Share Your Daily Readiness Score Here!

[Heather-S]

Now that the Daily Readiness Score is rolling out to Premium users, I thought it'd be fun to share what our score is every day and how we feel about it.

My score for today is 24.  The app says my HRV dropped and that a low HRV means by body isn't recovered.  I had a good night of sleep last night and I didn't do much activity outside of my 10K steps.  I'm curious to see how this progresses.

[PhoenixFiresky]

I don't think I'm trusting the DRS. I've been sick for a week, and my Versa 3 says it hasn't read my HRV in two days. So DRS gave me a HRV score of 0 on both days. Then said that was within my personal limits and gave me a 100 on working out. 🙄 I'm pretty sure a HRV of 0 for two days should NOT be considered a good sign for working out. 🤨 

[t.parker]

Now I can admit, I don't understand FItbit's readiness score. It makes no sense to me. I was very curious about this morning readiness and it came up with 78. On Sunday morning it was 73. The comment is always the same "Excellent readiness. Get ready to tackle today's workout! Your body indicates you're ready to perform.". Seems like no matter what's the score I keep getting the same advice. Moreover, it says to do 108+ AZM (without telling with what intensity). Let's put my weekend into context. Saturday and Sunday were my racing days. I attended a 5k race on Saturday and 10k on Sunday. May not look like a lot but race means giving all I have to get the best result. I significantly dropped my performance after 4km and I kept my HR well above my threshold for over 40min. Sense didn't track my HR correctly but since AZM for peak and cardio make no difference so despite erroneous HR I still got AZMx2. I ended up exhausted (and started Sunday morning not in my best shape either after the Saturday race and poor sleep).

The result of morning readiness from EliteHRV isn't surprising and pretty much describes it correctly.

EliteHRV tells what I have mentioned in the last post, that I'm heading towards overtraining (still, I know it sooner than any software). FirstBeat tells me that I'm overreaching with high-aerobic activity should focus now on recovery, which isn't something I don't already know. Yet Fitbit tells me to go on, no recovery advised and tells me to do even more AZM than yesterday. 

Can anyone explain how the DRS should work and what should it be telling me? As for the Premium feature, I'd expect it to tell me something I don't know or at least provide not misleading information (even if obvious). Otherwise, I have EliteHRV which is free and gives me better insight (still, I wouldn't blindly follow it but I know there are people who follow Readiness almost religiously). Am I missing something here?

[Heather-S]

Woke up today with my highest score so far, 83.  I did take it easy this weekend.  When I woke up Saturday, it gave me a low score of 10.  Originally I thought I felt fine and that I'd go to the gym or run on my treadmill at home, but then I felt pretty tired and ended up taking a short nap, which I don't do very often.

Sunday, my score was 60 and I attended a hot vinyasa flow yoga class.  My HR didn't get very high and I only earned 32 AZM yesterday.  I blame not wanting to do more activity on the two cocktails I had at dinner the night before (to celebrate our wedding anniversary).  I was all around sluggish yesterday.

So today I woke up to a lovely score of 83.  I think I slept okay and since I didn't exert much effort this weekend, I plan to get a run on the treadmill in today.  I would like to see consistency from my score, I'm surprised it is kind of all over the place.

 

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, I have 80 DRS this morning coincidently the same as my sleep score. When my DRS rises it seems to do so in sympathy with my sleep score, no more than I would expect. After a lower exercise regime on Saturday, my readiness score rose on Sunday to 84 but has now subsided again. I think there are two things to take away from the DRS -

1. Sleep does have a very noticeable impact on the result.

2. It encourages you to think carefully about some dietary decisions made in the previous 24 hours (maybe I'll finally give up that weekend bottle of wine)

I have not explored the effect of changing my exercise (daily swimming) as that is really baked into my daily routine.

Cheers

[JoanneB75]

I have worn my Fitbit luxe most of the time and a premium member but No readiness score

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi @JoanneB75, you may find this article of interest What’s my daily readiness score in the Fitbit app?  There is a section on setting up and membership of "Premium". I hope this helps.

Cheers

[JoanneB75]

I have tried all that! I am a premium member. For the previous week it kept saying to keep wearing my Fitbit and there was a countdown, now just says no score today, please wear your device

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @JoanneB75, thanks for the info, have you synced your Fitbit app on your phone, are you getting a "sleep score"?

Check your Fitbit app in your phone has all permissions granted and any battery-saving function is disabled for the Fitbit app. This last is because some phones regard the Fitbit app as non-essential and close it down, it needs to run constantly in the background.

FYG I sync my Fitbit app first thing each morning and usually get a score in about 20 minutes after I sync a second time. Why won't my Fitbit device sync?  provides background and advice on syncing. I hope this helps but if you are still stuck please post here again. 

