Portable monitoring devices for processing applications and processing analysis of physiological conditions of a user associated with the portable monitoring device

A method of operating a processor of an activity monitoring device, the activity monitoring device having a housing configured for attachment to a body part of a user, the method comprising:

• capturing motion data describing motion of the activity monitoring device using a first sensor disposed in the housing;
• sampling a heart rate of the user to generate heart rate data using a second sensor disposed in the housing when the activity monitoring device is worn on the body part of the user;
• storing the motion data captured by the first sensor and the heart rate data generated by the second sensor to a memory of the activity monitoring device;
• determining a physical state of the user during a period of time, wherein for motion that is below a threshold, the physical state is determined to be a sedentary state, and for motion that is at or above the threshold, the physical state is determined to be an active state;
• reducing a rate at which the heart rate of the user is sampled responsive to the physical state of the user being determined to be the sedentary state during the period of time;
• and
• increasing the rate at which the heart rate of the user is sampled responsive to the physical state of the user being determined to be the active state during the period of time.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions configured to be executed by one or more processors of an activity monitoring device, the activity monitoring device having a housing configured to be worn on a body part of a user, the instructions comprising instructions for causing the one or more processors to:

• capture motion data describing motion of the activity monitoring device using a first sensor disposed in the housing;
• sample a heart rate of the user to generate heart rate data using a second sensor disposed in the housing when the activity monitoring device is worn on the body part of the user;
• store the motion data captured by the first sensor and the heart rate data generated by the second sensor to a memory of the activity monitoring device;
• determine a physical state of the user during a period of time, wherein for motion that is below a threshold, the physical state is determined to be a sedentary state and for motion that is at or above the threshold the physical state is determined to be an active state;
• reduce a rate at which the heart rate of the user is sampled responsive to the physical state of the user being determined to be the sedentary state during the period of time;
• and
• increase the rate at which the heart rate of the user is sampled responsive to the physical state of the user being determined to be the active state during the period of time.