High heart rate as side effect of medication

[Endomorphius]

Hi Fitbitters,

A couple of weeks ago my psych diagnosed me with ADHD. He gave me Dexamphetamine. One of the side effects is a higher heart rate. How can I compensate the amount of calories due the "wrong" heart rate. Ooh my heart rate is in chillmode (watching Netflix) is around the 105bpm. 

[Dominique]

First of all, have you established Fitbit reports a significantly higher amount of calories burned for the same activity now that you’re on your new meds? Secondly, are you using Fitbit as a weight management tool? If so, how and with what goal in mind? 

[Endomorphius]

First of all, have you established Fitbit reports a significantly higher
amount of calories burned for the same activity now that you’re on your new
meds?

Yes I definitely do. From around 3800kcal a day to 4700+ kcal.

Secondly, are you using Fitbit as a weight management tool? If so, how and
with what goal in mind?

I use my Fitbit as a WM tool and as a activity tracker. I noticed in the
first week with no exercise I "burned" 800kcal more for that day. And when
I start moving my heart rate shoots up to 120bpm for just walking

[Bill_k]

Jeeze,everyone will be wanting to get some of that now.

[bikerhiker]

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@Endomorphius wrote:

Hi Fitbitters,

A couple of weeks ago my psych diagnosed me with ADHD. He gave me Dexamphetamine. One of the side effects is a higher heart rate. How can I compensate the amount of calories due the "wrong" heart rate. Ooh my heart rate is in chillmode (watching Netflix) is around the 105bpm. 

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You can compensate your heart rate by entering your personal HR zone in the dashboard under Personal Info and select edit heart rate zone.  Choose custom and enter your minimum resting heart and then enter your maximum heart rate.  Once you did that, all your calories expenditure will be compensated based on these values.  Hope this helps.

[bikerhiker]

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@Endomorphius wrote:

Hi Fitbitters,

A couple of weeks ago my psych diagnosed me with ADHD. He gave me Dexamphetamine. One of the side effects is a higher heart rate. How can I compensate the amount of calories due the "wrong" heart rate. Ooh my heart rate is in chillmode (watching Netflix) is around the 105bpm. 

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Well, that medication is an amphetamine which is sometimes used as a drug for sports enhancement.  So your heart rate in chill mode is enhanced so to speak.  🙂

Please keep in mind that when you take medication, the sole purpose of medication is not to cure the symptoms, but to provide a therapeutic effect by changing the bodily functions to provide this effect at a cost of some side effects and change in body metabolic rate since your HR can run a bit higher.  Use the fitbit app and the HR monitor to monitor especially your sleep pattern.  Do you get enough sleep and or deep sleep.  That's more important in managing weight in the case of ADHD plus some mild cardio exercises not exceeding max HR since your low HR is already pretty high!!  Focus on good diet, improving your living conditions and achieving better sleep would be a better approach to prudent weight loss.

Hope this helps. 

[WavyDavey]

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@Endomorphius wrote:

Hi Fitbitters,

A couple of weeks ago my psych diagnosed me with ADHD. He gave me Dexamphetamine. One of the side effects is a higher heart rate. How can I compensate the amount of calories due the "wrong" heart rate. Ooh my heart rate is in chillmode (watching Netflix) is around the 105bpm. 

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But it's not wrong. Your calories burned are based somewhat on heart rate exertion. If your heart is beating faster, you should be burning more calories. If you look at how many hours per day you are getting fat burn zone, I bet it's pretty high. So relax, you're getting fat burn zone in even watching TV. People who are just starting the fitness journey experience the same thing--hours spent in the fat burn and even cardio zone, just due to a higher resting heart rate. What is Fitbit reporting as your resting heart rate?