Active Minutes

[Jayhawk32]

Hello,

My Fitbit Flex used to very accurately track my active minutes. It now no longer does so. Yesterday I have 20,000+ steps of which some accrued during a 45 minute run. However, for the day it only recorded 25 activie minutes for the entire day. It used to record more, but now no longer does so. I first noticed this after the battery died and it was fully charged.

[betpchem]

Was there anything different during that run? Were you  holding on to something? Did you have the flex in a different spot? Did you change anything in settings? Once, I found my flex had come off my wrist and was trapped in my jacket - I don't think it counted properly that day, for example. 

[Jayhawk32]

No, there was nothing different about this run.  It's been a constant theme (low active minutes) that started occuring about 2 weeks ago. I've noticed a decline in active minutes for the same activities as compared to when the Fitbit was first purchased.

Is there a setting that's changed?

[EmersonFitbit]

@Jayhawk32 We've had some issues with very active minutes registering funnily recently. The eingeering department (people much smarter than I) are aware of the issue, and look to have it resolved sooner rather than later.

[k2w]

Hello,

I had the same issue today. I walked this morning at 4.0mph pace for 60 minutes and logged 4 miles. My active minutes ony showed as 2 minutes and that occured after I was done with the walk. I also went to a sculpt class tonight and manually logged that in under my fitness pal . I logged the walk in under my fitness pal as well . Needless to say I am still only showing 2 minutes. I reset my flex this afternoon and it still is not showing correctly. What else do I need to do? Looks like it just started doing this. My active minutes for Saturday were correct.

[Julgen]

My flex seems to not be recording my active minutes. I walked for 3.1 miles in 60 minutes (documented by my watch) today and the flex recorded 19 active minutes. What am I doing wrong? Is there a glitch in the software?

[Heybales]

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@Julgen wrote:

My flex seems to not be recording my active minutes. I walked for 3.1 miles in 60 minutes (documented by my watch) today and the flex recorded 19 active minutes. What am I doing wrong? Is there a glitch in the software?

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Doing wrong?

Not going fast enough to earn VAM time, that's all.

Needs to be 6 x the calorie burn as you'd burn resting, and/or about 3.8 mph.

You didn't hit either for a whole 60 seconds at a time during that 60 min, except for 19 min of the time, likely when extra steps were counted and it thought you were going faster.

Walking semi-easy doesn't earn Very Active Minutes.

If it's hard for you right now, that's just because you are out of shape, doesn't mean it burns more calories. It'll get easy enough. Easy enough you'll increase the speed.

Actually, 3.5 mph is more efficient than 3.1, may be able to already do that.

[Julgen]

But when I walk just that fast on the treadmill I get the minutes.

Sent from my iPad

[slysam]

I think there might be some changes in very active minutes, they do update their formula from time to time to stay more in line with Center of Disease Control activity guidelines. What HeyBales said is right, usually it has to do with the speed of your steps. The intensity of the minutes is based on the calorie burn. To see very active minutes you need to burn at least 6 times your resting calorie burn (both resting and activity burn are as estimated by fitbit though if you log the activity it is based on the burn you log). This ratio of 6 times your resting rate is per CDC guidelines of what they consider vigorous activity. Your speed is a big factor in fitbit's calorie burn estimate but it is not the only factor. Sometimes you can see very active minutes at a slower speed if the movement is large enough, there are more up and down motions, the movement is higher impact, etc. For example, I always get very active mintues when I jump rope, I tend to be credited a step per jump. The step count and speed are often slower than when I walk outside, but fitbit still credits me with a higher calorie burn and more very active mintues than I get walking that speed. This is without me logging anything. I have seen this consistently for years and realized it must be the impact or the vertical motion it is crediting. It may be that when you are on a treadmill there is something different about your movement like maybe you move bouncier. It is intersting as your experiennce is opposite to some (often people post they see very active minutes easier walking outside than on a treadmill) . Oh, keep in mind if you are manully logging anything all this is out the window--because the activity minutes are just based on the calorie burn per minute that you logged. If you are logging the treadmill calorie burn, that explains why you are seeing VAM more easily on a treadmill. Saying that I think I read there are some changes in active minutes, so you probably shouldn't compare if your treadmill activity wasn't very recent.