Does Anyone Own A Fitbit? Would Like To Add Some Friends On The Dashboard.

[artluvr09]

Last week my fitbit charge hr came and i love it! I am wondering if any of you have one and would like to be friends on the dashboard and compete . I am trying to get motivated to get back into exercising. I got in a bad habit during thanksgiving of not exercising now I am having trouble getting back into exercising because of being tired. So i got the fitbit to hopefully motivate me and would like to add some friends

[ophelialit]

Hi there!

My Fitbit Charge HR is on its way even as we speak; after trying a slew of "wearable technology" gadgets for workout/fitness purposes, I decided to give the Fitbit a try for everyday activity. As soon as it's delivered this afternoon, I'm going to hook it all up and give it a whirl. I'd love to join the dashboard and compete with you! I'll shoot you a PM as soon as I'm up and running, and we can go from there.

Thanks!

Erin

[Jeng5158]

I have one and love it! Not sure how to add or search for friends though - do you know?

[ophelialit]

Hi all,

My Fitbit Charge HR is here and fired up....and I love it! It tracks your sleep cycle automatically, and in the morning you can see when you were restless, awake, sleeping, etc. I don't know how useful that information actually is, but it's interesting! I LOVE how it tracks my HR and steps constantly, and it has a GPS tracking function for exercise (I just returned from a bike ride, and it worked beautifully!).

To add friends, simply go to the Dashboard on your app, go to "Friends," click the "+" sign and select "Invite by email." Once you enter someone's email address, they get an immediate invitation--once they accept it, they're automatically added to your Dashboard, and off you go!

If you'd like to add me, send me a PM for my e-mail address.

Hope to see you soon!

[toomanyproblems]

I've had a Fitbit Charge HR since mid April. I like it. I mostly use it to follow my HR to see if anything I'm doing works to keep my heart rate from shooting sky high when I stand up and walk around. It can shoot up to my maximal calculated heart rate simply from standing up. Kinda scary. I'm not using it much for exercise at this point because any exercise I do needs to be completely recumbent and other than yoga, or other light exercise, I don't have the right equipment to really start getting in better shape. I try not to stay on my feet for more than ten minutes at a time because eventually my heart rate can't keep up pumping enough blood to my brain so I get dizzy and pass out. Even so, I get up and down all day long so I'm not completely bed bound.

I use the sleep function but I think it's one of the weakest features of the Fitbit Charge HR. I'm looking into another one that tracks REM sleep and the other stages more accurately.

[SarahA33]

Hi everyone!

Just a reminder..

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[Bigskyfam]

Fit bit hr pm me

[lewis]

I have had a fitbit hr for a few weeks and am really curious how my heart rate chart compared to that of a normal person.

[Bigskyfam]

I'm tempted to put on on my hubby for a day...

[lewis]

Oh ya I guess I could do that. I just wasn't sure if it would mess something up with the measurements since she is a different weight height and gender than what I put in for it but I guess I'll try it.

[Faye]

If you all try it out on your spouses do share how it compared I am very curious to see the difference

[lewis]

I had my wife wear it on the day that she goes to the gym for a few hours. I think the comparison between male and female isnt a very good one to compare. Her heart rate is higher than on average but the big difference I saw was more peaks and valleys on my readings. Compared to hers my graph just looked noisy although my heart rates are lower possibly due to propranolol. It makes me curious if this excessive up and down will wear out the valves in my heart faster? Not that there's anything I can do about it.

[Bigskyfam]

Interesting. Just looking at mine over the past few weeks. It does fluctuate better under control recently but sleeping 50-60 then boom up to 100s. Nothing like the 150s of old. But it seems slight movements make it jump high but it doesn't stay high like it used to. I wonder the same thing as I have aortic root dilation. New cardio in March. Pm me if you'd like to be Fitbit friends.

