Heart rate of 192bpm and didn't know

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I was just checking my Fitbit details from yesterday and it seems my heart rate peaked at 192bpm for 10 minutes around noon. My resting heart rate is normally 55-59 bpm. I didn't do anything physically difficult yesterday and can't even remember any symptoms when and if my heart rate got that high. Could it be a glitch?

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  • Damien_K
    Damien_K Posts: 783 Member
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    Most likely a glitch
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
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    If your heart was beating that fast, you would know it.

    Chalk it up to a gadget malfunctioning.
  • staceygriffiths13
    staceygriffiths13 Posts: 2 Member
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    thought so! thanks
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
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    This is an example of why we returned Beth's Fitbit: accuracy.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    Yup, Fitbits aren't great for accuracy. Get a Polar HR strap instead. It's probably the most accurate you'll get without a full-on medical device. But I've even seen those glitch from time to time if you don't keep the sensor pads moist enough.
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
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    Chieflrg wrote: »
    If your heart was beating that fast, you would know it.

    Chalk it up to a gadget malfunctioning.

    Not necessarily. Depends on what her max heart rate is. There's a decent portion of the population where the 220-age calculation is useless, so if she's not tested it she might have a high one and not know it. Mine's high, and I have to pop my HR up into the upper 190s for several minutes before I start getting winded.

    OP, having a high max heart rate is not a negative as far as health or fitness is concerned, so it's no big deal if that's the case. It will mean that calorie calculation based on HR monitors that aren't calibrated for your max and resting HR are going to be even more inaccurate than they are for everyone else.
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
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    stealthq wrote: »
    Chieflrg wrote: »
    If your heart was beating that fast, you would know it.

    Chalk it up to a gadget malfunctioning.

    Not necessarily. Depends on what her max heart rate is. There's a decent portion of the population where the 220-age calculation is useless, so if she's not tested it she might have a high one and not know it. Mine's high, and I have to pop my HR up into the upper 190s for several minutes before I start getting winded.

    OP, having a high max heart rate is not a negative as far as health or fitness is concerned, so it's no big deal if that's the case. It will mean that calorie calculation based on HR monitors that aren't calibrated for your max and resting HR are going to be even more inaccurate than they are for everyone else.

    She wasn't doing any strenuous when it recorded 192. This wasn't as she was maxing out cardio. A body would give signs if the heart was pumping that fast for 10 minutes while not exerting yourself and just going about your business nornally.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
    edited August 2016
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    Yup, Fitbits aren't great for accuracy. Get a Polar HR strap instead. It's probably the most accurate you'll get without a full-on medical device. But I've even seen those glitch from time to time if you don't keep the sensor pads moist enough.

    Polar HR strap isn't something you're going to wear all day, every day, though. I've had the HR strap for my Garmin doing glitchy things during a run before like recording a 200+ BPM heart rate when I'm at an easy jog a few minutes in to my run and then settling back down to the 140 BPM or so it actually was.

    As long as it's not a regular problem I'd let it slide.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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  • ScubaSteve1962
    ScubaSteve1962 Posts: 609 Member
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    I was just checking my Fitbit details from yesterday and it seems my heart rate peaked at 192bpm for 10 minutes around noon. My resting heart rate is normally 55-59 bpm. I didn't do anything physically difficult yesterday and can't even remember any symptoms when and if my heart rate got that high. Could it be a glitch?

    I would take it, that you weren't working out when this happened. So I would think that if your heart started beating that fast you would know it! Probably just one of those glitches.
    SueInAz wrote: »
    Yup, Fitbits aren't great for accuracy. Get a Polar HR strap instead. It's probably the most accurate you'll get without a full-on medical device. But I've even seen those glitch from time to time if you don't keep the sensor pads moist enough.

    Polar HR strap isn't something you're going to wear all day, every day, though. I've had the HR strap for my Garmin doing glitchy things during a run before like recording a 200+ BPM heart rate when I'm at an easy jog a few minutes in to my run and then settling back down to the 140 BPM or so it actually was.

