello Rubikus,

I too have the same problem as you and the others. From what you've stated perhaps doing my hikes and treadmill activities would give me better results using the "training" option. I went to add training to my list of options and there is only circuit training. Is that the option you use?

[rubikus]

For me it is just called training but I‘m using the German version.

But I attached a picture so you can probably see from that if it is the right one.

[kamac413]

Thanks for your fast reply. I don't have a picture that looks like that or says simply "training" so I'm assuming they mean weight training, which is an option I have. 🙂

[C-bobs]

Has anyone here had any progress on this issue? I have this problem on my Charge 4, as well as my wife’s Inspire 2. Our heart rate works for biking, running, and general workouts - but when hiking with moderate to heavy intensity the heart rate just doesn’t work. Never gets above 120-125 when my actual hr is 150-160. Tried all the recommended articles - nothin! Would love some help or updates from the Fitbit side as this seems like a known issue.

[apegushin]

I'm having the same problem on my charge 4. During a walk, on a level surface HR stays around 90-110 (depending on pace), but then, when I start going uphill HR displays 105, when it should be around 125-140 (again, depending on elevation gain and pace), definitely not 105. A friend of mine has the same issue too. Makes me think there's some bug in software, where it tries to correct some stat during an uphill walk and over-corrects?

[rubikus]

I gave up after 2 years now and went to a different brand.

Support was only full of auto-replies and it seems they don’t even bother to really read the messages.

On the IFA in Berlin 2019 I also talked to a representative of Fitbit and asked if the puls measurement was improved on the new devices and mentioned I’m not the only one having problems, the reply was that they’re not aware of problems and it works really good. Sounded like he thought I’m too stupid to use it correctly. I wonder if they ever use their own devices outside of the gym and can at least admit that optical measurement has its limitations.

[clarys]

I had the same problem yesterday - walking up a pretty steep hill/escarpment in the Lake District for at least a quarter of a mile, Charge 4 HR was 98, kind of freaked me out as I thought there was something wrong with my heart! At some point when I reached the top of the climb it suddenly changed to 131. It definitely sounds like a Fitbit anomaly that needs sorting out.