Counting steps and associated calories burned while on stationary bike

[notxap]

Hello,

I manually log my exercise when I ride my stationary bike, but my Fitbit is still counting many steps and adding the additional burned calories.

I've read something about entering driving as your activity to get rid of the steps and calories. Is there another way to correct this?

Should I be making an entry for biking, and a separate one for driving, for the time that I'm riding my bike?  Driving also requires that you enter calories burned!?

[JohnnyRow]

Driving sets all steps to zero for the time interval.  I have no idea what would happen if you try to log driving and an exercise for the same time.

But the bigger issue is manually logging an exercise session when you were wearing the tracker.  Anything you manually log overrides whatever data was recorded by the tracker.  Manually logging is meant only for times when you were not wearing the tracker.

[notxap]

Will the Fitbit automatically log my exercise, if I'm riding a stationary
bike. If not, how would it get logged?

[notxap]

There is no way for the Fitbit to know that I'm riding a stationary bike, so how can it log the exercise???

[JohnnyRow]

Which Fitbit model do you have?  That will help limit the required complexity of my answer.

[notxap]

Inspire HR

[JohnnyRow · Accepted solution]

Good, so you do have the Exercise app, unlike some other models such as Alta (HR) with no buttons.

Using the Exercise App lets you tell it when you stat and stop workout and to categorize it.  From main screen on tracker, scroll up (swipe down) to Exercise and tap that; then scroll up or down to select which exercise you are doing; once you have the exercise selected, tap it and follow screen prompts.  To end workout, press side button.

Here is a fuller description of how to use the Exercise app:

How do I track my workouts with my Fitbit device?

If you don't see the workout type you want on your tracker, this tells how to get other options:

How do I change or reorder the exercises in the Exercise app?

The last issue to consider is which workout type to choose.  'Workout' is a good general one that works for anything.  But you probably want either 'Spinning' or 'Bike'.  I would think 'Spinning' but I have seen some say 'Bike' works better at giving you fewer steps.  If you use 'Bike', make sure you are not connecting to your phones GPS.  One way is  from main screen, scroll up to 'Settings' and turn off 'Phone GPS'.

It probably sounds complicated, but once you have it set up and do it first time, it becomes quite easy, you know you have the full exercise time credited, you have it in the correct category rather than relying on Fitbit figuring out what you were doing, and there is no need to manually log the activity afterward.

[notxap]

I've read about the Spinning option, but it doesn't appear to exist anymore.

I'll try Bike with the GPS turned off.

How will it calculate calories burned without a distance or speed, which
are both entered when making a manual entry?

Are calories burned calculated based on your heart rate?

[JohnnyRow]

Calories are calculated based on heart rate, which should be more accurate.

Spinning should be one of the options that you can add.  See my link above about changing the exercises in the exercise app.  I think there are 20 different options available, among which you can choose up to 7 to appear on your watch.

[notxap]

Thanks!

[notxap]

In case anyone else reads this:

You have to remove one of the six exercises already in the app before the + sign appears, allowing you to add other exercises.