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Garmin's various ways of measuring, calculating, & tracking resting heart rate (RHR)

This was discussed earlier this year with respect to the Forerunner 235 ">here[/u][/URL]. Since then, it seems Garmin has been tweaking their software, at least on a couple of newer watches.

RHR on Watch Different from RHR on Garmin Connect
Over the past 7 days, the Garmin Connect (GC) site shows my RHR as: 36, 37, 50, 45, 36, 40, 41. The 7-day average on the GC site is 41 (see attached: ). But the "RHR" number on my my Forerunner 735XT watch always has a higher number, eg, today this has been 44 and 46. The watch screen that shows the RHR for each of the last 7 days also has a higher number than the GC site for each of the 7 days and for the 7-day average.

Apparently this is because the RHR function on the watch is the lowest average rate measured over a 1-minute interval, whereas the larger, changing number displayed on the watch face next to the heart symbol is an instantaneous measure.

DC Rainmaker noticed the same thing on the vívoactive HR:

What’s not fine is the above (click to zoom). In this case, as I type this paragraph it shows me at a HR of 53bpm. And the lowest HR value it shows for the four hour time block is 49bpm. Yet as you see above – somehow my RHR value is 55bpm. Huh? ">link[/b][/url]

In an e-mail with them on the topic late last week, they allude to it (on some devices) being the lowest one-minute average. But, then they explain how it’s a bit of a mess because the metrics don’t align up (Garmin Connect Mobile, the device’s HR sensor display, or the HR widget screen). Apparently it’s on the list to address…still. ">link[/b][/url][/indent]

Although the lower instantaneous numbers stroke my ego, I think the 1-minute average is a good technological/software solution since it emulates the traditional human manner of checking one's pulse over a period of time. An instantaneous reading was previously not very common (except on an EKG) and I think there are probably anomalous readings introduced by the the newer optical wrist monitoring technology (eg, a loose watch band moving around).

Others might prefer the lowest instantaneous reading since it better fits the standard medical definition of the RHR reading being the lowest measured rate while awake and different fitness monitors may be using various algorithms for calculating RHR.

I assume most people would at least like Garmin to standardize their way of measuring, calculating, and tracking RHR on their various watches, apps, and websites. The instantaneous numbers are what is being tracked on the graphs on the watch and on GC, but the lowest measured RHR on the watch face is frequently lower than the lowest number recorded on GC (even when frequently syncing). The 7-day graph of the daily RHR on the watch is also considerably higher with the 7-day graph of the daily RHR on GC.

I would be interested in hearing Garmin's current thinking on this or anyone else's thoughts on this issue.">link[/b][/url][/indent]

Although the lower instantaneous numbers stroke my ego, I think the 1-minute average is a good technological/software solution since it emulates the traditional human manner of checking one's pulse over a period of time. An instantaneous reading was previously not very common (except on an EKG) and I think there are probably anomalous readings introduced by the the newer optical wrist monitoring technology (eg, a loose watch band moving around).

Others might prefer the lowest instantaneous reading since it better fits the standard medical definition of the RHR reading being the lowest measured rate while awake and different fitness monitors may be using various algorithms for calculating RHR.

I assume most people would at least like Garmin to standardize their way of measuring, calculating, and tracking RHR on their various watches, apps, and websites. The instantaneous numbers are what is being tracked on the graphs on the watch and on GC, but the lowest measured RHR on the watch face is frequently lower than the lowest number recorded on GC (even when frequently syncing). The 7-day graph of the daily RHR on the watch is also considerably higher with the 7-day graph of the daily RHR on GC.

I would be interested in hearing Garmin's current thinking on this or anyone else's thoughts on this issue.
">link[/b][/url]

In an e-mail with them on the topic late last week, they allude to it (on some devices) being the lowest one-minute average. But, then they explain how it’s a bit of a mess because the metrics don’t align up (Garmin Connect Mobile, the device’s HR sensor display, or the HR widget screen). Apparently it’s on the list to address…still. ">link[/b][/url][/indent]

Although the lower instantaneous numbers stroke my ego, I think the 1-minute average is a good technological/software solution since it emulates the traditional human manner of checking one's pulse over a period of time. An instantaneous reading was previously not very common (except on an EKG) and I think there are probably anomalous readings introduced by the the newer optical wrist monitoring technology (eg, a loose watch band moving around).

