New Versa 2 has my heart zones at way higher rates compared to my Charge 3.

[Parkersspace]

Hi, I purchased a Versa 2 this week on Prime day.  It has changed my Heart rate zones so it says my fatburning zone starts at 101 HR and my Cardio zone at 122.  I am 55 so the Charge 3 has always started it at 82 or 50% of Max HR and my cardio at 115 or 70% of Max HR at 55.  Here's screen prints showing the difference.  I'm wearing both trackers on different accounts to compare. Does anyone know why it would say the fat burning mode is so much higher on the Versa 2?  The screen shots below are my Versa, then my Charge 3 showing the Heart Rate Zones.  If you use the standard age formula the Charge 3 would be correct with my minutes in fatburning zone.  I am extremely active at work, i work on the Inbound line at an amazon warehouse taking up to 60 pound boxes off the line, then breaking them down quickly to 25 pounds and putting them in totes and must maintain at least 1 per minute rate or 60 minimum an hour.  Most stats are pretty similar, surprisingly.  My steps on the charge 3 are showing too high but that is because I forgot to change it to say dominant wrist, it thinks it's on my non dominant wrist but when i got the versa I moved it to my right arm.  The sleep stats are super close, the heart rate is close enough, just the heart rate zones are so much higher on the Versa 2.  I wondered why?  I was going to edit them to match but I was wondering why they would be that high.

Versa 2 Screen shot with my heart rate zones showing

Charge 3 zones showing.

[SteveH]

I think this is due to a change from active minutes to active zone minutes that was introduced with the Charge 4 and has since rolled out to the Versa 2. This change included a different way of calculating heart rate zones. The old way was based just on our age but the new way also takes into account our resting heart rate to tailor them to our fitness levels. What many of us have found is that this change raises the threshold at which we reach the zones.

There's more on this at https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1565.htm

[Parkersspace2]

Well thank you for the response Steve.  I'm not sure I totally agree that those minutes were not active though so I think the old way was more accurate for me.  On a day at home watching TV with the Charge 3 I did not get active minutes as I should not but when I am at work and at the end of the day it shows my 3000 calories burned that day and no active minutes does not make sense lol.  So their new algorithm seems way off for me.  I'll set my own zones according to the standard age ratios I guess.  I do have a very low resting Heart rate due to my fitness level and good genetics but again, not sure that it affects those to heart rate zones to those levels.  My charge 3 has been extremely accurate for calorie burn and sleep and I thought the zones were pretty good.  The versa 2 does seem to be giving the same details accept these zones. I would, at 55 on an inactive day not burn up 3000 plus calories so common sense tells me I was active that day.

[Parkersspace]

Well I asked somewhere but I can't find my post.  I need to know how to put in a custom zone that will match what I believe should be my proper heart rate for fat burning to Cardio.  I do have a metabolic condition that will preclude me working out in the zones they want.  I don't mind the cardio being higher but I know I am in fat burning mode by my breathing and exertion level 90 not 100 like it says.  I do see it lowered by 1 each today, shows fatburning starts at 100 and cardio at 121 now, I'll have to do a bike ride with it to see where it puts my peak.  Anyhow.  I tried to set up a custom zone but it wouldn't save anything for me.  Can you possibly explain how to put in the custom zones? 

[SteveH]

I've not used the custom heart rate zone so can't offer any help with that. I assume you've seen the help file at https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1565.htm

Looking at the app it seems that you can only set up one zone. It says:

"If you need to train in or keep an eye on a particular bpm range, you can set its upper and lower limits. This zone will appear next to the other three...throughout the app and on your fitbit. If you set a custom zone, you won't get on-wrist heart zone notifications during exercise"

[Parkersspace2]

Thanks again steve.  I found out how to.  Setting the zones is not working right yet, you have to go to the windows 10 app to set them, it's broken on the mobile app.  So I logged in to the fitbit app on my laptop and set them.  I also found on another forum how to fudge the settings it by turning down my max heart rate.  Hope this helps others ).  But turning down my max heart rate 10 from 165 to 155 did lower the aerobic to my old level of the world wide standards but the fat burning level still stayed higher than my typical fat burning level by about 10 beats, at 96 instead of 82.  I put in a custom zone of the standard world wide fat burning level and i think that will be more accurate for my purposes.  Many people I guess are upset with this change as even the articles on it are typically aiming this formula being used to high end athletes trying to improve training in their sport, not the average person that wants to be active through the week and get there 150 minutes of moderate exercise.  I guess in the fitbit quoted article as to why the are changing it was even a training Olympian and it talks about how this will up someone's training for a sport.  Most would like a way to opt out of the new heart rate zones and use the standard zones that work for them.  Maybe fitbit will listen.