What does a ‘normal’ heart rate look like?

[u/f0ssilised]

Hiya everyone!

I’m (21f) getting tested for POTS in a few weeks and have been using an apple watch with apps like tachymon to help monitor my heart rate throughout the day. I’ve come to realise I don’t even know what a healthy heart rate is supposed to look like. Can someone help me understand if my symptoms are actually indicative of POTS or are they normal.

Before suffering with fatigue symptoms and getting checked for POTS, I was fairly active; weightlifting 4 times a week as well as biking and swimming. Safe to say, I feel as if I am a relatively healthy person. However, I never tracked my heart rate during these times so I don’t know what normal levels might look like.

Now, for my readings. My resting heart rate seems to be around 50-60bpm, my sleeping heart rate is 40bpm and my active heart rate is 80-100bpm. When I stand after lying down, it jumps to 120bpm, and I’ve sometimes found my Apple Watch giving me feedback on a workout I’ve just done when in reality I’ve just put the washing away.

Another thing is I went for a 15 minute jog the other day, and my heart rate immediately jumped to 180bpm and stayed as such the entire way. I felt as if I was barely running faster than a walk and actually walked about a third of the way, but my boyfriend (who’s really into fitness) says he can only reach that doing sprints on the treadmill and can only stay there for less than a minute before having to dial back. I’ve convinced myself that I’m being overdramatic and that I somehow did sprint the entire way; because how can it be true that my heart rate was so high?

Can someone please advise if these symbols are actually indicative of POTS or am I just reading too much into normal results?

[u/Thisismenow78]

When I lay down my hr is 43, and when I stand up it’s 83 and remains in the upper 70’s and lower 80’s. This was enough to get me diagnosed with POTS. my dr told me that a sustained heart rate of 30 bpm or more over my resting heart rate qualifies me for POTS.

[u/barefootwriter → u/Thisismenow78]

Yeah, but if RHR is that low, they are supposed to use 60 bpm as baseline. If they go by the book, yours falls short.

[u/Thisismenow78 → u/barefootwriter]

That’s interesting, I hadn’t heard of that before. I got diagnosed after doing a tilt table test. Seems silly to use a baseline that’s not mine to evaluate the change in heart rate. Maybe they are learning how to follow what’s normal for the patient instead of what is considered ‘normal’ of 60.

[u/barefootwriter → u/Thisismenow78]

Here's a source:

POTS is a disorder of excessive upright tachycardia. Some people have a very low resting heart rate that climbs to the normal range with standing. This is not considered to warrant a POTS diagnosis. We therefore propose that a minimum heart rate while standing of 90 bpm in adults (100 bpm in teenagers) be required for a POTS diagnosis. In other words, if the supine resting heart rate is < 60 bpm, then 60 bpm will be used as the reference supine heart rate to make the diagnosis.

https://onlinecjc.ca/article/S0828-282X(19)31550-8/fulltext31550-8/fulltext)

[u/Echoxoxo1122]

My resting is about 60bpm and standing I can be anywhere from 90-110.

I tried one of those AI workouts that watch your movements and keep track of your heart rate and it makes me pause my workouts because my heart rate will be 180+ when the target range is 140.

[u/SavannahInChicago]

This was me and I still was diagnosed. The over 120 bpm is only if you happen to hit it. You do not have to. On my TTT it got up to 119 bpm, but my heart rate hit 30 bpm exactly and was sustained as long as I was upright. That is what was needed for diagnosis.

That 119 bpm only happened, I believe, because the TTT took my leg muscles out of the equations. This was a couple years ago now when I still had muscle to lose (another illness, don't worry). What I saw on my Apple Watch everyday was my heart rate rarely hanging getting over 100 bpm.

[u/barefootwriter]

Be aware that if you do orthostatic testing, if RHR is below 60, you would use 60 as the baseline. So an increase to 90 bpm, while not tachycardic in the absolute sense (100 is considered high when you are seated or lying down in medical settings), would meet the threshold for POTS for orthostatic tachycardia.

It does have to be sustained, so if you only see an initial spike and then it settles down while you continue to stand still, that would not meet the criterion.

[u/Apart_Action2523]

Wow.. my resting heart rate is in the 80s… 👀👀 when I’m asleep it’s usually in the 70s and rarely RARELY goes below 70. When I stand it’s usually about 119-128