[lewis]

Interesting. Just looking at mine over the past few weeks. It does fluctuate better under control recently but sleeping 50-60 then boom up to 100s. Nothing like the 150s of old. But it seems slight movements make it jump high but it doesn't stay high like it used to. I wonder the same thing as I have aortic root dilation. New cardio in March. Pm me if you'd like to be Fitbit friends.

I don't have the proof other than a simple test but I assume everyone's heart jumps up as soon as they get our of bed some what. I had tested my wife and hers was 105 upon getting up. I think with dysautonomia it could be further exaggerated as I know before my beta blocker I was in the superventricular tachycardia range. I need to do further testing.

[Bigskyfam]

I put mine on my hubby for 3 hours yesterday in the evening. He was up and down making me dinner what I noticed with him... He did go up and down with activity and rest but within a ten beat or so difference.

[cmreber]

I have one and you can feel free to PM me

[Faye]

Anyone who wants to PM me to join are welcome to I know we are all in different places in terms of mobility ....but always good to have sowmthing to aim for no matter how high or low....any movement is progress

[aaron.parks]

Hi all,

Here are a couple notes on the Fitbit from my experience with it:

I have been using the Fitbit Charge HR continuously for two months or so, and I do like it a lot. But based on what I've seen, it seems the heart rate feature is very "laggy", slow to respond to changes in heart rate. For me it can take several minutes to adjust to a change in my heart rate, especially if my posture has shifted (I think it's sensor has to recalibrate when blood pressure in the wrist changes). Maybe this is fine for a non-POTS individual doing some cardio exercise over 20-60 minutes, but for me, my HR can vary widely from second to second if I'm walking around. So much of the time the recorded heart rate from the Fitbit is a good 30-40 BPM lower than my actual peak heart rate.

On the other hand, I think the Charge HR does a good job of tracking resting heart rate, especially while sleeping, which for me does seem to be correlated to my general well being. Step tracking, while not quite as accurate as a normal pedometer, is still really useful for setting daily activity goals. The sleep tracking has been accurate for me in terms of hours of sleep per night, but it doesn't give much more insight than this. You can also set silent (vibrating) alarms, which are good for medication reminders or exercise reminders, etc.

I compared the Charge HR to a (far less expensive) chest strap heart rate monitor, which never misses a beat and responds very fast to heart rate changes. The issue with the chest strap was that it's really uncomfortable to wear, so I had modified the monitor to attach to a couple of normal EKG sticker pads instead (far more comfy). Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a product already set up like this outside of very expensive holter monitor type devices...

Aaron

[Vicky]

Hey all, 

I haven't been diagnosed with POTS, but for a while now I have been experiencing a lot of symptoms that sound like POTS  (extreme fatigue, chronic headaches that go away completely when lying down, dizziness, shortness of breath, blurry vision and more). So recently I was keeping an eye on my HR using FitbitHR and I noticed that my lying/resting HR is usually around 55-57, and it goes up to 95-120 when standing, somewhere in between when sitting down. Lately my symptoms got worse and I find it hard just to climb the stairs or do any light exercise (just after 1 min of a light jog my HR jumps to 180). I have attached my heart rate chart of a normal day (no exercise at all, just switching between, lying, sitting, standing) - since many of you use Fitbit HR, maybe you could let me know if any of this is worth to be concerned about?

Thank you so much! 

 

[BuffRockChick]

Hi Vicky!  I'm in similar situation.  I've been lying down for 5 minutes, standing up for 10 - while wearing Fitbit.  On the website, I go to Log Activities, create a custom activity for the time I was lying down and standing.  Click "view activity" and it shows a graph of exactly what my heart was doing.  I've been doing this every day along with tracking symptoms, steps, water, sleep, etc.  I have a doctor appointment next week to get started towards diagnosis.  I'm super excited!  I had a hard time figuring out how to get the graph from fitbit so I hope it helps you!  

