My resting heart rate has been dropping

[RosemaryN]

I got my charge HR on 10 Jan 2016.  For the first few weeks my rhr was 58-60.  It has gradually and steadily been dropping over the last 2 months and today is 43.  I have been exercising x5/week, having done nothing at all before this year, and have dropped 15 pounds.  I'd like to believe this change in my heart rate is a good thing, but am concerned at the scale and speed of the drop.  Has anyone else experienced this?  Could it be the device itself changing the way in which it calculates heart rate? Thanks in anticipation.

[Gtkozik]

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@USAF-Larry wrote:

And, your heart thanks you for taking care of it, @Gtkozik! 

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Thank you Larry. That's very nice to say.

[KittyBrutality]

I'm aware this is an older thread but goolge lead me here. Hoping for some help.

My heart rate was in the mid-high 70s when I first got my fitbit, it evened out to 69bpm for a week or two and this week it's plummeted to 59bpm. I'm not super active.. the last week I've been having pains in my chest which the doctor said was nothing but because I've been having pains I've neglected myself and not really exercised.. so why is my fitbit saying my resting heart rate is so low? My tracker isn't a month old yet. 

[KittyBrutality]

Hi all. I just got thinking about my fitbit, I'm wondering if what's happening is normal.. so I got it December 31st and the resting heart rate was mid to high 70s. It evened out to 68/69bpm when I started exercising (I'm a total couch potato) and this past week I've been having some chest pains which I've been to the doctors about with no answer but due to the on and off pains I've not exercised other than two gentle walks this week. My heart rate has suddenly dropped to the low and mid 50s with today getting to 53. For someone who is relatively unfit is this not a bit weird or am I just worrying over nothing? Could something be up with my tracker? Does anyone else's seem out by maybe a few beats each minute? 

[VenkatK]

I had almost the same problem except for the chest pain in my first month of FitBit. First few days in around 70-72, then dropped by 1 beat every day till it stabilized around just under 60. Once or twice it went below 55. Now it has been within 57-61 constantly since then, about 15 weeks so far. I did not measure my heart rate regularly befor I got the FitBit, so I cannot be sure that my normal RHR was not always around 60. Whenever I went to the gym, I would always meditate a bit before starting, and my pulse was usually 60 before I started on the treadmill.

I think this is glitch in the FitBit device which goes through a learning curve before it can read accurately. Someone from Tech Service please pipe in here.

[KittyBrutality]

I'm sure my chest pain is unrelated but my doctor did advise me to take it easy right now either way because from going from couch potato to wanting to be fit isn't going to be something you can just manage to achieve in a short amount of time. 

But thank you for your reply, someone else I spoke to said maybe it was a learning curve glitch and that makes the most sense. 

[JaneER]

Also reminds me of the old adage "Use it or lose it!" 😁

[RebeccaCM]

How did you end up making out, Kitty?

[DarthFader]

I'm having the same issue.

I got my FitBit 4/16 and my RHR was 68. Since then, I've changed absolutely nothing in terms of exercise, though I did change my diet and reduce the amount that I vape. Since 4/16, I've dropped from 68 to the low 50's. I'm talking...51-52 for RHR.

Everything I read online talks about bradycardia (BPM of less than 60), but it's pretty much the same lazy article copy and pasted over 100 websites.

I've come to two conclusions:

1) my health has improved due to a change in diet/nicotine reduction

2) i'm watching myself die of heart failure

[AD1971]

@JohnRi "a typical person cannot exercise 5x a week" ... I disagree 100%. A typical person (i.e., no medical condition preventing them from being physically active) can absolutely exercise 5 times a week - and even more. Exercise can simply being walking for just 20-30 minutes each day - and one can indeed walk 7 days a week. I do it myself. Plus, weightlifting. Plus, yoga. The latter two are not 5 days a week but the walking sure is. 

[Vylent_Fyre]

Bevin, I apologize for dredging up such an old post. However your symptoms struck a chord as I have been suffering from these symptoms (SVT, extremes. I had an ILR/ICM implanted 12/20/18 and it has caught all my events) the main culprit so far seems to be extremely low ferritin. My ferritin was a 6 in June 2018. After 8 months of horrific symptoms on iron supplements, highest it got was 30. In 3 weeks in dropped to 20. My hemotologist did extensive blood work and determined I needed an iron infusion. I received my first iron infusion on 3/8/19. They checked my blood work 3/26/19 and it jumped top 108! All my symptoms were GONE. I could feel the increase in energy daily, decrease in the fatigue and heart rates racing daily. By around the 10th day there was such a significant change I was being ecstatic. I started jogging again!! Glorious 2 months symptoms free.

Unfortunately my symptoms returned beginning of June. It is gradual but I recognized them quickly. Had an SVT event on 6/19/19. My Implantable Loop Recorder (some docs say implantable cardiac monitor) or ILR/ICM showed my hr was 67 then jumping to 137. I am on 37.5mg of metoprolol. Before the beta blockers and before the iron infusion my hr would jump to 170s! It waa horrifying. 

