Sudden increase in resting heart beat

[silesco]

I know this has been asked in similar posts, but I'm still not sure whether I should be concerned or if my Fitbit is just broken:

I have been using Fitbit (Charge 2 & 3) for about 2.5 years now, and for all that time my resting heart beat has always been between 60-65bpm, only showing slight changes that I could often relate to the extensitity of my workout (I run, sometimes 3-4 times a week, sometimes only 1-2 a month). 

For the past month, my resting heart beat has steadily been going up, starting from 63bpm on June 24th to now around 73bpm - in more than 2 years this has never happened before, and it just keeps climbing (today it shows 75bpm even!) and this is happening completely out of nowhere. I have been running a little less (only about 2-3 times a month) but no major life changes in diet, habit, sleeping whatsoever... 

Has anyone ever witnessed this? I wouldn't worry so much if I didn't have all that data from more than 2 years in comparison... why this strong change all of a sudden?

[wtksk8r]

How does your daily HR look to you doing normal activities? Does it look like the normal range?

Assuming the readings are in line some possibilities:

1. For myself, I have noticed that when I catch a cold or a flu my RHR starts going up about a week or two before I start to get any physical symptoms.

2. Do you have any big events planned in the near future. I also tend to see my RHR rise before a big holiday trip. Last month we had grandkids over for a week and my RHR started rising about a week before the event.

3. I have been told that for women pregnancy could be a cause for a rise in RHR.

[silesco]

Thank you for your reply! Overall I would say I don't see a big difference in my daily HR. I am a bit out of shape because I haven't been running as much as I used to, so I get out of breath faster - but this isn't super unusal, as I have had weeks/months before where I didn't work out at all and was in worse shape than I am now. 

I also have nothing major coming up and I'm definitely not pregnant. 😕 

The only thing I could think of is smoking? I started smoking on a somewhat regular basis (on and off) about 6 months ago, not every day, and I've actually been smoking less for the past month than I have in like March/April. But maybe it's still related to that?

[wtksk8r]

Certainly a possibility. Our bodies react to physical as well as emotional changes in our environment. In my case I don't have to have any noticeable changes for the RHR to be affected. I would recommend keeping track of changes in RHR and your personal situation. If it persists or continues to rise without any reasonable cause then it might be worth checking in with a doctor.

[inshapemama]

This happened to me also on about this same date - 7/14/2020.  All of a sudden my HR is reading much higher than usual (even at rest) and it is no longer tracking my sleep stages -- just getting simplified sleep data.  I have tried updating the app, rebooting the Charge 3, restarting the charge 3 (both long and short restart), turning HR off and rebooting everything, then on again.  It's still reading too high. Prior to that I have had this particular Charge 3 for 9 months and no issues which makes me think it is an update of the algorithm problem.  Initially I was a little freaked out thinking maybe I was about to get sick (I work at a hospital and have seen patients with Covid!) or that maybe I was having an arrhythmia or something.  But every time I take my HR manually, it's much lower than on the Charge 3 (ie my HR at rest will be 52 but the Charge 3 is reading 110+).  Frustrating.