Using Heart rate monitoring to help with pacing.

Jem, I agree it's not the answer for everyone, as things other than physical activity can trigger PEM too. And I have the same problem with the Workwell 15 beats above resting heart rate. Mine also averages 70, and getting out of bed and being up for a minute or 2 takes it over 85. But I have still found it helpful, not on its own, but more as a bit of evidence to tell me that, yes, I have done too much and need to stop.

I can walk about in my house (no stairs) and cobble meals together for me and my daughter, usually mostly ready meals. It's tempting when I've been upright for, say 3 minutes, to do just one more thing, but I can feel OI kicking in and know I need to lie down. Looking at my fitbit at that stage and confirming that my HR has gone over 100 confirms it. It has made me better at taking notice of my symptoms and stopping sooner.

It also tells me when I've been doing too much angry letter writing, as that can send my heart rate up too.
 
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Trish said:
It also tells me when I've been doing too much angry letter writing, as that can send my heart rate up too.
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Speaking of angry letter writing.. I just finished writing one. And really should rest now and not browse forums!
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My HR gets up quite fast when I get up from bed. I can do things like cooking etc for few minutes, then go back to bed and usually my HR returns to around 60. But if I do too much, the resting HR won't go back down for hours. When my HR stays at 80-100 even if I've been in bed for let's say 10 minutes.. Then it's a sign to really try to drop everything. Probably! At least it feels like it.
 
Trish said:
I can walk about in my house (no stairs) and cobble meals together for me and my daughter, usually mostly ready meals. It's tempting when I've been upright for, say 3 minutes, to do just one more thing, but I can feel OI kicking in and know I need to lie down. Looking at my fitbit at that stage and confirming that my HR has gone over 100 confirms it. It has made me better at taking notice of my symptoms and stopping sooner.

It also tells me when I've been doing too much angry letter writing, as that can send my heart rate
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Thanks Trish. Yes this is what I’m hoping it will help me with… Im prone to ‘while Im here I’ll just’ & with the cognitive difficulties added in, I find it hard to remember not to override symptoms to do something that’s really needed, until the symptoms become overwhelming & force me to lie down. So I’m hoping it’ll be a prompter.

Interesting both you and @wigglethemouse use 100
 
Yan said:
Speaking of angry letter writing.. I just finished writing one. And really should rest now and not browse forums!
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My HR gets up quite fast when I get up from bed. I can do things like cooking etc for few minutes, then go back to bed and usually my HR returns to around 60. But if I do too much, the resting HR won't go back down for hours. When my HR stays at 80-100 even if I've been in bed for let's say 10 minutes.. Then it's a sign to really try to drop everything. Probably! At least it feels like it.
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Yes it’s interesting, I noticed my hr shoots up when I cry, some good sobbing for a few mins takes it up over 120. I not been angry yet (been using the monitor a wk) I trying to stay away from rage makers at moment as hot too much personal stress.

But then being on my feet more than 3 mins takes it to 160!

I using Apple Watch with Tachymon app.
It has 2 alert levels so lvl 1 buzzes every 5seconds & lvl 2 buzzes every 2 secs (haptics). I don’t think I can use 100 as it shoots to at least 110 just standing up. Perhaps I’ll use 100 & 115 & see how I get on.

The trouble is I been in rolling PEM for so long <sigh> just won’t ruddy well allow me to rest.
 
JemPD said:
Interesting both you and @wigglethemouse use 100
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Sometimes I have to let it go well over 100, especially when I have a shower. I don't wear my fitbit in the shower, but try to stop when sitting drying myself for a bit and rest my head forward on my arms if it goes over 120, waiting until it comes down below 100 if I can. It's all just trial and error really.
 
Thanks @Trish yes it’s been an eye opener what takes it up that I didn’t expect.

When you say rest your head on arms do you mean your arms on your knees like when feeling faint?
 
JemPD said:
When you say rest your head on arms do you mean your arms on your knees like when feeling faint?
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Yes, I sit on the loo lid to when drying myself and dressing, and lean forward and rest my head on my folded arms, or lean sideways and rest my head on one arm on the side of the basin. Not for more than a minute of two though, as I really need to be back in bed.
 
