Zone Minutes

[SunsetRunner]

My wife and I went walking today, we weren’t power walking but walking at a good pace. She ended up with 111 zone minutes and I ended up with 26. Can someone explain the difference when we were walking together?  During the week, I walk the same routine and usually the same pace and more often than not, the zone minutes will be entirely different by a lot. What’s causing such a difference and how can I use the data for a meaningful tool?

[Baltoscott]

@SunsetRunner -- it is based on how much time you spend in various heart rate zones during your walk. If you are in your 'fat burning zone' you get one zone minute for each minute or exercise, but if you are in your cardio or your peak zones, you get two minutes of credit for each minute. That is, you get more 'credit' when you are moving faster (because your heart will beat faster), and the idea is that more challenging exercise is better at improving your fitness metrics over time. Here is a bit more about it.  https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1379.htm.

You and your wife likely have different heart rate zones, which would account for why you get different active minute counts when walking together at the same speed. As a tool, fitbit is better at comparing you to yourself over time than it is at comparing you to someone else. Here is a discussion on how fitbit calculates your heart rate zones.