Fitbit Heart Variability Rate extremely low - what's yours?

[PanicDisco]

I've been digging into the metrics in my Fitbit and found that my HRV is extremely low, averaging around 23ms. The internet seems to think I'm basically about to die.

What is everyone else's? I'm wondering if it's just low because I have the standard shitty sleep of a woman with two small kids. Apparently for my age it should be 60-100!

My resting heart rate is around 69bpm and I have average fitness.

Sorry I mean Heart Rate Variability - HRV

Mine is 35 according to fitbit, which is in the excellent range for my age. But I have no idea what it actually means! I find quite a few of these health tracker thingies a bit suspicious.

I just checked, mine is 14. I have low blood pressure and naturally low bpm so I'm not surprised it's low. Beware of everything you read on the Internet. Last week my blood pressure dropped to 83/45 ish , just have a cuff at home and checked as I felt a bit off. I recovered and am fine.

My Apple Watch says mine has averaged 31 over the last month. Again, I own a terrible sleeper of an 11 month old. I found out a few months ago my HRV was very low and am yet to die suddenly!

I strongly suspect it’s one of those measures well studied in men but they don’t actually know its impact for women.

Well thank F for that, you have all made me feel much better. I wish they were more realistic with what they show as averages, especially for knackered parents!

Do you have the premium app? Mine shows me my number but not if it's excellent/poor etc, but my premium subscription ended a few months ago.

Mine will be good although I don't know how to look it up. I've got good cardio score "for my age"

I'm a fan of going with how you feel not what a computer algorithm says. You already know if you should be doing more exercise, eating less fat, losing weight, etc.

Most features on Fitbit are age & sex adjusted to show relative percentiles compared to "people like you."
https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/fitbit-study-finds-heart-rate-variability-fluctuates-age-gender-time-day-and-activity-level

For the last month, mine on Apple is 36, and over the past year it’s 29. My resting heart rate for the same periods is 79bpm, and 75bpm for the year.

I’ve had my heart checked over and it’s all hunky dory so I’m not about to die anytime soon. Are you on any medication? I was on Venflaxine (ads) and it made my heart go funny hence the check up on it.

40 but I don’t know what it means. Resting hr around 60

Mine is 29. I have no idea what it means.
54bpm resting. I'm 49. I had an NHS health check lately and I'm annoyingly healthy for my age.

omg, this really is a case of following my own advice

From what I read about Fitbit HRV, it's not necessarily comparable to anyone else's version. Read these threads where posters have fitbit HRV of 9-16. Mine is also a bit 'low' OP, yet I have an excellent cardio score. So, don't sweat it. It's not that informative a measure.

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Other-Versa-Smartwatches/Versa-2-heart-rate-variability/td-p/4527664/page/2

https://www.reddit.com/r/fitbit/comments/ugp0qk/hrv_range_2040_concerning/

Mine tends to be 13 🤷‍♀️

I track mine on my garmin and was in the same camp as you (with non sleeping toddler). I kinda wrote it off as just how my body is, as I exercise lots etc. However I am overweight and recently (about 6 weeks ago) embarked on eating healthier, just cutting out processed stuff and sticking to around 1500 calories a day. I’ve lost 10 pounds this way. Ive also pretty much cut out alcohol (except the odd glass at the weekend). Exercise and sleep has stayed the same, but my HRV has gone from in the 30s, to now averaging in the 60s. I was a cynic, and obviously can’t comment on your diet/weight/alcohol intake in your case, but it can’t be a coincidence (and incidentally my sleep has also got much better even though the duration is the same).

The raw number itself isn't really much use as a measure. It can vary a lot between individuals and influenced by many things, so taking that single number and saying if is 'good' or 'bad' is pretty meaningless.

If looking at HRV 'properly' then most will use different mathematical transformations to that number that are much more useful. Will also be done with more accurate equipment under more controlled conditions. Fitbits also use an optical sensors to measure HR, so I'd think this could make measuring HRV accurately more tricky, and the number will depend on what period of time it measures it from and how.

With stuff like this it can be useful to track yourself over time and any changes can be an indicator of things, but trying to take that single raw value and draw any conclusions from it needs to be done with a very big pinch of salt.

My personal range is 16 to 22, looking at the graph. I've got some serious health issues and when I get bad news it plummets, been down to 14, my breathing rate and heart rate shoot up too - it's quite interesting. Resting heart rate is around 58.

That's amazing! Well done.

I started about 10 days ago doing the same, which is why I ended up delving into my stats. In 10 days my resting heart rate has gone from 76 to 68, some small improvement (only up to 30) last week on the HRV but tanked again last night (23) so will be interesting to see if mine does the same as yours in a few weeks or not.

My HRV varies between 40-60. My resting HR also varies between 55-64bpm - strangely I noticed it’s higher when I’m due/on my period!

I don't understand my HRV at all. After months of being between 20 and 30 it has suddenly increased to 44. Not sure if this is a cause for concern, nothing has changed healthvwise other than currently being on holiday and eating a bit more and exercising a bit less.

Mine is 20, my cardio rate is excellent and resting heart rate is 63. I’m not worried at all.

The important thing is the trends, not the number. So what is your normal trend.

I train hard (race). Im a very amateur athlete though, work full time and young child.

I've been tracking HRV for years. When I'm well, not stressed, good sleep, good diet, training hard but coping with the volume around all the other plates I'm spinning. My HRV goes up. It trends up. It gradually climbs over weeks/ months.

As soon as I start coming down with a bug, sometimes so mild to even have more than a minor sniffle. Or I don't sleep well for a few nights. Or diet is crap. Or I start to feel stressed. Or I train that bit too hard. My HRV trends down and ultimately out of the normal range. The only thing that'll cure it is rest, good diet, good sleep. Less stress. Some of these things are easier said than done, others not. Given these are all things that help us to achieve good, or better health it is a helpful indicator. Used and understood well it's a fantastic metric to measure and track. You don't need to be a racer to appreciate it or utilise it.

My latest HRV numbers are high. wtf. It changed . So why?
Oh well, who knows !!

I have now found a correlation between hrv and number of steps I did the previous day. If I get up to nearer 10000 steps my hrv jumps from 20s to 40s.

They've changed the app completely and I have zero patience to even look at it anymore. Hopefully my HRV isn't doing anything sinister.

Mine is 17 although it also rates my fitness as “excellent” 🤷‍♂️