Elevated Resting Heart Rate?

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MichelleLea122
MichelleLea122 Posts: 332 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So I have a fitbit charge and for the past month I've noticed my resting heart rate has gone up. My resting heart rate is normally between 60-63, but even since September I've noticed it has slowly increased to approximately 70-73 bpm. While I realize that this is still relatively low, should I be concerned or just write it off as observational error?

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  • jolive7
    jolive7 Posts: 283 Member
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    Are you taking any supplements?
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
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    MichelleLei1 wrote: »
    So I have a fitbit charge and for the past month I've noticed my resting heart rate has gone up.

    Over a month that might suggest a slight reduction in fitness, or it might indicate that you've got some form of underlying issue; fatigue, stress etc. That said, over a month I'd be anticipating you noticing something else.

    Personally i'd consider a 10bpm increase in RHR a good reason to back off training. About 3 weeks ago it happened to me, my RHR went from 50bpm to 57bpm and stayed there until I took a bit of a break. That said I also knew I felt under the weather, and ended up with an unplanned day off work to recover.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    I had a 10% rise in RHR following an 8 week spell of extremely hard training - it can be a sign of over-training.
    When I got to taper week before the event my HR returned to normal, fatigue levels dropped and had bonus of dropping a couple of pounds of water too. Any other signs of over-training such as fatigue, soreness, drop in performance?
    (Making assumptions due to you posting in the fitness forum).

    Maybe take an easy week / recovery week and see what happens?
    You could also be slightly unwell, under stress etc... of course.
  • mrsbudryzer
    mrsbudryzer Posts: 5 Member
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    Mine did the same....I was doing HIIT cardio 3 -4 times a week. I dropped it to once a week and just regular 30 - 40 minutes of cardio the other days. It's coming down now. I chalk it up to over training (did some googling). I was also weight training 6 days a week. I tweaked my regime to 4 days. Also added an off day.
    Stress could be the culprit as well.
  • MichelleLea122
    MichelleLea122 Posts: 332 Member
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    Hmm, thanks for the input. I'm an extremely active person, but I physically feel fine so I'm not sure if it's necessarily overtraining. (But then again I do have the tendency to push my body to much). The only major change that has happened in the past month is I've started up grad school, so I'm thinking stress is the main culprit. Either way with me being so busy, I'm naturally going to be tapering down the amount of exercise I do, because of time constraints and lower energy levels.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
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    I'd also consider a good HR strap to check the accuracy of the Fitbit. I'm not a fan of the Fitbit, and have found it in the past to be very inconsistent and inaccurate on both HR and caloire counts, and even step counts at times. But in general I'd say an increased RHR does mean over training. You may want to take a week off, then maybe add in a couple extra rest days a week for a while and see what happens. If it continues, go see a doctor if you're sure it's not the device. I've been using a Polar H7 strap for well over a year and it's been dead-on accurate (checked several times against my doctor's readings). Just a thought.
  • GaryRuns
    GaryRuns Posts: 508 Member
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    Stress, lack of sleep, diet, too little exercise, too much exercise. Lots of possibilities. And I'm sure there are medical problems that can cause it as well. I wouldn't worry about it unless there are other issues, like a change in blood pressure. And it's never a bad idea to talk about it with a physician.
  • 25lbsorbust
    25lbsorbust Posts: 225 Member
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    I'd talk with your doctor about it, and manually check your pulse a few times a day. It could be a symptom of many health issues, or simply just decreased fitness. Some medications or supplements up heartrate too.

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