Active minutes

[spack]

My Fitbit does not appear to show active minutes accurately.  When I walk on my treadmill, it doesn't recognize that as being active and doesn't seem to record accurate steps.

[TheJenster]

I was just looking this up.  I have a fitbit flex.  I walked on a treadmill today and held on to the heart rate monitor handles.  I did not record a lot of steps.  It appears that you have to be moving your arm that the fit bit is on.  This will be like you were walking in real life.  The natural arm swing.  If you are holding onto the handles, it isn't as accurate.  Not happy about it but now that I know I'll do better tomorrow.

[slysam]

It may be a problem if you hang onto the handles with a Flex, I have a One and don't have that issue. The other thing is that "active minutes" are "very active minutes" (not correctly labelled). There are also lgiht activity and moderate activity minutes. Walking is usually considered "moderately active" though if you walk fast enough it will probably credit you with very active minutes. The activity intensity is based on the calorie burn each minute and METs. This article from fitbit's help explains: help.fitbit.com/customer/portal/articles/1020095-what-are-%22very-active-minutes%22-

[josephz2va]

On a treadmill, you need to keep your arms moving in order to record steps. If your arms are stationary, there will be no readings.

In order to get Active Minutes, it has to be at an intensity heart rate. When I am doing the treadmill, I have to set the speed to 3.0 and higher in order to receive VAMs. It also helps to set up your Stride Length in the settings for Walking Stride and Running Stride.

You can also use HR Fat burn or HR Cardio and have it set for your age's heart rate. This helps with maintaining your intensity heart rate based on speed and altitude.

Or you can use the Elliptical instead which has moving arms. I use that most often and set the mode for HR Intensity which hops between 130 and 148 for my age intensity 2.

[tvillenana]

My flex has completely stopped measuring active minutes.  I walked 30 minutes at 3.5 with 2.0 incline and it shows no active minutes.  My arms are moving, heart gets pumping....and no active minutes. How can I fix that?

[jstebb]

I also have a problem with the active minutes.  When I run, I get very few active minutes.  It doesn't seem to register as active.  I can run an hour and 25 minutes and get 11 active minutes.  BUT if I walk every minute of walking counts as active.  I use MapMyWalk and MapMyRun so I know that my pace is definately faster at least 4 minutes per mile running over walking.  It's annoying.

[Heybales]

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@tvillenana wrote:

My flex has completely stopped measuring active minutes.  I walked 30 minutes at 3.5 with 2.0 incline and it shows no active minutes.  My arms are moving, heart gets pumping....and no active minutes. How can I fix that?

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Just to be clear - your Flex, none of the devices, measure active minutes.

They measure steps and time, floors if those models.

They calculate everything else.

And Very Active Minutes is only given if the calorie burn for a whole 60 seconds at a time was 6 x your resting calorie burn.

Fitbit doesn't know any incline, nor the fact that made you work harder - you get no credit for it in calories, or VAM time.

So that speed is what the treadmill said - is that what the Flex saw though? Still not fast enough, really need to walk fast to earn Very Active Minutes.

So the whole 30 min was literally 3.5 mph, no speed up or slow down within the 30 min?

So you should have gone 1.75 miles, and if device doesn't show that, there's part of your problem.

[Heybales]

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@jstebb wrote:

I also have a problem with the active minutes.  When I run, I get very few active minutes.  It doesn't seem to register as active.  I can run an hour and 25 minutes and get 11 active minutes.  BUT if I walk every minute of walking counts as active.  I use MapMyWalk and MapMyRun so I know that my pace is definately faster at least 4 minutes per mile running over walking.  It's annoying.

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So are you getting synced in activities from MMW/MMR that replace the distance, calories, and actually steps, that Fitbit came up with.

Or you are NOT syncing, and you can confirm that Fitbit sees the same distance?

You may be one smooth runner, but a heavy heel striker when walking - though it shouldn't be that bad.

What device - you failed to mention, and it does matter.

[jstebb]

 Thanks for responding. I have a Flex.   I've only had it a week so I'm still learning.  

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by synching with MMW/R.  It is not replacing the Fitbit information that I can see.  I manually enter the activity after each walk/run.  

I don't know that I'm a smooth runner.  I'm also new to this.  I'm not fast by any stretch of the imagination just faster than when I walk which calculates active minutes properly.  

Next time I run, I will see how the miles and time match in Fitbit with MMR.  

[Heybales]

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@jstebb wrote:

 Thanks for responding. I have a Flex.   I've only had it a week so I'm still learning.  

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by synching with MMW/R.  It is not replacing the Fitbit information that I can see.  I manually enter the activity after each walk/run.  

I don't know that I'm a smooth runner.  I'm also new to this.  I'm not fast by any stretch of the imagination just faster than when I walk which calculates active minutes properly.  

Next time I run, I will see how the miles and time match in Fitbit with MMR.  

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You can sync those accounts, if you don't recall going through extra steps on Fitbit telling it about your MMW account, you didn't do it.

But YOU are replacing the Fitbit info when you manually log it. Are you putting in the calorie burn also?

Why do that though? Walking and running is exactly it's best use, most chance for accuracy. It won't know about you doing inclines or carrying extra weight, so it'll underestimate calorie burn then, and if stride length is wrong it could be off there.

And that's likely the issue - how do you know you should be getting Very Active Minutes (VAM) when walking? That's an assumption based on nothing, since new at this. Perhaps that's incorrect actually.

Anybody can get VAM time, just manually log an activity with a big enough calorie burn - you got it. Doesn't mean you did it though in reality.

So indeed, see if the Fitbit distance is correct for a walk and run compared to more accurate method than stride length x steps (which it does). For distance and calorie burn.

May need to adjust your stride length for walking and running, most likely wrong.

In your settings page.

[gingerlucy]

I have the fitbit HR and it was recording my walks but today I walked 3.7 miles and it did not record it but it seems to be working while walking in my house. I was very disappointed today and I hope this not going to be an ongoing problem. I have always liked the fitbits I have purchased and have been happy with this one until today.  I wonder why it didn't show my steps in my walk today.

[Heybales]

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@gingerlucy wrote:

I have the fitbit HR and it was recording my walks but today I walked 3.7 miles and it did not record it but it seems to be working while walking in my house. I was very disappointed today and I hope this not going to be an ongoing problem. I have always liked the fitbits I have purchased and have been happy with this one until today.  I wonder why it didn't show my steps in my walk today.

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Were exactly are you looking that makes you think it isn't recording that walk or the steps?

Actually, which is it, no steps for that block of time per your daily 5 min block graph, and/or no calorie burn above normal, or activity record for the block shows no stats?

[gingerlucy]

I always check how many steps I take in a day and when I finished my walk it had not showed my 3 miles so I came home and checked my dashboard and it didn't show it anywhere.

[Heybales]

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@gingerlucy wrote:
I always check how many steps I take in a day and when I finished my walk it had not showed my 3 miles so I came home and checked my dashboard and it didn't show it anywhere.

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Pick one of these past walks, hopefully you still have good idea of start and finish time.

In the online account Log - Activities - Activity Record at the bottom.

Name it whatever, give the times, and finish.

Now see what stats Fitbit is reporting for exactly that time block.

If indeed none, and you had the unit on, call up Fitbit and explain what you had, how you did the walk (not death grip on support treadmill bars hopefully), and the activity record that shows no steps.

[gingerlucy]

Thanks for the reply and I don’t walk on treadmills, just on the trails around here.