I think about once a week to ten days, but I keep the charger set up by my bed along with chargers for laptop and phone, so I tend to just plug them in when I think of it. The fitbit charges quickly, from half full to full in a hour or so if I remember to look.
 
Thanks, that's interesting.

I think if we need to monitor our hearts for heart related medical reasons it's best to use medical grade kit with a chest strap. For people like me who want to monitor in a fairly haphazard way to reinforce our symptom based decisions, a wrist worn monitor intended for amateur fitness feedback something like a Fitbit is fine.

It's good we are made aware not to treat it as definitive medical information. I have a finger pulse oximeter which I use occasionally to check if it's giving the same HR as my fitbit. It's usually pretty good, but I agree spikes can be missed, though some do show up.
 
Trish said:
I think if we need to monitor our hearts for heart related medical reasons it's best to use medical grade kit with a chest strap. For people like me who want to monitor in a fairly haphazard way to reinforce our symptom based decisions, a wrist worn monitor intended for amateur fitness feedback something like a Fitbit is fine.
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I agree.
I find the chest strap uncomfortable while laying in bed, so I only use it on special occasions.
The Quantified Scientist on YouTube has nice slides that compare the accuracy of different smartwatch models.
I wouldn’t buy a new one without first consulting his slides. Especially after realizing how terrible my Fitbit is for my use case of very little movement in a stop-and-go style that results in many spikes.
The Fitbit is much better, when I move continuously for a while.

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But another thing to consider: the apple watches are really accurate at measuring heart rate. However, they have much worse battery life and they don’t show continuous messurements.
„Your HR was 65 10 minutes ago“ is rather useless. And putting it in training mode drains the battery even faster.
So, be aware of the pitfalls.
 
Chandelier said:
But another thing to consider: the apple watches are really accurate at measuring heart rate. However, they have much worse battery life and they don’t show continuous messurements.
„Your HR was 65 10 minutes ago“ is rather useless. And putting it in training mode drains the battery even faster.
So, be aware of the pitfalls.
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I have an Apple Watch and using an app called Tachymon that works with it. Which reads from it. You set your min & max hr for alerts & it gives a haptic on the watch whenever it spikes over your min max.

It’s good but it needs charging every 5 hrs or so if I have it running Tachymon continuously & I don’t know if that’s because it’s an old series 3 watch gifted by someone when they upgraded, or if it just not going to be much good.

So That’s interesting thanks.

I have chargers by the bed but I often forget to take it off.

The other thing is that due to tuning out such a lot of physical discomfort signals continuously, I am already starting to automatically ignore the alerts! I think if it was a sound it would be better as it would hurt! But Tachymon only offers haptics.

Chest straps are a no no for me I have have my bras too big, I just too tender for anything snugly fitting.
 
JemPD said:
I have an Apple Watch and using an app called Tachymon
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Thanks, I checked it out. Seems to be subscription based, $20/year.

JemPD said:
The other thing is that due to tuning out such a lot of physical discomfort signals continuously, I am already starting to automatically ignore the alerts! I think if it was a sound it would be better as it would hurt! But Tachymon only offers haptics.
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I wonder how your current app compares to Heart Graph by Smoky Cat Software Ltd.
It also allows to set min and max heart rate and you can enable an audio alarm.
JemPD said:
It’s good but it needs charging every 5 hrs or so if I have it running Tachymon continuously & I don’t know if that’s because it’s an old series 3 watch
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From what I remember from the reviews, all the Apple watches had a terrible battery life with the exception of the Apple Ultra watches which run for ~ 2 days and cost a fortune.

JemPD said:
Chest straps are a no no for me I have have my bras too big, I just too tender for anything snugly fitting.
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There’s also the Polar Verity Sense, an armband, that should be quite accurate according to that YouTube reviewer.
But for most sufferers, a smartwatch with high accuracy is probably the best choice.
Or like Trish mentioned, a pulseoximeter can do the job.

Those Huawei models seem to score really high. I wonder if they display the heartrate in a more sensible interval than the Apple Watches?
That’s one of the things I really like about my Fitbit.
 
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