Resting Heart Rate -- Again

[SunsetRunner]

How can one's resting heart rate rise during the day as they are active? That completely violates the concept of "resting."

One begins to doubt the veracity of anything the Fitbit produces.

[shipo]

Not exactly sure what you're asking; can you post a screen shot?

[kittyhuckster]

Your resting heartrate doesn't rise over the day, but your regular rate does. If you're looking at the Charge screen itself, it's just your current HR.

From what I gather, though, the resting heartrate can vary from day to day depending on your sleep patterns. I noticed that it was higher when I have had trouble sleeping and lower when I haven't, for example. In other words, I was not really resting!

You can do a manual resting heartrate by lying still for a while, then trying to take your pulse for 10 seconds. Of course, by virtue of that movement, you are no longer resting, but it'll give a reasonable ballpark figure.

I've found my resting HR is similar with both my Polar FT40 and this Fitbit Charge. So far.

[SunsetRunner]

Asking for Fitbit to do resting heart rate correctly. It's a pain to have to do the work their system should be able to do simply. Pick the consistently low point in heart rate and say that's the resting heart rate. It's not rocket science. But Fitbit seems to believe they know better than medical scientists.

And I do know what the HR values are. However, if you check your resting heart rate at 7am, then at noon, then again at 4pm, you may find Fitbit has changed it. That's utter nonsense.

I'm a pretty technical person and get how this works. Seems that Fitbit doesn't. As I've witnessed their support team unable to understand that I knew what synching was and what was going on. Only my Heart Rate wasn't getting synched. Although it showed on the device and the android device doing the synching. Their cloud was broken.

This company doesn't seem to be technically all together. It's frustrating as all get out.

I'm just posting to keep the pressure up in the only way I can...until the device breaks and I buy a competitive product.

[shipo]

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@JoeSabin wrote:

Asking for Fitbit to do resting heart rate correctly. It's a pain to have to do the work their system should be able to do simply. Pick the consistently low point in heart rate and say that's the resting heart rate. It's not rocket science. But Fitbit seems to believe they know better than medical scientists.

And I do know what the HR values are. However, if you check your resting heart rate at 7am, then at noon, then again at 4pm, you may find Fitbit has changed it. That's utter nonsense.

I'm a pretty technical person and get how this works. Seems that Fitbit doesn't. As I've witnessed their support team unable to understand that I knew what synching was and what was going on. Only my Heart Rate wasn't getting synched. Although it showed on the device and the android device doing the synching. Their cloud was broken.

This company doesn't seem to be technically all together. It's frustrating as all get out.

I'm just posting to keep the pressure up in the only way I can...until the device breaks and I buy a competitive product.

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Hmmm, my RHR as reported by my Fitbit Surge is typically dead on, everyday.  

[SunsetRunner]

Really, you are the first person I've seen say that here. Most have given up on Fitbit ever doing it correctly.

Mine has ALWAYS been wrong by at least 5 BPM. Today it changed 6 times. All during active times. Not sure what they are using as "resting."

[USAF-Larry]

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@JoeSabin wrote:

Really, you are the first person I've seen say that here. Most have given up on Fitbit ever doing it correctly.

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I am not sure what number of FitBit users constitute "Most", but I have not given up on it and I am sure there are millions of other users that have not given up on it.  My RHR on the dashboard does not change during the day, no matter how many times the Charge HR is synced - what I see in the morning as the RHR is the same I see any other time throughout the day. It may change a point or two from day to day, but never very much. If I manually check my RHR the first thing in the morning, right after I wake up, it usually within a few points of what FitBit is reporting. The rest of the day, I am not resting, and I cannot calculate a RHR.

Here is a good article on how to calculate your RHR: Resting Heart Rate

[shipo]

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@JoeSabin wrote:

Really, you are the first person I've seen say that here. Most have given up on Fitbit ever doing it correctly.

Mine has ALWAYS been wrong by at least 5 BPM. Today it changed 6 times. All during active times. Not sure what they are using as "resting."

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My RHR is almost always a point or two either side of 42; back before the weather warmed up a month or so ago I ran a streak of nearly a month of days where my RHR was 40 or 41, and now with the heat I'm typically 43 with an occasional day at 44.  Compared to my sleeping heart rate (typically 2 points either side of 35), and my "sitting at my desk" heart rate, I believe the Fitbit calculation for RHR is dead on accurate.

[SunsetRunner]

I'm sitting here at my desk, the Fitbit so called RHR is between 12 and 9 BPM higher than shows on my Charge HR and Android device. If sitting at my desk isn't one definition of resting heart rate, then I don't know what is. It also jumped 4 from yesterday, while the data today is consistent with yesterday's.

I've looked at the results in raw data, it seems to pick a number that is at about the 15th percentile of the total samples. I'm really active. I rarely sit during the day and often don't wear the Fitbit at night because it's annoying to do so. While I do wear it at night about 3/4 the time. Also, it appears to do a moving average across several days. So if you don't wear the fitbit at night to sleep, it up averages and will ultimately peak and come back down.

So perhaps not most, but a lot of people have complained about the algorithm. It just seems wrong.

