ACTIVE MINUTES: How?????

[sabicas]

if one participates in strenuous activities (in this case Tae Kwon Do and surfing) how can one get the Flex to recognize those as "very active minutes"?

no doubt that TKD for 50-60mins is strenuous and likely burns 400-500 calories. same with surfing (usually lots of 'spirited' paddling), which is usually two hours or so.

currently, i estmate the calories burned and enter that when i log the activity. one can eiither log 'miles' or 'calories' with an activity, but it doesn't seem there is always a correlation between what i've logged (eg 50 mins of intense TKD= 475 cals burned) and the total of 'very active mins". thanks for any advice.

[Heybales · Accepted solution]

When you manually log it, the calorie count must be 6 x your resting calorie burn rate to count as VAM time.

So your 9.5 cal/min TDK example means your resting would need to be 1.58 or lower.

On the chart showing 5 min spans, that's 7.92.

Which 1.58 cal/min x 1440 = 2280 BMR daily.

That's a huge BMR, so likely you should have this counting as VAM calories.

Steps won't of course.

When you started your topic, several past topics would have pulled up as suggestions to view - do view them, some great details from several members exactly answers your question.

[sabicas]

whoa; thanks for the detailed answer- exactly what i needed. i scanned some of the other discussions and, if this info was present elsewhere, i missed it.

[Colinm39]

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@sabicas wrote:

whoa; thanks for the detailed answer- exactly what i needed. i scanned some of the other discussions and, if this info was present elsewhere, i missed it.

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@sabicasAs @Heybales posted the BMR is extremely high. I would suggest you check your BMR with this calculator which uses the same equations as Fitbit (confirmed by Fitbit support).The calculation is only 4 calories different from my BMR (sedentary 5 minutes x 1440= 24 hours).

It is important you have your physical attributes correct because all of Fitbit calculations hinge around BMR which is about 75% of your daily calorie burn

[ysabella]

i bought this band one week ago and cant figure out how to keep track of activities, walking, kiking, aerobic class , etc.

Am I supposed to enter the info or is this band suppposed to do it on its own?

[jtpne]

I have the same question.  If the fit bit is calculating my steps and calories burned during the day, wouldn't I be counting double if I recorded my treadmill work?

I do record stationary cycling because that is not stepping.

[Heybales]

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@ysabella wrote:

i bought this band one week ago and cant figure out how to keep track of activities, walking, kiking, aerobic class , etc.

Am I supposed to enter the info or is this band suppposed to do it on its own?

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Check out the FAQ's for logging your non-step based activity. Help forums has them too.

Band is for step based activity, think walking, running, gym classes. Not swimming, rowing, standing lifting weights, biking, elliptical.

[Heybales]

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@jtpne wrote:

I have the same question.  If the fit bit is calculating my steps and calories burned during the day, wouldn't I be counting double if I recorded my treadmill work?

I do record stationary cycling because that is not stepping.

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No.

If you haven't logged anything yet, then you aren't aware you are asked for start and duration time of what you are logging.

Which then wipes out whatever Fitbit came up with. Steps are not touched unless you log walking or running, then they are recalculated based on the distance you said you went.

[ddsmsjsls]

I am using Flex.  Does anyone know how to log activity when the duration is less than 1 hour?  When I try to manually log the activity it requires a start and stop time based on time of day.  

thanks

[Colinm39]

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@ddsmsjsls wrote:

I am using Flex.  Does anyone know how to log activity when the duration is less than 1 hour?  When I try to manually log the activity it requires a start and stop time based on time of day.  

thanks

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@ddsmsjslsYou are using the large stopwatch which is a manual timed activity and it is a copy of your tracker data. Many of us use this feature to analyse past events.

What you need to do is enter a search word in the search box and see if your activity is there. If not give us an example and we will help.

Read this link will also help you.

[teetsie]

the last 2 days it shows 0 active minutes, what am I doing wrong, do I need to put the info in myself? I have only had this for 4 days , so I am not really sure what all I need to do and what it records on its own.

[Colinm39]

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@teetsie wrote:

the last 2 days it shows 0 active minutes, what am I doing wrong, do I need to put the info in myself? I have only had this for 4 days , so I am not really sure what all I need to do and what it records on its own.

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@teetsieFitbit have a 10 minute continuous activity time to show Active Minutes (AM) and the number of calories you need are 3.0-5.9 times your BMR for Moderate Minutes and 6.0 and greater for Very Active Minutes every minute. The total of the two are your AM's.

