Tachycardia while eating

[GOODCAT]

I have a garmin watch which vibrates if my resting heart rate exceeds 100bpm. I don't normally eat heavy meals but recently had some professional social events involving 3 course meals. Each time I have opted for 2 courses and pick the lightest options, but part way through the second course my watch is vibrating with a red health alert about my heart rate.

I haven't had this happen before and wouldn't have know I had a fast heart rate if not for the watch.

Is this something I should be worried about and other than avoiding all such meals in future, which is professionally difficult, can I do anything about it?

Is that the only time you're getting the high HR alerts? And does it alert you every time you have one of those meals? Are the dinners stressful at all?
I'm not a doc but I have a Garmin. I would make two suggestions:

Do you have another device that you could use to verify the high heart rate?
As well, reset the Garmin and make sure you have the latest updates.
My guess is it's nothing to worry about. But might as well check to be sure.

Surely if your heart was beating that fast you would feel it? It might be a fault with the device?

It certainly could be a fault with the watch, but people don't always feel it if their HR goes above 100.

Were the meals particularly high in salt? Could be a trigger for an increased heart rate.

This happens to me when I eat too - I suffer from tachycardia (I'm unsure of the cause) but eating large meals generally increases my heart rate (which I can feel). I don't wear a watch or a monitor as it would be going off all the time. Sorry I know that's not super helpful but I would be interested in knowing if you ever find out why this happens. I also suffer from digestivd issues - again not sure if there is a link.

I have also had this happen a few times. It’s almost as if I get a little adrenaline rush whilst eating which triggers some tachycardia. It’s quite unsettling

Salty food, caffeine, alcohol can all raise blood pressure and trigger SVT. I have to avoid them all, or heart rate will soon rocket, and it can last up to several hours (becomes a serious medical issue).

Maybe look into SVT just in case (although your condition sounds milder) and keep a diary of what you ate/did before episodes, in case there's a trigger.

Thanks all, I was drinking water each time, but it is likely the food was more salty. I have a poor sense of taste so wouldn't be able to tell.

I think also it was essentially that I would normally have the equivalent of the starter or slightly less for lunch and then the second course was the equivalent of the evening meal, so eating one straight after another was way too much.