Newbie - why am I getting so many zone minutes?

[f1rancoh]

I'm assuming it's because I'm out of shape - I'm getting zone minutes from doing basic daily things. I'm also pregnant so I'm always huffing and puffing just from walking around (atypical for me outside of pregnancy). If I was in better shape, would I need to be doing cardio workouts in order to get zone minutes? How does this work?

[LZeeW]

Hello @f1rancoh and welcome to the Community.  Active zone minutes are heart rate based.  Your zones are calculated using your demographics and your resting heart rate.  There are many heart rate changes in pregnancy and your Fitbit simply collects the data.  It can't adjust anything for pregnancy.  I think it is a combination of both.

You have three zones where you earn active zone minutes: moderate, vigorous, and peak heart rate.  Your moderate zone gives you 1 AZM per minute of activity.  Vigorous and peak give you 2 AZMs per minute of activity.  A "cardio workout" is likely to give you 2 AZMs per minute.

Does this help?

I also moved you post to the Get moving forum, a better fit for your question.

[amymurray122]

First of all, congrats!!!! Being pregnant, your heart rate is higher, so it'll register as cardio activity. I have this issue due to a benign heart "issue", where my heart rate while upright (sitting or standing) is significantly higher than what Fitbit calculates as my RHR when I'm lying down. My cardio load and zone points are through the roof every week because of this, even if I don't specifically do anything. Once your baby is born and your heart rate settles back to normal (it can take a few weeks to months), you likely won't see those zone minutes just from everyday basics.