Wrong resting heart rate

[Anonymous__]

I have had a Fitbit for a while now. Switched from charge HR to Charge 2. I realised something...my heart rate while asleep gets in the 50s and below 50 (46 bpm) and my resting heart rate doesn't budge from 60 bpm. It's kind of frustrating because people have a heart rate in the 50s and their resting heart rate is in the 50s and mines in the 50s and even 40s but my RHR doesn't move. It impacts on what no VO2 max is and anything that requires a RHR. Someone tell me what is going on? I could be completely lazy with my Heart rate staying in the 50s and it still doesn't count it as the average. Either way, lazy or exercising, it hates going below 60. Please help!

[KristinJsass]

All of a sudden, my fitbit is not recording correct rate when i wake up it is between 59 to 62 every morning then refuses to record that and auto jumping to the number 64 as a set point.  It is jumping to that number regardless when for past 2 months i consistently have been 59 to 62 and i still show that on the tracker but then the app jumps to 64.  The device for the price is faulty.  

[Chrissims]

Ok my thoughts. I'm fed up with Fitbit "look at our tips and help page"

My resting hr goes up every day that I do more exercise. I train minimum 5 out of 7. Weights  cardio, martial arts. My vo2 level drops when I do more exercise

 What i mean is. If I just do weights for 4 weeks my rhr lowers and v02 gets better.

If I add cardio or do MA at high intense levels my rhr gets higher and v02 lowers. Now if Fitbit average your hr through the day to get the it will be higher on days where I do more exercise because I am keeping my hr between 140_175 for periods of 2=3 hours with small breaks. So this spike compared to 40 mins at 150bpm on weight lifting only will mess with the average. As the hr is higher for longer periods the average has to be higher. If I am wrong then ease explain on what numbers from the daily hr are the averages taken. And what method is used mean, median or mode. Because all will give inaccurate results if exercise duration is long and hr is kept high during this period. 

[Rich_Laue]

@Chrissims have you read @HeydyF's post above, for an explanation. 

[Pateavenue]

I have a similar quirky problem.  I’ve dropped 50 lbs in about 9 months and exercise regularly.  My resting heart rate used to be in the 70s now it’s in the 50’s.  That’s consistent with improved health.  What irks me is that routinely ill wake up in the night and tap the Fitbit.  Inevitably it shows in the low 40’s that is consistent with very healthy hearts.  BUT, the Fitbit pulse chart on the app never drops below 50.  

Im not quibbling with healthy results but most of are motivated by numbers in some shape or form.  It aggravates me to no end to see these lower numbers not reflected.  All along those months the sleeping heart rate showed and eventually became the resting heart rate  while awake.  Now it just stopped reflecting the changes.  

Any ideas or is it just a software limit. 

[Colinm39]

@PateavenueCongratulations on your improved health baselines... Fitbit's graphing doesn't give you all of the data because it's only showing you a plot point every 5 minutes so I use this free 3rd party link.

If you use this link select

• Intraday
• seconds
• download as csv

You will get at least 10 plots/minute.. I can pick up my low HR at night and last night it showed 43 bpm..  My HR gets down to 41 on a few nights while asleep.

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@Pateavenue wrote:

I have a similar quirky problem.  I’ve dropped 50 lbs in about 9 months and exercise regularly.  My resting heart rate used to be in the 70s now it’s in the 50’s.  That’s consistent with improved health.  What irks me is that routinely ill wake up in the night and tap the Fitbit.  Inevitably it shows in the low 40’s that is consistent with very healthy hearts.  BUT, the Fitbit pulse chart on the app never drops below 50.  

Im not quibbling with healthy results but most of are motivated by numbers in some shape or form.  It aggravates me to no end to see these lower numbers not reflected.  All along those months the sleeping heart rate showed and eventually became the resting heart rate  while awake.  Now it just stopped reflecting the changes.  

Any ideas or is it just a software limit. 

---

[Rich_Laue]

Hello @Pateavenue your resting heart rate is calculated when resting dieting sleep and when awake. See this doc. 

[Colinm39]

@Pateavenue   More on the link I sent you... selecting Intraday Seconds

When I use the exercise Workout it records in Fitbit at about 30 HR points/minute or every 2 seconds..

The normal Fitbit recording is every 9 seconds, but still picks up the low HR while asleep.

[Pateavenue]

Thank you.  That makes sense.  So presumably if I wanted to see those numbers I would experiment by only wearing it to sleep.  In doing so, the device would have no other data or frame of reference to keep the numbers high.

[Rich_Laue]

But then your only seeing the heart rate when asleep. 

The more important resting rate is how fast a person recovers after sitting down during the day. 

[Pateavenue]

That’s undoubtedly true but it would only be sporadic 

[Colinm39]

@Pateavenue  I wear my Ionic 24/7 so that I can get an accurate RHR. I have found it's a great tool for preempting illness, too many blankets when in winter etc.. As I'm typing this my HR is 59 and my winter RHR is 57.. the same as 12 months ago.. It will then get down to 52 through Summer.

