Heartrate monitor useless for exercise

[username_in_use]

My wife purchased me a versa less than 6 months ago. I started a new job and did quite a bit of walking so thought it would be interesting to start keeping up with my stats. It does great on a normal day when I'm just walking around the mill and going up stairs. Heart rate is about right when comparing to my pulse and the steps seem about right. Recently I have found out that I am really sick and the treatments that I will be receiving are going to be really rough but exercise is supposed to help with controlling the side effects of the medication.

Since I have this handy watch that will track all of my exercise and a handy app that tracks almost everything else I will be all set. I can do what I need to do and track it well for the doctors to see. Apparently I was all mistaken with the exercise part. My heart rate is way to low for the exercise I am doing. We have a Bowflex treadmill with a l Polar chest strap and the hand grips that both monitor heart rate. Two different devices and they are always within about 5 BMP. My heartrate of either of those can get in the 150's and my watch still says about 115. Every once in a while it will make it up to 119.

Is this normal for this watch? I have tried in in 4 positions on both arms and there is no change in the results. Good watch for tracking steps at work with your buddies but no so much for actual fitness. Makes me wonder what the Fit in Fitbit actually means.

[NellyG]

Everyone is different as far as Heart Rate monitoring goes. This is at least in part due to the blood vessel distribution which varies a lot in people. I found with my Alta HR I had the same problem as you are having - it didnt handle heavy exercise well as far as getting a good HR reading. My Versa though is brilliant at it. I think you just have to get used to the trackers limitations on you. A chest strap should always be a much more accurate HR monitor as it is monitoring the heart, rather than what the blood is doing in your wrist.

[Marrrmaduke]

@username_in_use,

Adding to what @NellyG has said, you can try rebooting heart rate sensor by going to the Settings app on your Versa, scrolling down to Heart Rate, and toggling OFF/ON with a reboot of the tracker in-between (press and hold the left and bottom right buttons until Fitbit logo flashes). Another thing to remember, beside the tracker placement, is how tight the band is. I found out that I needed to tighten it up a notch before my exercise. It really depends on how your body behaves. Perhaps your arms swell a little? Then you might have to loosen it a bit. I encourage you to experiment as Versa seems to work well as proven by other users using Polar chest strap side by side. If you still cannot make it work, you might have to restore tracker to factory defaults (perform a factory reset). This will wipe your Versa, so please sync first. You will also need to delete your tracker from the Fitbit account (in the Fitbit mobile app) and your Paired Devices list in your phone Bluetooth settings. You can perform factory reset by going to Settings on your Versa, scrolling down to About and tapping Factory Reset. Once Versa resets to factory defaults, you will need to set it up again by adding it as a new device in the Fitbit mobile app. Good luck!

[username_in_use]

I did a full reset this morning. Still no change in how it operates. Made it up to about 110 and stayed there. At that point my pulse was higher than that due to frustration with the watch. I've tried 4 different orientations on each arm. Each location loose and tight. 
I  understand the chest strap will be more accurate. No arguments there. But this could be dangerous for people who push themselves based on the heart rate sensor being remotely accurate. I would have assumed mine to be accurate based on normal use. 
So what watch would work for me? I'm an average Caucasian male. 6' 3" about 195. Normal to light hair on my arms. Average to light tan. No tattoos on my wrists. Not a heavy sweater. I guess you have to spend 300 on a watch before these questions need asking. 
I guess we will see if Fitbit is really concerned about customer service and satisfaction or just profits. 


Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[username_in_use]

I just spent a few minutes on a chat with Fitbit. I explained my issues and the explanation I was given was that since the Fitbit uses a different technology and different algorithm to calculate the results will be different. The margin of error must be huge because he offered no other explainatin for the 40 BPM difference in my readings.

I just went out and tried my wife's Garmin. It was with 5 BPM of the chest strap and tracked with it. Didn't matter where I put it on my wrist. 

[Marrrmaduke]

@username_in_use This is not a normal reading and not within any margin of error. I would escalate if I were you and ask for a replacement device.