Fitbit Users

Join

Heart rate question?

Angelhales1990
Angelhales1990 Posts: 13 Member
in Social Groups
I've got a a HR and today it tells me that I've spent 8hrs in the fat burn zone. It's common for it to be like this. Normal?

Replies

  • BarbieAS
    BarbieAS Posts: 1,414 Member
    edited July 2016
    It might be normal, or it might not.

    Fitbit calculates your heart rate zones based on your age - 220 minus your age is your max heart rate, "peak" zone is >85% of the max, "cardio" is 70-84%, and "fat burning" is 50-69%. Anything below 50% is "out of zone."

    Most people are "out of zone" during normal daily activities. If you're not, then there are a few things to consider:
    1. Is your age correct in your account? If your birthday is wrong, then your heart rate zones will be wrong.
    2. Do you just generally have a higher than average heart rate? Some people just naturally run a bit faster or slower than others.
    3. Did you spend 8 hours on your feet today? If you have a job or other typical daily activities where you're moving around a lot, then you might legitimately be in the "fat burning" zone for that long.

    You might just want to keep an eye on your calories if you fall into the second category - if Fitbit thinks you're doing "fat burning" activities it will take that into account and bump up your calorie burn a little bit.

    https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/Heart-rate-FAQs
  • NancyN795
    NancyN795 Posts: 1,134 Member
    Fitbit has recently added the ability to set a custom max heart rate. If you have a higher than average heart rate (as BarbieA S suggested as a possibility) you can consider raising your max to compensate and keep your Fitbit from thinking you're in an exercise zone when you're not.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    And if you just got it - it'll still be figuring out where your resting and non-exercise HR ranges are, so it can use step-based calorie burn estimates then for majority of day.

    So you may have a high resting HR for now, or because of meds forever (in which case HR-based calorie burn won't be accurate).
    But Fitbit will see that average resting HR and decide that just because you hit say 100 bpm - it should not actually start using HR-based calorie burn.

    That can take about a week.

    And as restingHR improves as you become fit from exercise - it'll adjust that range.

Categories