Cheers

[JoanneB75]

Yes all synced, the app is open all the time on my phone and yes I get a sleep score. I will try syncing first thing in a morning and see if that works

[t.parker]

Now, the app says my DRS has been fully tuned whatever it means. Today, it gave me a result of 67. Now, what does that mean? EliteHRV gave me 6 but leaning towards the "sympathetic" side (with the comment "your Sympathetic activity seems to be abnormally elevated. Consider active recovery (...)". The Garmin's BB (something like DRS, uses HRV) "recharged" to 75 (which I can tell trying to get rid of morning headaches) and workout suggestion says also tells me to focus on recovery (due to poor sleep last night and a long 21.1km tempo run). So my understanding is that Fitbit got a similar idea (looking at the score I got). But no, it again tells me to go all out, saying it's an excellent readiness. It just doesn't add up. Is there any scale available for that score? Is the comment always the same? As I said, I would compare it with equivalent solutions. I realize they may use different methodology but as long as they deliver written conclusions and proposed action, there should be some kind of consistency (or easy to see a common denominator).

A few questions:

- What does Fitbit consider as low readiness that pushes you towards recovery or not "Excellent"?

- What activity level isn't "light". I would consider activities like running long distances or intense racing would count rather as high, yet my activity level stays always at low (weekly, I get approximately 500-1000 AZM but I still think, it's a bad idea to use AZM for DRS due to reasons I described previously)

- Why the lower DRS, the more AZM is proposed (this trend is very noticeable)?

This is a Premium feature, it should be described really in detail (see how EliteHRV describes their thing). Otherwise, it's just YAMUS (Yet Another Made Up Score).

[Heather-S]

@JoanneB75 Is your heart rate monitor on and working?  My heart rate monitor on my Charge 5 stopped working mysteriously yesterday morning and I didn't realize it (wasn't watching my Fitbit or the app) until bedtime.  I had to restart my Charge 5 to get the HR to work again and then when I woke up this morning, I had no score because no HR yesterday.

[Heather-S]

@t.parker I've wondered about what is considered light vs. average/moderate vs. intense activity myself.  I don't really know. 

In my personal opinion, the score mostly makes sense for me on the majority of days.  I don't think every single day is accurate.  I've had a few days where it gave me a low score, but I felt great or vice versa.  But I think for most of it, it "feels" right to my body.  Obviously I have zero science to figure this out, but just going by the feel of my body, I'd say the score is right about 80% of the time.

[Heather-S]

Well, I've had a good week so far.  My scores are still a bit all over the place, but I think they make sense.  On Wednesday, I had a score of 74 and did two workouts that day: an intense 3.5 mile run in the morning and then I went to a 60 minute hot yoga class that night.  Of course, I had a readiness score the next day of 11 due to my high level of activity the day before.

Oddly enough, Thursday morning, my Charge 5 HR monitor shut off for some reason around 6:45am.  I did not notice it since it was Thanksgiving and I was busy cooking most of the day.  I got in bed around 9pm Thursday night and noticed the green light from my HR monitor wasn't showing on my wrist.  So I looked and sure enough, the HR monitor was just not working even though I checked the settings and the HR monitor was turned on.  I restarted my Charge 5 and it came back on immediately, however, because I went all day without a HR, I had no readiness score this morning when I woke up.  I decided just to take today as another rest day and I'll get a run in tomorrow morning regardless of what the score says (since I had two rest days in a row).

 

[MarilynBeth2]

The following day, I  had 100 score.  I did light exercise the low day.  I had two days more of a high score then it dropped.  It still recommends moderate activity with a score of 38 on Thursday and score of 48 today.

[JoanneB75]

Yes it’s working. I am just trying something different with sleep, instead of letting the app know when I am asleep and awake I am leaving it so I get a sleep score, where as before I didn’t get a sleep score, so have left it the last couple of nights will leave a few more days see if it eventually get a score

[Heather-S]

@JoanneB75 That's good!  You should always let the device detect your sleep instead of telling the app when you're asleep/awake. 

[SebWotan]

I came to a similar conclusions, even though I am less knowledgeable and did this without comparing other products. 

But I can tell you the message vary, I had a DRS of 55 and it told me to do moderate activity without overdoing it. 

But overall I can not understand what has the most weight: Sleep, Activity or HRV. I had an HRV of 29 (my usual range is 35-55) and it was still considered good, it gave me a DRS of 97. The sleep info are wrong on Android (but right on iOS) and it consider 120 AZM to not be much. So far I treat it as just a score to push you, with no insights of how it is computed and what it actually means.

If you add the EKG and EDA which might be even more useless, the Charge 5 is a real disapointment. 

[MoonstoneWolf]

Personally I think it's flawed.  I sat and did nothing yesterday and the score tells me that I exerted myself.  I don't know how this got past beta testing tbh. 

[MoonstoneWolf]

My normal RHR is 85.  Yet yesterday I walked at a pace that raised HR to 91 and that's peak performance.  I slept well, and it still gives me a low score.  I only rested yesterday because the DRS advised as such and yet today here we are again with an even lower DRS of 10.  I agree with the person above that if we're paying for this premium feature then we should get accurate readings.  I understand the importance of recovery days so the muscles can heal and release post workout water retention but at same time if this isn't accurate then it's a useless feature. 

[alexthecat]

My DRS is 45 today. I'm feeling good and was expecting it to be higher. I'm going to take a run this afternoon, because the weather is nice and that's what I feel like doing. I'll be interested to see how that affects my score tomorrow.