OK, enough of this. Since a Fitbit user has come up with an easy to use tool to extract the raw data, I'm able to do my own analysis and don't need the silly Fitbit calculation to see how my fitness level is improving as I exercise.

[rfc1995]

@SunsetRunner what is the tool you mentioned to extract the raw data and how does one do so?  Thanks very much!

[kittyhuckster]

I can't fathom what you are saying, Joe. My RHR doesn't change whether I am sitting, standing, or walking. I have 2 values on the app screen: resting and current. The resting matched the polar, so it is within some sort of reasonable range.

[SunsetRunner]

OH MY!

The Fitbit app registers a RHR #. First of all I'm saying it is total bunk. Let's say it says 78. Fitbit says my resting heart rate is 78. YET, I'm sitting at my computer and my Charge HR says 66 or other values up to 71. THUS, my resting heart rate is somewhere between 66 AND 71 NOT 78.

This has been consistent. I know other people are also seeing this. THAT IS WHAT I'M SAYING! Yes, I'm yelling, because people keep arguing and saying it doesn't make sense. You are RIGHT, it doesn't make sense. For example, this morning Fitbit said my RHR was 77, then it went to 80, just an hour ago it changed to 76. ALL of those are wrong. Statistically it is 70-72 across more than a week now when one looks at the data points.

Therefore the RHR calculation Fitbit does is useless to determine fitness levels as you are attempting to improve your fitness. Here is a graphical representation of the craziness that is Fitbit's RHR calculation. I took my Fitbit off over night, near the first trough and it rose to the peak. This makes no sense as statistically it's remained consistently near 70-72. If one actually analyzed the data.

Anyway, I don't care, I can get raw data now and I'll do my own health calculations. I'm just so frustrated that people are arguing that this is somehow a correct calculation of RHR. And once this breaks, it goes into the recycle heap and I'll by a competitive product.

[shipo]

Have you called Customer Service and gotten a replacement unit; the things you're claiming do not happen to most of the rest of us.

[USAF-Larry]

My Resting Heart Rate on the dashboard never changes throughout the day - whatever it is in the early morning, it is all day.  My current heart rate changes constantly, and may be higher or lower than the RHR.  I have manually checked my RHR first thing in the morning when I wake up, both by counting heartbeats for 10 seconds & multiplying by 6, and by looking at the current heart rate on the Charge HR, and it is always within 2 points of what the Dashboard says my RHR is.

If your RHR is changing throughout the day, there is something wrong with your particular Charge HR, and you need to contact Support to determine what the problem is.

[kittyhuckster]

Joe, every movement, no matter how small, changes your heart rate. So if you are sitting at the computer, as you say, each time you move the mouse, your heart rate will change.

Your resting heart rate is an average of what you do over the sleep period, usually. With the Polar FT40, to get a resting heart rate, one has to remain ABSOLUTELY STILL, with the head even with the body, for at least 5 minutes (feels more like 5 hours!!) while it does its checking. Even then, a cough, a twitch, anything, can change that number.

I have had my RHR at about 62 for the week. Sometimes, while lying on the couch contemplating the next Scrabble word, my heart rate goes down to 58 or 55, and it is there long enough for me to check it on the app on my iPad. As soon as I move, however, it goes up. The time taken for it to register is the time delay from the fitbit to the app.

If you breathe heavily, your HR will go up. If you scratch your head, your HR goes up.

When you are sleeping, you are not completely still, much of the time. Have you checked your sleeping record? How much were you restless? That affects your RHR that the Fitbit measures.

As Larry said, this doesn't happen to the rest of us, so either you are interpreting your RHR incorrectly, or your Fitbit is defective.

[SunsetRunner]

The device is not wrong, the algorithm is. I wake to one RHR, have a different RHR by 8am, then mid-afternoon it rises. My heart rate on the device is correct, the RHR calculation is bogus.

Anyway...I'm done flogging this dead horse.

[shipo]

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@JoeSabin wrote:

The device is not wrong, the algorithm is.

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If the issue is the algorithm and not the device, then why does the algorithm correct for the rest of us?  Are you saying the algorithm Fitbit uses for your account is different than the one they use for everybody else?

[SunsetRunner · Accepted solution]

Others complain of the same issue. Do a search.

I'm done now, sorry for bringing this up.

[USAF-Larry]

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@shipo wrote:

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If the issue is the algorithm and not the device, then why does the algorithm correct for the rest of us?  Are you saying the algorithm Fitbit uses for your account is different than the one they use for everybody else?

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Arriving at the Resting Heart Rate does not really require an algorithm - if you measure your heart rate in the morning when you first wake up, but before getting out of bed, that is your resting heart rate.  It will be that rate for the rest of the day. Your heart rate may be higher or lower throughout the day, but that does not change your resting heart rate.

But, that said, this thread has probably outlived its usefulness...

[AquaBlue222]

And if someone is a "type a personality" or highly reactive to stress…and is exposed to stress and frustration during the day they're resting heart rate calculations will likely increase during the day. The device would record that and that is appropriate.
I do not wear my HR at night, but it seems to calculate the average heart rate accurately and consistently, between 58 and 61, with my lowest rate sometimes going down to 54 at rest.