This link explains what Fitbit have done. The link was edited om 9th June and now there is no mention of the Very Active Minutes (VAM) which is the 6 times BMR or greater.

If you don't know your Fitbit BMR use this calculator and this uses the same equations that Fitbit use. 

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator

[wintersolace]

I use Fitbit HR. I started using it in December last year. So far, it's been pretty smart in figuring out what activities I have done. I don't manually record anything. It however, recorded the time I ran, walk, and did arobic exercise!  The actual minutes it recorded is a bit longer than my actual exercises but that's probably because my heart rate was still high and I was walking around. I will try to do manual logging when I go back to swim.

[RubyH]

Question, if My Fitness Pal estimates my BMR at 803 per day and my Fitbit Zip gives me 1152 per day or 4 cals per 5 mins, which is correct? I am 63, female, 155cm tall and current weight is 68.3kgs. At this point I still have 10.4 kgs to lose.

[Raviv]

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@RubyH wrote:

Question, if My Fitness Pal estimates my BMR at 803 per day and my Fitbit Zip gives me 1152 per day or 4 cals per 5 mins, which is correct? I am 63, female, 155cm tall and current weight is 68.3kgs. At this point I still have 10.4 kgs to lose.

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BMR is the amount of calories you would burn if you never got out of bed and slept through the day.

The number of calories your Fitbit is giving you is the number of calories you would likely burn during the course of a normal day, given an average activity level.  If you exercise, then that number should go up.  If you stay on the couch binge-watching Netflix all day, it should go down.

[Dollydenim]

Can I have this dumbed down please I'm to tired from dealing with my baby

[Dominique]

@Dollydenim: what is it you need to have dumbed down? What active minutes are? How to get them? Something else?

[Colinm39]

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@Dollydenim wrote:
Can I have this dumbed down please I'm to tired from dealing with my baby

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@Dollydenim To keep it really simple.. Calculate your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) through this calculator which uses the same equations that Fitbit uses and it is suggested by the Moderators in their posts.  You can use the Activity Log barchart for your sleep time but there is some rounding in that. Using the calculator is more accurate.

Divide the BMR answer by 1440 minutes/day = BMR/minute Example BMR/1440=One minute BMR

Multiply that by 3 = the minimum calories/minute for one Active minute.

For Fitbit to record that you need at least 10 continuous minutes to record 10 x Active minutes.

Here is a final example, which is poor, because occasionally you get this type of glitch where the display doesn't follow the 10 minute rule.

This image is typical of what should happen.  The green line is the Very Active Minutes which is  6 times or more by your BMR...  I received 28 Active Minutes for this activity.

The images are from the Activity Log and if you need information on displaying these don't hesitate to post again. I use a third party product to notate the images.

[shipo]

The calculator link provided in the above post from @Colinm39 is interesting, however, I think it is flawed.  Why?  Said calculator only uses weight, height, age, and gender as it's metrics; while I've never used a calculator like this before, I cannot wrap my brain around a calculator which indicates the same BMR for say, an obese 250 pound individual of any given height, age, and gender versus a heavily muscled 250 pound individual of the same height, age, and gender.

[Heybales]

While very true - the only thing really lacking is body composition - %
body fat usage.

The other stats of gender and age try to estimate that BF% basically based
on averages.
The height provides surface area for heat loss, and general size of the
metabolic organs that cause most of the burn.
And weight with BF% gets the rest.

So it's not as flawed as you might think - until you really start to ramp
up BF% in heavy weight.



Because it's keeping the BF% the same when it's not true, meaning it's
giving more calorie burn for the inceased LBM it thinks you have.
So the worse contrast would be 2 people of same everything but body comp as
you point out.
It actually would correct the estimate between say a 65 yr old woman at 250
lbs compared to 20 yr old man, though the woman being high BF% and if the
man was low BF% - both would be way off the averages anyway.



But - guess how bad body fat scales, hand-held calipers, and measurements
can be also - now you've thrown off those estimates that could use a better
stat. 5-10% isn't awful accuracy, but it does change the end result.



If you have a decent 5% accurate BF stat - using the Katch BMR formula
would start out better.

Measurement method here, BMR with Katch results - sadly they don't include
Mifflin which is similar to what Fitbit uses.

www.gymgoal.com/dtools.html



And your can indeed tweak the height on Fitbit so it's formula ends up
at the same BMR if a big difference.
Must adjust stride length manually though since it's calculated from height
and gender.