Really low resting heart rate

sal82
sal82 Posts: 33 Member
edited December 25 in Health and Weight Loss
Yesterday I put my HRM on to go for a walk and had it reading but not recording while I was doing a few things before I left. I noticed that at sometimes my resting heart rate was down to 50BPM. Is this normal? I'm currently about 165 pound and not at all what you would call an athelete. Lately I'm lucky if i have been walking 3 times a week. Is this why it takes me so long to loose weight compared to other people?

Replies

  • CRody44
    CRody44 Posts: 737 Member
    I'm 255 and my morniig reesting heart rate is usually around 48-50 BPM.
  • gpstrucker
    gpstrucker Posts: 930 Member
    That's a lot better than mine. Mine is around 86, down from 90.
  • gregpack
    gregpack Posts: 426 Member
    My heart rate slowed down after extended dieting to the high 40s. When I normalized caloric intake it went back to around 60.
  • gpstrucker
    gpstrucker Posts: 930 Member
    Take a look at these charts:

    http://www.topendsports.com/testing/heart-rate-resting-chart.htm
  • ScottFree_66
    ScottFree_66 Posts: 200
    6-3 / 293lbs / not athletic (obviously)... I don't have a HRM but I take my blood pressure daily and according to that my usual heart rate is around 52 - 60.
  • SomeoneSomeplace
    SomeoneSomeplace Posts: 1,094 Member
    I'm pretty sure it just means you're in good shape =) that's not dangerously low or anything.
  • kaydensmom12
    kaydensmom12 Posts: 338
    The "normal" heart rate is 60-100 bpm. 50 really isn't anything to be concerned about while resting, unless you are showing signs of dizziness, difficulty breathing, or unrelenting headaches.
  • michellekicks
    michellekicks Posts: 3,624 Member
    Bradycardia can be a sign of health complications but is not a problem if other symptoms are not present:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradycardia

    I have been running for years and my resting heart rate is about 47 bpm right now. In my late 20s it was about 43 (before I had kids and my running schedule all but disappeared).
  • lauraniwa
    lauraniwa Posts: 131 Member
    Some people have really low blood pressure in the morning, which can impact resting HR. How good is your HR monitor, is it trust worthy? Sometimes the sensor doesn't pick up that well.

    Try it out a couple of times, if it turns out you really do have a low resting HR you can always do your own monitoring calculations.

    {Men (220-RHR) * % you want to work at = heart rate reserve + RHR
    Women (226-RHR * % you want to work at = heart rate reserve + RHR

    Hope that helps.
  • akiramezu
    akiramezu Posts: 278
    My resting heart rate is 35-40 beats per minute, I'm an athlete. The lower your resting heart rate, the more you have to push yourself, seeing as your heart rate is 50, that's a very good sign. Your heart doesn't have to push itself so much while sedentary :)
  • sal82
    sal82 Posts: 33 Member
    Thanks for the comments. The chart puts me into the class of an athlete which at 5'2" and 74.8kg I defiantly am not. I do find I have to push myself a lot harder than other people to lose the same amount of weight and I wondered if it had anything to do with it. Does a person with a RHR of 80 burn more calories doing nothing than a person with a lower heart rate? Could it be linked to the mysterious 'slow metabolism'? Obviously there is nothing I can do about if other than work out more, I'm just curious
  • akiramezu
    akiramezu Posts: 278
    Thanks for the comments. The chart puts me into the class of an athlete which at 5'2" and 74.8kg I defiantly am not. I do find I have to push myself a lot harder than other people to lose the same amount of weight and I wondered if it had anything to do with it. Does a person with a RHR of 80 burn more calories doing nothing than a person with a lower heart rate? Could it be linked to the mysterious 'slow metabolism'? Obviously there is nothing I can do about if other than work out more, I'm just curious

    If you are not an athlete and do not do copious amounts of both aerobic and anaerobic and have a low resting heart rate, it is unlikely but you may have some form of bradycardia, cardiomegaly or cardiac hypertrophy. Now, i suggest you go to a doctor if you are worried about your low resting heart rate and you are not an athlete, it's a suggestion but i highly reccomend it. However, chances are you don't have ANYTHING wrong with you at all, and this is a good thing (: it's called athletic heart syndrome, very common in athletes.

    Now to answer your question on RHR and metabolism, yes, a low resting heart rate means you burn less calories at rest, meaning you have to work harder during exercise to burn the calories needed. if you are not an athlete, then it would mean that you do have a slow metabolism when we are talking about resting heart rate. However, you say you are not an athlete, non athletic people's heart rates jump through the roof whilst exercising burning a lot of calories, especially if you are over weight. That is why it is easier to lose weight during the beginning of your weight loss journey and it gets harder and harder as time goes by and your exercise becomes more regularly, but this is from a non athletic point of view.

    On an athletic point of view, although my resting heart rate is 35-40, the efficiency in which i use fat, carb and proteins as energy is much more efficient than the regular person, meaning the likelihood of me storing fat when eating and not exercising is highly unlikely, and although my RHR is 35-40, theoretically it would mean that whilst sedentary, i do burn less calories than the average person, however i find this FALSE for myself as i can eat copious amounts of food and not gain any weight. Hope that clarifies a few things for you
  • LisaLouisiana
    LisaLouisiana Posts: 145 Member
    As you've already heard, a RHR below 60 is considered bradycardia. I'm right there with you....I'm 48 years old, 5'7", 207 pounds and my RHR is in the lower 50s...not even close to athletic. I had to have surgery February 1st and of course the bradycardia popped up during my pre-op testing. Because of that, I had to have special clearance from the anesthesiologist. He and I decided I would do the MAC procedure instead of general anesthesia. The risk of that was that I could awaken during surgery, but I was fine with that. Everything went well, but I did awaken and was wide awake for the last third of the surgery. Without general anesthesia, I awoke much as I do in the morning...bright eyed and busy tailed.....and went straight into conversation with doctors. The anesthesiologist quickly told me, "You're heart rate has been sitting at 53 beats a minute throughout the surgery." Obviously, from his intonation, this is an anomaly. But, I'm healthy. My blood pressure runs quite low, too...pre-op was 90 over 52. I'm told this is good, overall. That said, I struggle to loose weight....my body hangs on to the fat for dear life, but I have been able to loose 123 pounds so far, but it has taken me forever. I've still got 50 or 60 pounds to go. Go to your doctor and get checked out. You do have bradycardia, but you need to find out if that's good. In some cases, such as mine, it's just fine. In other cases, it's not. It's a symptom of quite a few health issues.
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