We are still trying you determine the cause of why my iron/ferritin dropped to 40 in less than 3 months. There's a cause to it and we aren't certain it is just uncontrolled Crohns disease at this time. 

My point is... If you have not gotten your blood work checked out, please request a hemotologist to run a full iron panel. Just checking your HGB (hemoglobin) is not enough. My HGB was within range, low end but still in range and no one looked into it further. It took a full panel looking at iron, TIBC, ferritin, etc to determine I was IDA: Iron deficient anemia. It is no joke... 

Also we found all my vitamins and minerals were low or too low. Taking a magnesium supplement along with multivitamin which has 18mg of iron is helping in some areas but not all. 

Please get a full iron panel blood work up and also have your regular doc or GI doc, if you have one, to check all your vitamins and minerals. Being low on any B vitamins, vitamin C, D, magnesium, etc can cause your heart to be working overtime. ❤

[Vylent_Fyre]

I've tried showing multiple doctors my fitbit HR data and none of them will take it seriously... I can see a decline since some of my issues have been corrected even if it is a temporary band aid, and I can see an incline now that they're returning, but no one takes my hr data seriously. They only look at my Implantable Loop Recorder / Implantable Cardiac Monitor data.

[VenkatK]

Hello Vylent:

Thank you very much for your response. You have gone to a great deal of
trouble to share your experience to help me. That is very kind of you.

On my next doctor's visit, I will certainly have a discussion about this.
My RHR is not dropping drastically any more. It was an isolated occurrence
a few months ago. It seems much more stable now, but it would be good to
know if there is anything else I should be watching for.

Thanks once again.

Best regards,

[Ivyali]

Hi there - got to this post a few years late! Similar story with heart rate dropping with increased fitness. Mine now dipping into 40s and weight at 230lbs from a 245 start after Christmas 2018. 

Can I ask how you’ve done now a couple of years on? 

[Ivyali]

Hi there - got to this post a few years late! Similar story with heart rate dropping with increased fitness. Mine now dipping into 40s and weight at 230lbs from a 245 start after Christmas 2018. 

Can I ask how you’ve done now a couple of years on? 

[mikeshaww]

yes!  mine  15 years ago while in hospital was going down to 35 or so and it kept setting alarms off ---family was upset but nurse said  do not worry because  i was very fit  and loved running  ---past several years heart attack   back surgery and shoulder surgery   i listened to docs and wife  and heart became weaker and weaker   had enough and started walking  a few months back now i got a fit bit  one month ago  ---resting heart rating was 62-64   when i tried to run it would shoot to 170 180---- today my heart rate is 50---and when i run  it goes to 135   140------  i am a happy guy  hope it shows when i get another stress test!

[mikeshaww]

doctors better take mine serious!

[Vylent_Fyre]

Please let me know what your outcome was! I really hope the doctors look at your fitbit data and took it seriously.

I just had a horrible episode yesterday, hr jumped from 70s to 150s out of nowhere and wasn't letting up an hour or so later. It just kept pounding so very hard, it really scared me and I called 911. During the 10 minute phone call towards the end my heart reset itself, it did an extreme hard pound, like it skipped a beat, and then it started slowing down. I tried to cancel the 911 on the phone but they insisted on checking me out. They showed up 10 more minutes later. Hr was down to 120s and BP dropped to 115/88, then another 10 minutes Hr was 72-78 and BP was 107/62. They couldn't explain it but suggested I get my adrenal adenoma checked out again, but my pcp says since it shrunk 2cm it wasn't warranted any more follow ups. The 911 responders did several ekg tapes because it kept showing strange readings but last one was normal. I'm hoping to find out tomorrow if I recorded the events on the implantable loop recorder enough and in time and they can tell me what they see. I'm fairly certain it stayed in sinus rhythm just extreme tachycardia, and I'm on a beta blocker so it shouldn't have happened. I feel like I have a ticking bomb in my body these days. 

[AD1971]

@Vylent_Fyre same exact thing happened to my friend. It was anxiety. Panic attacks are awful to say the least. Hope you feel better!

[VenkatK]

Hello Vylent

I am sorry to hear about your incident. It must have been scary.

Unfortunately, I have no medical knowledge to help you figure out the
answer. Whatever was happening to me was for only a brief period, maybe a
few days. I have never figured out why it did. Shortly after I posted about
it, everything was back to normal, and I have stopped trying to figure it
out. My Fitbit also died soon after, and I have not been wearing one for a
few months now.

I wish you good luck.

Venkat


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[Vylent_Fyre]

I've wondered if it wss anxiety, and if it is, it has to be hormone related due to tumor creating excess hormones because it literally happens when I'm calm and otherwise doing fairly well. 

I hope your friend is doing better! I wouldn't wish going through this on anyone...