Others might prefer the lowest instantaneous reading since it better fits the standard medical definition of the RHR reading being the lowest measured rate while awake and different fitness monitors may be using various algorithms for calculating RHR.

I assume most people would at least like Garmin to standardize their way of measuring, calculating, and tracking RHR on their various watches, apps, and websites. The instantaneous numbers are what is being tracked on the graphs on the watch and on GC, but the lowest measured RHR on the watch face is frequently lower than the lowest number recorded on GC (even when frequently syncing). The 7-day graph of the daily RHR on the watch is also considerably higher with the 7-day graph of the daily RHR on GC.

I would be interested in hearing Garmin's current thinking on this or anyone else's thoughts on this issue.
">link[/b][/url][/indent]

Although the lower instantaneous numbers stroke my ego, I think the 1-minute average is a good technological/software solution since it emulates the traditional human manner of checking one's pulse over a period of time. An instantaneous reading was previously not very common (except on an EKG) and I think there are probably anomalous readings introduced by the the newer optical wrist monitoring technology (eg, a loose watch band moving around).

Others might prefer the lowest instantaneous reading since it better fits the standard medical definition of the RHR reading being the lowest measured rate while awake and different fitness monitors may be using various algorithms for calculating RHR.

I assume most people would at least like Garmin to standardize their way of measuring, calculating, and tracking RHR on their various watches, apps, and websites. The instantaneous numbers are what is being tracked on the graphs on the watch and on GC, but the lowest measured RHR on the watch face is frequently lower than the lowest number recorded on GC (even when frequently syncing). The 7-day graph of the daily RHR on the watch is also considerably higher with the 7-day graph of the daily RHR on GC.

I would be interested in hearing Garmin's current thinking on this or anyone else's thoughts on this issue.
">here[/u][/URL]. Since then, it seems Garmin has been tweaking their software, at least on a couple of newer watches.

RHR on Watch Different from RHR on Garmin Connect
Over the past 7 days, the Garmin Connect (GC) site shows my RHR as: 36, 37, 50, 45, 36, 40, 41. The 7-day average on the GC site is 41 (see attached: ). But the "RHR" number on my my Forerunner 735XT watch always has a higher number, eg, today this has been 44 and 46. The watch screen that shows the RHR for each of the last 7 days also has a higher number than the GC site for each of the 7 days and for the 7-day average.

Apparently this is because the RHR function on the watch is the lowest average rate measured over a 1-minute interval, whereas the larger, changing number displayed on the watch face next to the heart symbol is an instantaneous measure.

DC Rainmaker noticed the same thing on the vívoactive HR:

What’s not fine is the above (click to zoom). In this case, as I type this paragraph it shows me at a HR of 53bpm. And the lowest HR value it shows for the four hour time block is 49bpm. Yet as you see above – somehow my RHR value is 55bpm. Huh? ">link[/b]
[/url]

In an e-mail with them on the topic late last week, they allude to it (on some devices) being the lowest one-minute average. But, then they explain how it’s a bit of a mess because the metrics don’t align up (Garmin Connect Mobile, the device’s HR sensor display, or the HR widget screen). Apparently it’s on the list to address…still. ">link[/b][/url][/indent]

Although the lower instantaneous numbers stroke my ego, I think the 1-minute average is a good technological/software solution since it emulates the traditional human manner of checking one's pulse over a period of time. An instantaneous reading was previously not very common (except on an EKG) and I think there are probably anomalous readings introduced by the the newer optical wrist monitoring technology (eg, a loose watch band moving around).

Others might prefer the lowest instantaneous reading since it better fits the standard medical definition of the RHR reading being the lowest measured rate while awake and different fitness monitors may be using various algorithms for calculating RHR.

I assume most people would at least like Garmin to standardize their way of measuring, calculating, and tracking RHR on their various watches, apps, and websites. The instantaneous numbers are what is being tracked on the graphs on the watch and on GC, but the lowest measured RHR on the watch face is frequently lower than the lowest number recorded on GC (even when frequently syncing). The 7-day graph of the daily RHR on the watch is also considerably higher with the 7-day graph of the daily RHR on GC.

I would be interested in hearing Garmin's current thinking on this or anyone else's thoughts on this issue.">link[/b][/url][/indent]

Although the lower instantaneous numbers stroke my ego, I think the 1-minute average is a good technological/software solution since it emulates the traditional human manner of checking one's pulse over a period of time. An instantaneous reading was previously not very common (except on an EKG) and I think there are probably anomalous readings introduced by the the newer optical wrist monitoring technology (eg, a loose watch band moving around).

