ulta Fitbit measuring low heart rate readings

Not at all

by AgentX86 - 2019-10-05 23:10:19

Forget what the FitBit is telling you unless you verify it yourself, manually.  These things are notoriously inaccurate.  I find that if it's close, it's right on but often goes off on a wild tangent.  If you have any sort of arrhythmia, the things are totally useless. 

Beware of any form of PulseOx for HR if beats are not all the same intensity

by crustyg - 2019-10-06 17:49:06

Most (all?) of the wrist fitness/heart rate monitors are pulse-oximeters.  They need to see a fairly consistent change in light absorption with each pulse so that a) they can register a heart beat, b) they can work out how much of the absorption is due to blood and how much skin loss etc and use the different wavelengths to determine the percent oxygen saturation.

The key part here is fairly consistent: if some beats are weak there may not be a big enough change, or delta, to register as a pulse, so the measured HR will be low.  Many designs also perform poorly during exercise for similar reasons.

If you are paced with bipolar leads the most accurate *convenient* HR monitor is a chest strap connected to some sort of recording device.  But a decent watch with a sweep second hand, and sensitive fingers (not thumb) feeling your groin pulse, or radial pulse is the cheapest and usually most accurate.  Not throat, it's too easy to end up administering carotid sinus massage which reduces HR - although that may be irrelevant for someone who is paced.