Charge 6 can't count heart rate zone minutes accurately.

[Charge6owner]

My Charge 6 can't count heart rate zone minutes.  It tells me I spent 73 min in a zone during 1hr of activity.  It also tells me I spent over 2hrs in various heart rate zones when the exercise session was only 105min. I was using the 'Spinning' activity at the time.  Is this common for all the exercise activities?

 

[LZeeW · Accepted solution]

Hello @Charge6owner and welcome to the Community.  Active zone minutes are weighted, based on intensity.  You get 1x the number of minutes when you are in the moderate activity zone and 2x the number of minutes when you are in the vigorous/peak zones.

[Charge6owner]

Thanks for the explanation and quick reply!   I wasn't aware of the AZM weighted calculation and unfortunately my Fitbit is less useful now that I know it exists.   I would have warned Fitbit that it's not wise to redefine what a 'minute' is but that ship has sailed.

[LZeeW]

@Charge6owner   Here is a more complete explanation for you.  Fitbit is a US company and uses CDC activity recommendations.  Several years ago, the CDC changed the minimum activity recommendations to 150 minutes/wk of moderate activity or 75 minutes/wk of vigorous activity or a combination of the two.  Fitbit introduced active zone minutes in 2020 to help users meet that goal.  So yes, that ship has definitely sailed. 😉

Your exercise duration is available in the app.  Tap on your Exercise tile and there is a Duration option.  You can toggle between different time intervals (week/month) and toggle backwards to previous weeks or months.

[Charge6owner]

Yeah, I did a little research on the topic after you first brought it to my attention.  Fitbit could have easily tracked CDC recommendations as a daily percentage and hid the weighted heart rate zone calculations behind that, while still providing actual heart rate zone minutes - on the Fitbit - during an exercise.  People that follow CDC recommendations are only interested in percentages anyway and wouldn't care what an AZM 'minute' means.  AZM just obfuscates actual heart rate zone information for those that prefer to rely/track their efforts based on it.

I see I can set a custom heart rate zone with the app but then it turns off zone notifications during the exercise, which I actually find useful for knowing when I jump between zones.   All in all, just not what I was hoping the device could do for me.

[potential_user2]

I'm thinking of buying the Charge 6, but I'm not sure if it will report the information I want. Will I be able to tell how many minutes per week I've spent in each zone (1-5)? My goal is to do 3 hours in zones 2-4, and 1 hour in zone 5 each week. It's fine if the info is only viewable in the app and not on the device itself.

[ChrisV141]

I agree with@charge6owner - a minute should be a minute or change the designation.    My 20 minutes on the elliptical was counted as 70 zone minutes.   Doesn’t make any sense regardless of CDC guidelines.