From fitness fanatics to heart patients, Fitbit helps all kinds of users monitor the fluctuations in their heart rate. But how accurate is the Fitbit heart rate monitor? Can you completely trust the data generated by this fitness tracker? Stay with us to know if the “Heart rate too low” is an accuracy issue for you to be concerned about.
Fitness trackers like Fitbit have become an integral part of the lives of many. They monitor the user’s vitals 24/7 and generate metrics that can be shared with the user’s medical practitioners for a detailed analysis. This makes it crucial that the Fitbit heart rate metrics are recorded as accurately as possible, especially if used for health monitoring.
Fitbit can generate heart rate for resting and mild activity with a reasonably high degree of accuracy. However, it is not reliable enough to replace medical-grade devices, especially during high-intensity workouts.
How Accurate Is Fitbit Heart Rate?
Fitbit uses the PurePulse technology to generate precise results of the user’s resting and walking heart rate. Newer models like the Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 make use of PurePulse 2.0, which enhances the performance of their sensor technology.
One study has found acceptable accuracy for resting and walking activities for the Fitbit Versa and similar series.
Another review found that most Fitbit devices underestimate heart rate by an average of about -3 bpm, with wide limits of agreement (-24 to +18bpm), depending on activity.
The Versa and Charge series of the Fitbit had even further accuracy drops during running as compared to resting in this study.
How Does Fitbit Heart Rate Get Measured?
Fitbit makes use of an ECG sensor on the Charge 5 and Sense models, that functions similarly to medical-grade heart rate monitors. However, the BPM heart-rate reading is still derived from the optical photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor, not the ECG, just like the other models.
The Fitbit app displays :
- Current heart rate 24×7
- Resting heart rate
- Workout heart rate with automatic workout detection
- Average heart rate
- Heart rate variability (HRV)
- Heart rate in the sleeping stages
- Breathing rate (via Relax app or Health Metrics Dashboard)
- Calorie burn insights
- VO2 Max estimate (in the Cardio Fitness Score)
- Workout intensity maps
- Active zone minutes
- Atrial fibrillation detection (Sense, Sense 2, Charge 5, Charge 6)
- Daily readiness score (available only for Fitbit premium members)
- High/low heart rate notifications
How To Wear A Fitbit For Better Accuracy
Just like most other wearable tech, Fitbit is a wrist-based wellness monitor. The user should ensure:
- The device is strapped neither too tightly nor too loosely to your wrist.
- When you are working out, wear the device higher on your wrist, closer to your pulse, to generate more accurate readings.
- Wear it on your non-dominant hand.
- Update your personal details in the app for more accurate algorithms. This is how you can accurately measure your Fitbit heart rate.
Wrap Up
Fitness trackers play an integral part in the user’s lives, who rely on the device to record metrics with utmost accuracy. Athletes, fitness freaks, and users who want general monitoring, can use the data generated by their Fitbit devices, but it not perfect and should not replace a medical-grade device.
If you are one such user who wonders how accurate is Fitbit heart rate monitoring, we hope that you can now generate the most accurate metrics by following the instructions given in this article.
If you want to know how accurate Apple, Garmin and Samsung are in terms of heart rate, we got you covered!
