Stress, heart rate variations and cals burned

[moooni]

Hi fellows fitbitters!
I've a question about resting heart rate.
Something about me: I've changed my eating habits during the summer and hence lost around 8 pounds.
Everything was great, my resting hr was steadily going down etc but then something changed.
Last August I had a bike accident (ouch) and broke my arm and banged up a knee.
As a consequence for a while I had to reduce my activity levels. I was mostly power walking every day before the accident (outside + leslie sansone's vids). After, I just walked every day.

A few weeks ago I also started working as a tecaher, so , even though I was ready to go back to my previous activity levels I often have to work instead.

So, my questions.
1l) my heart rate has steadily crawled up and now it is around 78 bpm. During summer it used to be 64! Could it be due to the stress AND reduced activity? (First weeks are being extremely stressful)

2) my whole heart rate has gone up: during the nights it never gets under 70 (used to be around 55 a few times every night before.) Therefore, despite the lower activity level my burned calories are high anyway (more or less like during the summer, over 2500)
Is this correct? Is it due to the fact that my heart is beating faster? I think I should be burning a lot less cals!

Should I get my heart checked? (I'm a bit anxious and this is not helping!)
Or maybe, as soon as I'll get used to my teaching job AND manage to walk a little more, it'll go down on its own?

Thanks!

[shipo · Accepted solution]

@moooni, a few comments (not necessarily in any order):

• When healing a broken bone (and typical surrounding soft tissue damage), your body must work harder and I'm betting that translates to a higher overall heart rate.  My last broken limb (right leg) was well before the advent of electronic trackers so I don't have a feel for what my heart rate did, but I can tell you the rest of my body, especially on the right side, was in overdrive mode.  Things like the hair on my right arm and leg grew in faster, thicker, and longer than the left side, and my finger and toe nails got like three to four times thicker for the duration of the healing process.
• Reducing physical activity levels and increasing stress will increase your overall heart rate; whether that translates to additional calorie burn is debatable; I can make an argument for both sides of that debate.
• When you start working out again your heart rate will start to go down within a week or two.
• Here is a one-year plot of my RHR; I'm posting it here because last October I was involved in a stressful job change AND I suffered a non-running related injury which reduced and then eliminated my ability to run.  After about four months of no running and lots of doctor and therapist visits, I gradually started running again in February and March of this year; interesting how my RHR tracked what was going on in my life at the time.

[moooni]

Hi @shipo, first of all thanks for your answer.

I didn't know that healing bones could lead to such consequences, but I guess it makes sense if you think about it. And if so, but I'm no expert, such effects could last a few months, since it takes quite a while for a broken bone to go back to the previous "thickness" (or so my doctor said).

I'm trying to get back to walking: I actually already make it to the 10k between my job, housekeeping and short walks in between, but there's no actual power walking. I'll try to add a 60+min walk every day. 

The only thing that leaves me a little baffled is the calorie count. Since I'm still on a diet, I don't know if I should actually follow what my fitbit says (and it's currently saying I'm in my fat burning zone for two-three hours a day even when I'm just working at school) or not.

I guess I should stay lower than the calories my charge HR suggests I should be eating.

I don't think I'm burning that much just by normal, not sport-related activities.

Thanks again!