Following up on my article about health metrics, the New York Times has an article about some details you can pay attention to instead of weight. Included were some of the metrics the Apple Watch reports.

One measure is resting heart rate:

Resting heart rate refers to the number of times your heart beats in a minute while you’re not exerting yourself. The better your cardiovascular fitness, the lower your resting heart rate is likely to be because the heart can pump more blood with every beat. Fewer beats mean the heart is working more efficiently, pushing the same amount of blood through the body with less effort.

A normal resting heart rate for healthy adults is between 60 and 80 beats per minute. Athletes commonly have a lower resting heart rate, sometimes dropping below 60 beats per minute. If your resting heart rate is above 80, regular aerobic exercise could help you lower it over time.

The mysterious heart rate variability is also mentioned, and while the explanation is interesting, there’s no discussion of a healthy score or range.

While we often think of the heart as a metronome, beating at a steady pace, there are actually small variations in the length of each beat and the time between them. “At rest, very low heart rate variability shows that the heart is just doing all it can to keep up,” Dr. Lundstrom said. “The more fit you are, the more your heart has the ability to adapt and adjust really quickly to changing demands.”

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