I also have a missing heat beat, and that's all tested and cleared by the cardiologists. I then became interested in how accurate were the Fitbits over the series of pulse Fitbits.  When I was tested, the cardiologist asked me if I noticed the "catchup beats" immediately after the lost beat.

By using the link I was able to detect the episodes of the missing heart beat and that's when I also found the low HR's. I was cleared for bradycardia (low HR) and one of my DNA tests showed that I was built for stamina. not speed...

[Pateavenue]

I’m with you 100%.  I have been asleep numerous times and when waking at night, noticed my HR at 46-47.  I even took a light nap one afternoon, woke and tapped it and saw 46bpm. Despite this red hand evidence, it has never once dipped below 50 on the readout,  

I exercise like you and know the heart is healthy.  I find it irritating that that it just won’t show the numbers that are there.  I’ve yet to see anyone satisfactorily answer that basic question which boils down to: technology supposed to measure heart rate but won’t reflect all heart rates below 50.  Im with you and would also like a clear unequivocal answer will it or won’t it do that.

[Rich_Laue]

Are we still discussing the resting heart rate , or has this thread been hijacked? 

As you know, the testing heart rate is about testing during the day and does not take the sleep heart rate into calculations. 

[Pateavenue]

No the account has not been hijacked as far as I am aware. I can’t seem to get back to my reply on the forum but it emails me with reply. Sorry if it looks suspicious.

I was unaware that the sleeping heart rate was not taken into calculations. My assumption was that the Fitbit arm band, by showing me the heart rate anytime I wore it, was also being recorded and displayed on the phone app.

Your statement here leaves me perplexed again as others report the software showing up at all times. What you’re telling me is that the software in the app cuts off at 50bpm regardless. For I have been awake a number of times and the Fitbit reads in the 40s but doesn’t reflect it the software.

I did read a discussion on pace makers and possibly that Fitbit doesn’t measure certain types of heart rates. I certainly understand the unique medical situations since it’s not meant to be an EKG or EEG

Given the written experiences of others who do get the lower hear rates recorded, I’m beginning to think that the Fitbit data cuts off its recording at 50 bpm regardless because it’s part of a business model. What I mean by this is that it appears that the algorithm automatically assumes anything below 50bpm is only in a sleep state and that if a person wants readings that show anything below that HR then it’s an extra service with its own cost for that data.

The assumption of sleep factor and automatic cut off is what I’ve not seen listed by people nor posted by Fitbit but at this point it’s the only thing that makes sense. I just wish they would say it rather than leave people confused and frustrated. In short, ‘if you’re below 50bpm we think you’re sleeping and therefore you font get the data unless you pay extra.’ I have no problem with that, but as I say, I wish they would say it.





Sent from my iPhone

[jab1949]

This affects me too. I think they use a moving average of previous heart rates and make conservative estimates. I also believe it is an update to their model. Previously this worked fine for me, it was consistently around 52. Then after an update it gets stuck around 60.

I think they are now highly sensitive to spikes in heart rate (i.e., surprised by your al clock in AM? Can cause a big spike in heart rate that breaks their new model). On days I don’t use an alarm clock it will drop to 57, but all other days it’s stuck at 59-60.

This thing they say about “averaging times both awake and asleep” is nonsense. When awake and relaxed my heart rate stays around 50-55, while asleep it’s 46-52. I would expect the resting heart rate to be around 53ish. Instead it is stuck around 59-60. 

They should go back to their old model. This is actually discouraging since it is no longer a metric you can try to improve. I would just give up on it if I were you and stick with body weight and step counts.

[Colinm39]

@jab1949I have noticed the same thing.... My RHR and Sleeping HR are similar to yours but yesterday with just a purely domestic day, no planned walks..  I woke up at RHR of 52, then a couple of hours later it moved to 54 and finally in the evening 55..

Today it has been sitting on 55 with a more active day, mainly walking..

[jab1949]

Fascinating. The mystery of the Fitbit RHR algorithm is ever more elusive.

[Colinm39]

@jab1949  When you go though the Fitbit Help... They always stress wearing your Fitbit while asleep and correctly.  But this was the first time I noticed the 3 changes over 10 hours..

ButI expect odd variations because the weather here has been.. Sleep on top of the blankets one night , next night have a single blanket.. .

In Melbourne we can have 3 seasons in a day... No snow.. Up in Queensland and NSW we have had massive bushfires and yesterday 6" of rain in Queensland.. and flooding...

So this thermal change really affects you RHR..

[Rich_Laue]

the algorithm is also proprietary @jab1949. I really do not expect Fitbit to publish this for their competition to analyze 

[jab1949]

Of course they wouldn’t but it’s always a fun academic exercise to speculate. For me, this RHR algo just isn’t working anymore. I don’t think it’s realistic to assume it works for everyone anyway. I’ve worked on enough consumer tech products to know that. But at least for me, it’s just not making sense to use anymore and that impacts my decision to continue using their products.