 

[Vicky]

Hi BuffRock Chick! Thanks for your reply! That is a great tip, thank you! I believe you HR is averaged to every 5 min otherwise and it's hard to see things in detail. I hope you doctor's appointments goes well and you start feeling better soon! I saw a doctor recently, and I mentioned this HR variations that I noticed, but she did not seem to be concerned and didn't even measure my HR or blood pressure, just suggested to take migraine medications. When I asked about POTS she did not know what it was and just dismissed it completely  I am just wondering if it is worth trying to get a second opinion...

[yogini]

4 hours ago, Vicky said:

Hey all, 

I haven't been diagnosed with POTS, but for a while now I have been experiencing a lot of symptoms that sound like POTS  (extreme fatigue, chronic headaches that go away completely when lying down, dizziness, shortness of breath, blurry vision and more). So recently I was keeping an eye on my HR using FitbitHR and I noticed that my lying/resting HR is usually around 55-57, and it goes up to 95-120 when standing, somewhere in between when sitting down. Lately my symptoms got worse and I find it hard just to climb the stairs or do any light exercise (just after 1 min of a light jog my HR jumps to 180). I have attached my heart rate chart of a normal day (no exercise at all, just switching between, lying, sitting, standing) - since many of you use Fitbit HR, maybe you could let me know if any of this is worth to be concerned about?

Thank you so much! 

 

Hi Vicky, I would count your pulse manually rather than rely on the fitbit, since it has been shown to be inacurrrate. 

[yogini]

On 1/22/2016 at 1:49 PM, aaron.parks said:

Hi all,

Here are a couple notes on the Fitbit from my experience with it:

I have been using the Fitbit Charge HR continuously for two months or so, and I do like it a lot. But based on what I've seen, it seems the heart rate feature is very "laggy", slow to respond to changes in heart rate. For me it can take several minutes to adjust to a change in my heart rate, especially if my posture has shifted (I think it's sensor has to recalibrate when blood pressure in the wrist changes). Maybe this is fine for a non-POTS individual doing some cardio exercise over 20-60 minutes, but for me, my HR can vary widely from second to second if I'm walking around. So much of the time the recorded heart rate from the Fitbit is a good 30-40 BPM lower than my actual peak heart rate.

On the other hand, I think the Charge HR does a good job of tracking resting heart rate, especially while sleeping, which for me does seem to be correlated to my general well being. Step tracking, while not quite as accurate as a normal pedometer, is still really useful for setting daily activity goals. The sleep tracking has been accurate for me in terms of hours of sleep per night, but it doesn't give much more insight than this. You can also set silent (vibrating) alarms, which are good for medication reminders or exercise reminders, etc.

I compared the Charge HR to a (far less expensive) chest strap heart rate monitor, which never misses a beat and responds very fast to heart rate changes. The issue with the chest strap was that it's really uncomfortable to wear, so I had modified the monitor to attach to a couple of normal EKG sticker pads instead (far more comfy). Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a product already set up like this outside of very expensive holter monitor type devices...

Aaron

As a woman, it adds a little bit of extra discomfort to more discomfort that we are already wearing  

[Vicky]

Sorry, I forgot to mention - I do get pretty much same reading or jump in HR upon standing up when I count manually. I am just not sure whether it is normal or not. 

[BuffRockChick]

I find Fitbit to be very accurate if you wear it correctly and ***don't read HR off the device which displays a 5 minute average***.  You can get real-time HR off the app, and activity tracking makes a graph of HR measured every second.  The most difference I've found between Fitbit Charge HR and manual was 3 bpm. 

@Vicky, normal jump in HR from lying down to standing is about 15 bpm for only a couple minutes. POTSies generally have sustained increase of 30 bpm or more.   American Heart Association has good info on normal heart rate on their website, also medical papers that discuss diagnosing POTS refer to normal range.  You can look up medical journals on Google Scholar.  I've found quite a few on POTS available through National Institute of Health website.