What are active minutes and how to earn them?

[Kaylikinz]

Hello!
I just activated my fit bit (flex) yesterday, and looking at my dashboard it says I have zero active minutes......and I looked in the website help, but can't seem to figure out what "active minutes" are and how you achieve them! Can anyone help me? Thanks!

Moderator edit: subject updated for clarity

[wmchapman · Accepted solution]

Absolutely Kay, congrats on getting a fitbit!

Here's the link.

Basically, active minutes are noted when the activity you're doing is more strenuous than regular walking, which includes everything from a brisk walk to a cardio workout or run. I've found you have to be "in the zone" for about 10 minutes before the dashboard recognizes an active period.

Hope this helps, mark as a solution if it does, if more questions, come back and continue the conversation.  Glad to see you here!

[SunsetRunner]

I'm confused here-I was given 250 active minutes sun, yet with the exact same activities on Friday & sat I received 0 active minutes, why the big difference? I can't find anything on here like mine.

[MarreFitbit]

It's nice to have you here in the Forums @SunsetRunner ! I was wondering if you have checked @wmchapman's response? There he provides the article to learn more about how the Active Minutes work. 

On a side note, I was wondering if by any chance you have manually logged activities? 

[SunsetRunner]

Yes I am manually entering my exercise, which is walking. But I enter it on myfitnesspal. Am I NOT suppose to be manually entering it? I read the above article but I'm still confused, enter exercise on MFP or not?

[MarreFitbit]

Thanks for getting back my friend @SunsetRunner !

Once both accounts are connected you will be able to view the foods and activities that you log on your MyFitnessPal account on your Fitbit Dashboard. From the "Check In" section of your MyFitnessPal account, you will see the steps taken and sleep tracked by your Fitbit device.

You will also see a calorie adjustment from Fitbit. Whenever MyFitnessPal receives calorie burn data from your Fitbit Tracker, it compares that to the projected calorie burn for your account and adjusts your calorie goal accordingly.

Keep in mind that if you sync your Fitbit at 11:00 AM, MyFitnessPal will only have information about your Fitbit calorie burn data through 11:00 AM that day. If only a partial day's worth of data is available, MyFitnessPal will combine the actual data from your Fitbit with an estimate of your calorie burn for the remainder of the day based on the daily activity level you selected when creating your MyFitnessPal account. This allows MyFitnessPal to create a more accurate estimate for your daily calorie burn based on the best data they have available from your Fitbit tracker at that time.

For more information on the Fitbit and MyFitnessPal integration.

Have a nice day! 

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for the above info, I understand the calorie adjustment n have seen where the calorie burn has been adjusted after I manually enter/log my walks. Still doesn't answer the question of do I manually enter my walks (which then shows active minutes for the entire time I've walked), or don't enter n go by the steps logged by flex (which never gives actives minutes for the exercise "walked).

[MarreFitbit]

Gotcha @SunsetRunner! Typically, your steps will be recalculated if you manually log an activity as the manually logged activity takes precedence over your data tracked while wearing your tracker at that point in time. For example, if I am wearing my Flex and walking and I reach 10,000 steps, then I go to the computer and manually log an activity that starts and ends at that point in time for say 1 hour, Fitbit will calculate how many steps you took and it may bring my step count to something below 10,000 steps. To clarify, activities should only be manually logged when you forget to wear your Flex. 

Are you using both at the time? Have you tried restarting your Flex? Have you checked the Active Minutes article? 

[SunsetRunner]

Thank you MarreFitbit-that TOTALLY answered my question! Manually log ONLY if I am not wearing my Flex, n yes I was using both at the same time, which I will now stop (manually logging that is.!

[MarreFitbit]

You're very welcome my friend @SunsetRunner , I'm glad to know we found where the issue was coming from.

Hope to see you participating in the Community more often since I think it would be awesome for you to explore our Community, so you can go ahead and log to any of the topics that might be of your interest in our Discussion boards. Feel free to comment and contribute with your knowledge and experience.

Happy stepping! 

[barbaraacollins]

I was told by support that now I have to always manually enter my runs etc to get my active minutes.

That my fitbit flex will no longer detect my runs as active minutes, since Fitbit made the changes to their algorithms.

This is very disappointing.  Once this fitbit dies, I guess I will start shopping for another tracker.

If I use Endomondo, Run Double or another run tracker that syncs to myfitnesspal, will that sync back to my Fitbit activity?

[Userfriendly03]

My active minutes just kicked in at 7 minutes. I took a photo of it as evidence. I am going for a walk. Maybe it's a Christmas present.

[CP327]

Can you please tell me what “in the zone” is?  Sometimes I get active minutes without even realizing it (just walking the dog, etc) but today I pedaled the exercise bike for 25 minutes with my heart rate in the red “fat burnin zone” for 21 minutes (and it remained there well after I stopped) but I only got credit for 15 active minutes?!

[wmchapman]

Zones can be customized; but there are some defaults:

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1565

most folks are chilling below 89 bpm so simply try to stay above it to be in fat burn zone, if you see the heart symbol vacated, step it up to move up a zone, when it starts radiating, slow down a bit to stay in optimum, healthy weight loss range.

[Elizabethpuzzle]

Today I have 73 active minutes As I have flu I have been anything but active so how can this be?

[Sif]

Exactly my question!  e.g. 5000 steps for the day but on time active minutes are 29 and another day 0 active minutes