Others might prefer the lowest instantaneous reading since it better fits the standard medical definition of the RHR reading being the lowest measured rate while awake and different fitness monitors may be using various algorithms for calculating RHR.

I assume most people would at least like Garmin to standardize their way of measuring, calculating, and tracking RHR on their various watches, apps, and websites. The instantaneous numbers are what is being tracked on the graphs on the watch and on GC, but the lowest measured RHR on the watch face is frequently lower than the lowest number recorded on GC (even when frequently syncing). The 7-day graph of the daily RHR on the watch is also considerably higher with the 7-day graph of the daily RHR on GC.

I would be interested in hearing Garmin's current thinking on this or anyone else's thoughts on this issue.
">link[/b][/url]

In an e-mail with them on the topic late last week, they allude to it (on some devices) being the lowest one-minute average. But, then they explain how it’s a bit of a mess because the metrics don’t align up (Garmin Connect Mobile, the device’s HR sensor display, or the HR widget screen). Apparently it’s on the list to address…still. ">link[/b][/url][/indent]

Although the lower instantaneous numbers stroke my ego, I think the 1-minute average is a good technological/software solution since it emulates the traditional human manner of checking one's pulse over a period of time. An instantaneous reading was previously not very common (except on an EKG) and I think there are probably anomalous readings introduced by the the newer optical wrist monitoring technology (eg, a loose watch band moving around).

Others might prefer the lowest instantaneous reading since it better fits the standard medical definition of the RHR reading being the lowest measured rate while awake and different fitness monitors may be using various algorithms for calculating RHR.

I assume most people would at least like Garmin to standardize their way of measuring, calculating, and tracking RHR on their various watches, apps, and websites. The instantaneous numbers are what is being tracked on the graphs on the watch and on GC, but the lowest measured RHR on the watch face is frequently lower than the lowest number recorded on GC (even when frequently syncing). The 7-day graph of the daily RHR on the watch is also considerably higher with the 7-day graph of the daily RHR on GC.

I would be interested in hearing Garmin's current thinking on this or anyone else's thoughts on this issue.
">link[/b][/url][/indent]

Although the lower instantaneous numbers stroke my ego, I think the 1-minute average is a good technological/software solution since it emulates the traditional human manner of checking one's pulse over a period of time. An instantaneous reading was previously not very common (except on an EKG) and I think there are probably anomalous readings introduced by the the newer optical wrist monitoring technology (eg, a loose watch band moving around).

Others might prefer the lowest instantaneous reading since it better fits the standard medical definition of the RHR reading being the lowest measured rate while awake and different fitness monitors may be using various algorithms for calculating RHR.

I assume most people would at least like Garmin to standardize their way of measuring, calculating, and tracking RHR on their various watches, apps, and websites. The instantaneous numbers are what is being tracked on the graphs on the watch and on GC, but the lowest measured RHR on the watch face is frequently lower than the lowest number recorded on GC (even when frequently syncing). The 7-day graph of the daily RHR on the watch is also considerably higher with the 7-day graph of the daily RHR on GC.

I would be interested in hearing Garmin's current thinking on this or anyone else's thoughts on this issue.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    Neuve AVENUE

    So this is a snippet of what I see in connect. Prior to 5 May there is no Avg Resting Heart Rate. From 5 May there is. A few days later in May both numbers jump around 10 BPM. Now my RHR is HIGHER than my Avg. RHR.

    WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?! Seriously though. This makes NO sense. I know this will likely fall on deaf ears as Garmin don't seem to be listening to the needs of their customers, but come on.

  • So this is a snippet of what I see in connect. Prior to 5 May there is no Avg Resting Heart Rate. From 5 May there is. A few days later in May both numbers jump around 10 BPM. Now my RHR is HIGHER than my Avg. RHR.

    WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?! Seriously though. This makes NO sense. I know this will likely fall on deaf ears as Garmin don't seem to be listening to the needs of their customers, but come on.

    Do you wear your Garmin device while sleeping? If so, the explanation might be that your so-called (by Garmin) new-fangled RHR is really some kind of average sleeping heart rate, an average based on infrequent measurements by Garmin, which can indeed be higher than your actual resting heart rate, especially if you are pushing the limits of your training and your body is busy repairing itself during sleep. That seems to be the gist of what Garmin has been telling people.
  • So this is a snippet of what I see in connect. Prior to 5 May there is no Avg Resting Heart Rate. From 5 May there is. A few days later in May both numbers jump around 10 BPM. Now my RHR is HIGHER than my Avg. RHR.

    WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?! Seriously though. This makes NO sense. I know this will likely fall on deaf ears as Garmin don't seem to be listening to the needs of their customers, but come on.


    @jbarnaville thanks for the screen shot, very informative (can you tell me where on GC you grabbed it?).

    I'm reading "Resting Heart Rate" as the value for the given day, while "Avg Resting Heart Rate" is the value over some time period (presumably, a week -- EDIT: Yep, just confirmed on the HR widget that if you mouse-over the "Avg Resting" value you get a pop-up with "7 day average"). In that case it wouldn't be too weird to see what you have on 6/27, i.e., "daily" value is higher than "average" value. Just a guess. Of course it would be awesome if the UI designers added captions for the labels or "?" pop-up help balloons!

    Do you wear your Garmin device while sleeping? If so, the explanation might be that your so-called (by Garmin) new-fangled RHR is really some kind of average sleeping heart rate, an average based on infrequent measurements by Garmin, which can indeed be higher than your actual resting heart rate, especially if you are pushing the limits of your training and your body is busy repairing itself during sleep. That seems to be the gist of what Garmin has been telling people.


    I think this reasoning makes a lot of sense. However...I wore the Microsoft (v1) Band for a year, and it reported an RHR for me that aligned pretty closely to what I measured myself. That is: soon after waking up, I'd stay in bed, breath quietly, then take my pulse. I'm on the edge of "old fart" so that gave me a RHR around 55 BPM. Meanwhile, anytime during the day that I sit down, do a few deep breaths and take my pulse, I get 70 BPM. Sure enough, the Band reported my RHR in the 50s while my average daily HR was 70 (staying away from workouts, of course).

    Long story short, when the Garmin RHR "jumped" it landed for me on 70 BPM, which lines up with my daily "at-rest" HR. (Sorry, I'm repeating a lot from an earlier post!) My point here is that based on what I learned from my previous tracker, I'd say Garmin's new HR formula is likely excluding HR during sleep. It's also probably NOT RHR as most of us understand how it's measured (big surprise). Again, that's also a deductive guess. Hopefully we'll get more info from our intrepid mod soon!

    -Matt
  • Addendum: see below for a screenshot from the Microsoft Health Dashboard from last July. It's interesting to note that they provide "definitions" below the reported measures. Though, in regard to "Resting heart rate" the forum found the first half pretty sensible:

    Resting heart rate is the measure of your heart rate after 10 minutes of rest or non-activity.


    While the second half:

    Your resting HR may be lower while you are sleeping.


    had us pulling our hair out. The only sense I could make of the second sentence was that they meant: "RHR is not the LOWEST your heart will beat. If you included your HR during sleep, your RHR would be lower."

  • ... I think this reasoning makes a lot of sense. However...I wore the Microsoft (v1) Band for a year, and it reported an RHR for me that aligned pretty closely to what I measured myself. That is: soon after waking up, I'd stay in bed, breath quietly, then take my pulse. I'm on the edge of "old fart" so that gave me a RHR around 55 BPM. Meanwhile, anytime during the day that I sit down, do a few deep breaths and take my pulse, I get 70 BPM. Sure enough, the Band reported my RHR in the 50s while my average daily HR was 70 (staying away from workouts, of course).

    Long story short, when the Garmin RHR "jumped" it landed for me on 70 BPM, which lines up with my daily "at-rest" HR. (Sorry, I'm repeating a lot from an earlier post!) My point here is that based on what I learned from my previous tracker, I'd say Garmin's new HR formula is likely excluding HR during sleep. It's also probably NOT RHR as most of us understand how it's measured (big surprise). Again, that's also a deductive guess. Hopefully we'll get more info from our intrepid mod soon!

    -Matt
    Hi, Matt. See above in Post #9. This is what ToffenDask was told by Garmin Support:

    "* RHR on the device is the lowest average during sleep, as this is your resting time. However if the the watch is not worn during sleep, it will be the lowest 1 minute average during the day. Average RHR is different as it is a rolling 7 day average of the RHR determined each day."

    In my opinion, Garmin is really confused (and much too incommunicatve) about the way they are approaching this.
  • Hi, Matt. See above in Post #9. This is what ToffenDask was told by Garmin Support:"* RHR on the device is the lowest average during sleep, as this is your resting time. However if the the watch is not worn during sleep, it will be the lowest 1 minute average during the day. Average RHR is different as it is a rolling 7 day average of the RHR determined each day."

