Any of you guys have a low resting heart rate and use a fitness tracker?

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dave_in_ni
dave_in_ni Posts: 533 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 40, 6ft 170lbs, my resting heart rate is 49. One annoying thing about this is I am finding fitness trackers useless. Some will warn me my heart rate is too low, but most give totally wrong calorie burns because of this. Okay fitness tracker results are to be taken with a pinch of salt but I found them useful when I weighed more for motivation,

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  • Sweetnsimpleblond
    Sweetnsimpleblond Posts: 43 Member
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    I am having a similar issue. My resting heart rate averages 50-55 bpm and my caloric burn is not accurate because of this. I also find it more difficult to reach peak heart rate when doing HIIT and cardio because of it.
  • Fflpnari
    Fflpnari Posts: 975 Member
    edited September 2020
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    I wear a fitbit. I drop into the 30's (and get dizzy). As long as you are not symptomatic its ok.
    I find my calorie burn is pretty accurate when comparing Intake/ output and weight loss
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
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    My resting heart rate is typically 50-55. My calories burn rates have been fine on my trackers? Some overestimate and some underestimate but even when my RHR has gone up substantially (into the 70’s and 80’s during a period of extensive training without adequate recovery), the calorie burn rates were consistent with what they were when my RHR was in the 50’s. This includes Fitbit, Garmin, Polar & Apple Watch. I’m not sure what tracker you’re using-maybe it’s not one of those?
  • Raegold
    Raegold Posts: 191 Member
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    My resting HR is 48-51... I honestly don't know if the calories burned on my fitbit are accurate or not, I didn't know that was an issue...? I don't monitor my HR while I'm working out though, I just look afterwards to see if I got up to 130-140 at some point.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,983 Member
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    This depends on your specific tracker and the algorithms it uses to determine calories. My resting HR is in the low 40's, but my Garmin watch, which also serves as my daily activity tracker, doesn't have much issue with determining a fairly accurate calorie estimate for my activities.
  • ladyzherra
    ladyzherra Posts: 438 Member
    edited September 2020
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    My resting heart rate is low range, 48-53. I have never considered that the calorie burn data may be incorrect due to a low resting rate. How did you figure this out?
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    My understanding is that once Fitbit "understands" your typical resting heart rate, it adjusts accordingly. In other words, Fitbit determines when you're in your "exercise" zone based on your resting heart rate. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but my RHR is typically in the high 40s to low 50s and my calorie burns seem to be accurate.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,983 Member
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    Some additional info to add, most quality trackers with HR measurements will take into account your HR range and other physiological metrics and other measurements to provide a more a accurate calorie estimate. My Garmin watch estimates my VO2MAX and measures my HR throughout the day to determine my resting HR.

    I recently discovered some errant measurements from a faulty HRM I stopped using back in June had reset my max HR to 15 BPM above actual and messed up my HR Zones, which explains why my calorie estimates have been low over the past several months. After resetting it, my calorie estimates seem to be more reasonable and in line with previous experience.

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