    As long as it's not a regular problem I'd let it slide.

    I've been using a polar chest strap for 4 years for 1 hr a day 4 to 5 days a week. while I've gotten some glitch readings on gym equipment I've never got a high reading on my watch, or in my report, even when I had a faulty sensor, the it would not read sometimes, but never give me reading all over the place.
  • Noelani1503
    Noelani1503 Posts: 378 Member
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    Hornsby wrote: »

    I have this. It's something most people feel, especially if they weren't doing anything strenuous at the time. It's possible that you had an episode, but extremely unlikely. Since it was a Fitbit that picked it up, it's even less likely. And even if you experienced this, a cardiologist probably isn't going to care if you didn't have accompanying symptoms, or if your heart rate didn't slow down on its own.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    Hornsby wrote: »

    I have this. It's something most people feel, especially if they weren't doing anything strenuous at the time. It's possible that you had an episode, but extremely unlikely. Since it was a Fitbit that picked it up, it's even less likely. And even if you experienced this, a cardiologist probably isn't going to care if you didn't have accompanying symptoms, or if your heart rate didn't slow down on its own.

    As do I.
  • fishgutzy
    fishgutzy Posts: 2,807 Member
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    It is also possible that it was accurate. Supra ventricular tachycardia. A sudden rapid heart rate.
    Several years ago my wife was driving home from work and her heart rate shot from normal to 220. Didn't come down until she got medication in the ER.

    Of course, it course also be wrist movement that triggered a false reading.
  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    I found out I had it from a Garmin chest strap. HR spiked to 250 for about 10 minutes. Freaked me the hell out.
  • Noelani1503
    Noelani1503 Posts: 378 Member
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    Hornsby wrote: »
    I found out I had it from a Garmin chest strap. HR spiked to 250 for about 10 minutes. Freaked me the hell out.

    Wow. I bet it did. I didn't find out until I had a snowboarding accident and nearly fainted. I couldn't feel my hands and feet from the loss of perfusion.
  • CincyNeid
    CincyNeid Posts: 1,249 Member
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    Yup, Fitbits aren't great for accuracy. Get a Polar HR strap instead. It's probably the most accurate you'll get without a full-on medical device. But I've even seen those glitch from time to time if you don't keep the sensor pads moist enough.

    Wouldn't know. They're not ANT+.
  • stealthq
    stealthq Posts: 4,298 Member
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    Chieflrg wrote: »
    stealthq wrote: »
    Chieflrg wrote: »
    If your heart was beating that fast, you would know it.

    Chalk it up to a gadget malfunctioning.

    Not necessarily. Depends on what her max heart rate is. There's a decent portion of the population where the 220-age calculation is useless, so if she's not tested it she might have a high one and not know it. Mine's high, and I have to pop my HR up into the upper 190s for several minutes before I start getting winded.

    OP, having a high max heart rate is not a negative as far as health or fitness is concerned, so it's no big deal if that's the case. It will mean that calorie calculation based on HR monitors that aren't calibrated for your max and resting HR are going to be even more inaccurate than they are for everyone else.

    She wasn't doing any strenuous when it recorded 192. This wasn't as she was maxing out cardio. A body would give signs if the heart was pumping that fast for 10 minutes while not exerting yourself and just going about your business nornally.

    That wasn't my point.

    My point is I'm not even winded until my HR gets and stays in the upper 190s for a while. It could be in the lower 190s and I wouldn't really notice anything special. It wouldn't feel like it's pounding, I wouldn't be short of breath, etc. The only way I'd know is if I were monitoring it.

    So, it is possible that her heart rate popped up that high and she wouldn't have noticed. If it did and she wasn't doing some form of physical activity, having an anxiety attack, etc, that would be a medical issue. Alternatively (and most likely), the monitor malfunctioned.