    In my opinion, Garmin is really confused (and much too incommunicatve) about the way they are approaching this.


    Thanks Robert! I think I glossed over the post when I saw the words "I got a pretty good explanation from Garmin support." The explanation itself sounds good. It was the "Garmin support" part that kinda dragged it down for me. I'm sure we all have comparable online and phone support stories, so I won't insult everyone (and the industry) but inserting any anecdotes here. My gut feeling though is the quote sounds pretty truthy (though I also wonder if the CSR might be lagging behind a target that's moving, i.e., there has been more than one roll-out to the new-and-improved metrics).

    I could not agree more with your last comment. +10 on that!

    -Matt
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    Funnily enough I also had a Microsoft Band for a while. My average RHR was around 47 for the 7 months I had it. Looking at the Garmin Connect data the first two months I had my Fenix 3 HR line up to that (around 47) then when the change happens it jumps up around 9 bpm.

    If Garmin's explanation in post #9 "* RHR on the device is the lowest average during sleep, as this is your resting time. However if the the watch is not worn during sleep, it will be the lowest 1 minute average during the day. Average RHR is different as it is a rolling 7 day average of the RHR determined each day." is correct then the data on Garmin Connect for RHR is incorrect. My watch currently says RHR is 51. The graph on Connect shows my HR was 49-52 last night. The Connect iOS app says 45, presumably taking the lowest single point of the day. Connect says RHR 56. This just isn't right.

    The avg. RHR makes sense to me. 7 day average is a good way to smooth a longitudinal dataset. If I could choose how I saw my data graphed there would be each day's RHR as a point and a line using the avg. RHR
  • ... We appreciate the feedback and continued discussion.
    Joseph/GFM1011, can you give us an explanation of exactly what Garmin is trying to measure/estimate by the Resting Heart Rate (RHR)? Is it some kind of an average heart rate while sleeping as Garmin Support told ToffenDask? (see Post #9 of this thread)?

    "* RHR on the device is the lowest average during sleep, as this is your resting time. However if the the watch is not worn during sleep, it will be the lowest 1 minute average during the day. Average RHR is different as it is a rolling 7 day average of the RHR determined each day."

    If Garmin really does appreciate the continued discussion, it would be helpful if they continued to take part in the discussion. Perhaps Garmin has officially clarified this elsewhere?
  • Which makes no sense to me. I guess the problem is even having a field called "Average RHR". It doesn't mean what it says. Quite honestly they should get rid of it, or call it something meaningful.

    Still, I just don't get why Garmin insists on coming up with variants that increase RHR. At it's most basic premise RHR was recorded by someone sitting on a couch for a few minutes and getting the lowest value they can. That was in the days where it was kinda a hassle.

    Now, the watch is doing this 24x7, and yes, the algorithms are getting totally wonky and away from this idea. Purely a case of re-inventing the wheel when the wheel was perfectly fine. I really don't think someone understands that the entire point of having an optical HR sensor for 24x7 monitoring is proper RHR values. If they can't do that, then why bother? Just stick a different optical HR sensor in there that's more accurate in workouts and more battery hungry, since you're not using the darn thing for what it's supposed to be anyway.

    Sigh...rant over.


    I am hopeful that the Suunto/Valencell partnership will finally produce an all-in-one training device with OHR metrics that we can trust. The RHR (and LTHR) situation with Garmin devices is really helpless at this point.

    Fingers crossed ...
  • I'm new here, but have some experience with my resting HR. I've been manually counting it for a few years by just clocking a minute so I know what it should be normally during an easy or hard week.

    My new Fenix 3 HR seems to be in the right ballpark, but a little high. It's ussually too high by 2bpm so that acceptable to me.

    What I find absolutely crazy, both GCM and Garmin connect website show completely different values. How am I supposed to be using this information to gian an insight now?

    I can watch the instant HR on my Fenix go as low as 35 for minutes at a time. I can even see that in the graphs, and know for a fact that my HR can go as low as that when I'm relaxed and not training too hard. But the app reeds 46 as my RHR. The connect website is ussually even a few BPM higher.

    I'm sure Garmin won't fix this just for me, but I need to know what the app and watch are doing to gain any insight. If it tracks sleeping HR, that's fine but why don't they jsut call it that then and exlapin in the app or website?