What is normal Resting Heart rate Fluctuation?

[RRKPL]

Over the course of a week my resting heart rate will vary from 68 to 65 and back usually in 1BPM steps over a couple of days. I was wondering what is concidered a normal range spread for resting HR?

Thanks,

Richad

[BaltazarFitbit]

Hi @RRKPL,  welcome to the community! It depends but normal resting HR ranges from 60 to 100 beats a minute for adults

A lower heart rate while resting means a more efficient heart and better cardiovascular health. For example, an athlete might have a normal resting heart rate closer to 40 beats a minute.

Hope this helps 😄

[RRKPL]

Thanks for the reply. What I was wondering was how to interpret changes in resting heart rate. If say resting HR is usually around 64 and then goes up to 72 is there any meaning to that?

[BaltazarFitbit]

Hi @RRKPL, well it really depends on a lot of factors. For example, do you exercise on a regular basis? Is your weight under control? I am usually on 70 when awake and doing some activity like cooking. If you have a concern about your heartrate I recommend checking with your doctor. 😄

[tastybrew]

@RRKPLas @BaltazarFitbitbegins to suggest, there are many factors that can affect your RHR. Sleep, weight, fitness level, exercise intensity and frequency, etc., all play a role in your general health and can affect your RHR. Fitbit has a lot of data that could be correlated with RHR to actually give you a better picture of your overall fitness and health but sadly Fitbit doesn't make it easy to do any of that. I started manually doing some of this correlation a while back but I didn't have enough time to keep going and I basically learned what I already knew. If you feel good and healthy, I wouldn't worry too much about what your RHR tells you.

[RRKPL]

Thanks for the reply Tastybrew! Yes, it seems that RHR could be used to corrilate to a number of non-health but lifestyle issues in a helpful way. For example, I tend to let myself get dehydrated (I have to remind myself to drink water when I'm involved in a production project) and this can go on for days. It seems when I let this happen my RHR gets higher over a few days. Other things like having a few or more beers can show up as higher RHR. 

It would be interesting if one could start to pin down this cause - effect relationship to RHR and short term lifestyle choices.

[BaltazarFitbit]

@tastybrew Thank you for the information! 😄 Hope this helps to clarify more about RHR. 

[tastybrew]

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@RRKPL wrote:

It would be interesting if one could start to pin down this cause - effect relationship to RHR and short term lifestyle choices.

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@RRKPL, there are a lot of variables and Fitbit only has some of them. Still, Fitbit doesn't have any automatic or easy way to do any correlation. I began plotting my RHR vs VAM and started to see a lag of about two days for my RHR in relation to how active I was based on Fitbit very active minutes. That told me what I already knew (the 2-day lag was interesting), but it was nice to see it in a graph. Of course if Fitbit automatically did this for me or made it easier to get my data, that would be great.

[BaltazarFitbit]

Hi @tastybrew this would be an amazing addition to our Feature Suggestion board! You should create a new post. 🙂

[tastybrew]

@BaltazarFitbitthat suggestion won't come from me and here's why. I would love to believe that I could write a suggestion of have developers seriously consider it and provide feedback, but based on history in that very forum, I don't have confidence that my effort would result in anything productive. I hate being such a naysayer, but it is what it is.

[Arcaenah]

I found that there's a pretty consistent correlation between my sleep and resting HR. When I sleep less and worse, my lowest BPM during sleep is higher, consequently my wake resting BPM will increase by 1 o 3 BPM. Also if I drink alcohol at night the quality of my sleep will deteriorate and result in a higher wake resting BPM. With two months of consistent usage I've found mine varying from 58 to 68 BPM. Hope this helps!

[BaltazarFitbit]

Thanks for the information @Arcaenah! Great feedback!

[SunsetRunner]

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@RRKPL wrote:

It would be interesting if one could start to pin down this cause - effect relationship to RHR and short term lifestyle choices.

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@RRKPL I analysed myself, removed the suspected culprit and watched my RHR tumble back to what it was before it had shot up (see pic). The week it took to drop is interesting as it suggests a rolling average (it should really have dropped instantly otherwise).

[Michael]

@SunsetRunner I'm curious, are you will to share what your suspected culprit was?

It would be interesting to get the all-day heart rate ourselves and see if we could figure out how Fitbit is calculating the RHR... (I wouldn't think it would be a rolling average.)

[SunsetRunner]

@Michael I was taking meds for a sinus condition however when winter turned into spring it got worse (pollen in the air) and I had to up my dose. Because of that my RHR started to go up way too much. I also felt worse probably because of the strength of the dose so after a few weeks I ditched the meds and use a spray instead. My RHR dropped immediately and I feel lots better now.

Yep it's interesting to try work out. When i eat or drink stuff that has a heart rate raising effect like dark chocolate it is relected in my RHR for that day. Or when i sleep well for a few days in a row i see it drop for that period. I can imagine things like drinking alcohol would cause RHR to spike (i don't actually drink it myself).

[tannermp]

When you get dehydrated or drink too much (which causes dehydration) your blood volume essentially decreases. Over half of your blood is actaully plasma and ~90% of that is water, so when you have less water in your body, you have less plasma which equals a smaller blood volume. Because of this, your heart has to work harder to pump enough blood to the rest of your body for an adequate oxygen supply which results in a higher heart rate. This is why you see an increased HR when you're dehydrated or hungover that returns to normal after rehydrating!

[CKseng]

My RHR is about 59-62, quite constant.
But when i fall sick, it will rise about 8-10 points during that period of time.
Also when i travel to cold climate, the RHR will be higher by 3-5 points.

[Tabby_30]

My normal rhr is 48 bpm, tonight I was laying down to go to bed and my heart started pounding so I checked it, 80 bpm this went on for 3 hours and I was laying down the whole time. finally stopped now my hr is 47 bpm. any clue why this could happen? I felt  like I was dying 

[DebsAl]

Could be anxiety related - feeling anxious and production adrenaline and cortisol will increase heart rate and blood pressure. The fact you were looking at your heart rate spike could have caused 'white coat anxiety ' which would have prolonged your spike as you were worrying about it. 

[Mikeg9699]

This seems to reflect what I am seeing also. Between 59 and 63 bpm for resting heart rate.

I am relieved actually that it is a 'common' thing. Thought that my fitness was getting worse rather than better.