What is the validity of AZM vs Active Minutes?

[Abrienna]

What is the validity of Active Zone Minutes and Active Minutes? Which is a truer picture of my activity on any given day? Why are Zone Minutes so ridiculously easy to earn? Why is there so much inconsistency between Zone Minutes, Active Minutes, and Heart Rate data? Is there a way to recalibrate heart rate zones?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Abrienna]

The 350 character limit did not allow me to explain, so I will break it down here.

Let me start with the question of validity. Which is a better picture of my activity? Zone Minutes or Active Minutes? When I asked this question in a support chat I was told that FitBit regards them as being equally important. I can not see how this is true, because they paint completely different pictures of my activity level. In this month, according to the android phone app, I have earned 323 Active Minutes and 1,372 Zone Minutes. Daily discrepancies between the two measures have been as high 119 and as low as 15. That is huge! On July 21st I spent almost three hours outside engaging in physical labor, but I received only 9 Active Minutes that day. Something is not computing. 

My second question is specifically about Zone Minutes. When they were first introduced people were having a hard time registering Zone Minutes, according to what I have read in the community forum. It seems as though they were seeing the very same discrepancies that I am seeing, but in reverse. Over the past 3-4 months It seems as though Zone Minutes have become increasingly easy to earn. I earned Zone Minutes today with my basic morning routine, which included feeding the cat, washing up a handful of dishes, making a cup of tea, and preparing a bowl of cereal. According to the Heart Rate section of the app I spent 22 minutes in Exercise Zones. Twelve minutes in cardio and 10 minutes in fat burn. This makes me wonder if my heart rate zones need to be recalibrate. My Resting Heart Rate average is 69. I should add here that I am on several medicines that address my extreme anxiety. Even on those medicines I experience heart rate spikes accociated with my anxiety.

I am further puzzled by the Cardio Fitness graph that is available in the Heart Rate section. It shows that my Fitness score is 35 - 39, an "excellent" score for women my age. This is quite clearly wrong. My score has been 35 -39 since I purchased my current tracker. I just never bothered to have it sorted.

 

 

 

[Abrienna]

I forgot to mention the inconsistencies between Heart Rate data and Active Zone Min data. According to today's Heart Rate data I spent 1 hour and 22 minutes in Exercise Zone. Twelve of those minutes were in the Cardio/Vigorous Zone. (Picture included.)

You can see a very similar graph in Active Zone Min labled Time in Heart Rate zones. According to that graph I spent 2 hours and 8 minutes in Heart Rate Zones, and four of those minutes were in the Vigorous/Cardio Zone. (Picture Included.)

 

 

[Bosco253]

I came here looking for answers to the same questions. Now that I've migrated my account to Google I can't access Active Minutes. I used to add my Fairly Active & Very Active minutes to determine my level of activity. a few times per week I'd download my info & copy it into my spreadsheet.

It seems like any time Fitbit makes a change that is supposed to make things better for us, it results in the exact opposite being the case. They never poll users as to preferences; they just spring the changes on us and expect us to deal with it.

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Abrienna, welcome, you may find this article of interest What are Active Zone Minutes or active minutes on my Fitbit device? - Fitbit Help Center I apologise if you have already seen it.

Cheers

[LZeeW · Accepted solution]

@Abrienna   I think I can help you with some of your questions.  Fitbit uses CDC and WHO recommendations for activity.  Older Fitbit models awarded active minutes, because they were the CDC recommendation at the time.  The CDC stopped recommending active minutes in 2018.  They are out of date and you should ignore them.  Active zone minutes are consistent with the current CDC and WHO recommendations.  The CDC recommends 150 min/wk of moderate activity or 75 min/wk of vigorous activity or a combination of the two.  The WHO recommends 150-300 min/wk of moderate or 75-150 min/wk of vigorous activity or a combination of the two.

Active Zone minutes are heart rate based, but your Fitbit doesn't know if an elevated heart rate is from activity, fever, anxiety, monitor accuracy, or anything else. I get heart rate spikes like your heart rate screenshot, too.  I think those are artifact and I ignore them (this is common with Fitbit heart rate monitors).

Other Android users are also posting about the zone minute graph inaccuracy.  I can't help you with that.

You get a better estimate of your cardio fitness score when you do GPS connected runs.  I think it is misleading to use "fitness" in the name.  It is an estimate of your VO2 max, that is how much oxygen your lungs can take up during exercise.

@Bosco253   The Fairly Active and Very Active minutes from the web dashboard information are also obsolete.  I don't see their removal as a bad thing.  Activity recommendations for adults of all ages is the same.