Active Minutes

[mslemay]

I am confused. Today I tracked a walk. I walkedfor 1 hour and twenty minutes.  My active minutes were only 34.  In the tracker, it gave me credit for the whole walk but only 34 active minutes.  My pace was 16.44 which is going at a good pace.  Why are the active minutes and the walk total different.  One would think if you are moving a good clip, the fitbit would register the full time of the walk.  TIA for your help.

[Colinm39]

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@mslemay wrote:

I am confused. Today I tracked a walk. I walkedfor 1 hour and twenty minutes.  My active minutes were only 34.  In the tracker, it gave me credit for the whole walk but only 34 active minutes.  My pace was 16.44 which is going at a good pace.  Why are the active minutes and the walk total different.  One would think if you are moving a good clip, the fitbit would register the full time of the walk.  TIA for your help.

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@mslemayYou definitely walked at a fair pace. Fitbit calculates your VAM every 60 seconds and you will find you will have minor variations in your pace. I have to walk at a pace greater than 14.00 with a BMR of 1580 to get just 48% VAM. You received 43% VAM. Then for me, it gets down to 7 calories/minute for 1 x VAM.

Have you checked your walking with a timed activity and analysed the graphs. ?

[slysam]

Fitbit claims you get very active when you burn 6 times your resting rate. Walking on flat ground, you would need to walk around 4.5 mph give or take depending on your height, etc. That's "on paper/screen" anyway. I am 5' 1" and I see partial credit for them at around 4mph or faster if I do not log the activity (If I log it the speed needs to be around 4.5 mph it seems). So I think your pace was a little slow for "very active minutes". Briskly Walking is usually considered moderately active so likely you did earn some solid moderately active minutes. For CDC activity guidelines, you can meet or exceed their suggestion with either moderate or vigorous activity and both are good for your health. My pet fitbit peeve is that Fitbit describes only the "very active" (vigorous) activity minutes as "active" when "moderately active minutes are alos "active". They really should only label it "very active minutes" or list both levels (correctly labelled) on the tile.