Cardio Load Feature is Nonsense?

[Freebic]

I'm convinced this new (ish) cardio load feature is daft. I mean, what does it even mean? Some weeks I exercise every day and it tells me I'm 'in danger of under exercising" and other weeks I sit too much due to work or menopausal fatigue and it tells me to "take it easy'! 

Furthermore, if you log an activity that never seems to get taken into consideration, so it's like you never did it as far as 'cardio load' is concerned. I'm told this is linked to 'daily readiness' but no idea what that is either. Gimmicks? 

[LZeeW]

@Freebic   I moved your post to the Get Moving forum, because I think it will reach a wider audience.

[RiekoC]

Hello @Freebic 

This help page (<-- click) provides more information on Cardio Load & Cardio Target Load, including how the values are calculated. This page (<-- click) explains the Daily Readiness Score & how it is calculated. 

These are recommendations that you are free to follow or ignore. There are plenty of days that I ignore the target load, especially when I'm not feeling well. 

[YachatsMike]

One of the things I have come to understand is that Fitbit measures CARDIO metrics.  Things like Cardio Load, Zone Minutes, and Readiness are calculations based on your heart and lungs.  They do not take into account muscle fatigue and recovery.  Those you have to judge for yourself.  If your body is telling you that you need to rest, believe it.  Cardio metrics aren't likely to pick it up 

[Cluckinghen]

It is utterly ridiculous. Some days it tells me to basically not move at all, then it tells me I need 269(??!!??).  I set it to maintenance after reading some of the comments here, but it's suggested load doesn't look like maintenance? Do nothing, then go CRAZY?? That seems pretty unhealthy to me. (The day where I 'hit' my cardio load is because I didn't wear the **ahem** watch as it was charging 🤣).  FITBIT - SORT IT OUT PLS!

 

[worldtraveler27]

I've been extremely frustrated with this feature. Yesterday I got 168 zone minutes but for some reason my cardio load was only 133 which didn't meet the goal my fitbit set of 178 to 278 (which seems insanely high anyways). I gave up when I couldn't figure out why it was so low in spite of the exercise I'd achived. I realy have no clue how it's even calculated and what I need to do to meet it without totally exhausting myself. It's asking for 170 today... isn't the goal usually 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous a week? This just seems absurd.

I've moved it down to maintaining instead of improving because I am getting discouraged with what seem like exorbidant daily goals as someone who isn't super active. I really wish this feature could come with some better explanation and more easy to meet goals, especially for someone just trying to get a little better at being active. I'm not trying to run a marathon, I just want to be a little healthier and improve my minimal cardio.

[RiekoC]

Hello @worldtraveler27 

Although I'm not sure that this will be helpful to you, this page (<-- click) provides more details about Fitbit's Cardio Load and Cardio Target Load. 

Based on your post, it looks to me that you are confusing Active Zone Minutes and Cardio Load. It's the Active Zone Minutes goal for 150 minutes moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week, which is in line with the World Health Organization's recommendation for adults. 

Since you switched your Cardio Load fitness goal to Maintain, you should see a more reasonable target range. Keep in mind that even the Target range is a suggestion. Listen to your body and how you feel. 

Personally, I look at the Your past 7 days training bar graph to see where my dot is. If it's in the Maintain section, I don't stress out when my Cardio Load is less than the Target range. I also check my Cardio Fitness score on the Heart page. As long as it's in the Excellent range, I'm comfortable with where I'm at. 

[chriscole1]

I get where you’re coming from! The Cardio Load feature can feel confusing at first. Basically, it tries to measure how much strain your cardiovascular system is under, based on recent workouts vs. your usual training history.

When it tells you to “take it easy,” it’s usually because your recent cardio load is much higher than your baseline, so it thinks you risk overtraining. When it warns about “under exercising,” it’s seeing a drop below your usual average, even if you feel active.TThe system might miss activities like yoga or strength training since it doesn’t always capture them well. Also, if you want window blinds, click here .As for daily readiness: that’s often based on metrics like heart rate variability (HRV), sleep, and resting heart rate, so if you skip logging or log activities it can’t read well (like yoga or strength training), the system might miss them.For anyone interested, here’s the resource I mentioned: cli.

[Feral.Queen]

Wow. And I'm having the opposite issue. I'm not even actively working out. Yeah, I'm on my feet for 8 hrs at work (retail, full time), but I'm not exerting myself. The cardio load always says like 4-22. After I day at work my load reads 130+. At this point, the bar for training level is maxed out at overtraining. 

Starting to get really frustrated with fitbit metrics.

[alexthecat]

@Feral.Queen can I ask how long you have been wearing your Fitbit and how long this issue with Cardio Load has been happening?

If it has only been a week or two, I would suggest that you ignore the recommended Cardio Load and just keep doing what you do. Eventually, it will figure out your normal activity level and adapt to that. 

Also, if your goal is set to "Maintain", I would try changing it to "Improve". That should cause the app to generate higher numbers. 

[Feral.Queen]

Yes I am set to maintain because I figured that's I all need. I'm not actually going out of my way to improve or work harder at anything. Someone else said something about switching to "Improve" to get the messages to go away, and I guess I'll do that. 

I was without a Fitbit for about a year, and got this one back on June 12th this year. The over training message has been one for over a week now. At least. I ignored it for a while but when I noticed it wasn't going down much even after a night of rest or a day off work I started looking around on here.

If it starts giving me 200+ cardio loads for the day and I'm gonna have to figure something else out. And first on that list is formal complaints anywhere and everywhere I can.

[mathgeek3_14]

I agree. 60 years old,just road my bike 25 miles for 2 hours and I only received a cardio load of 19. My heart rate was up the time and yes my average was 90 but I was still above my resting heart rate for 2 hours! 

[MrsGixxer]

I've noticed that if I don't use my Fitbit for any length of time (sometimes I just get sick of wearing something on my wrist all the time) that anything I do once I start wearing it again is too much.  It seems as though it has to reset itself each time.  I have had several times where I quit wearing it so I've noticed the pattern.  In my opinion, all these watches are guides.  I tend to look at the trends rather than the exact numbers.  While the exact number might be wrong, the trend is probably correct.  I don't usually log activities these days.  Either I am wearing it or not.  

[YachatsMike]

Cardio Load is a lot like Zone Minutes but more accurate.  Zone Minutes only has 2 values.  1 point per minute for moderate exercise and 2 points per minute for vigorous or peak exercise..

Cardio Load is a continuous scale.  The harder you work, the more points you get.  The formula is minutes x %HRR x 0.65 x e^(1.95 x %HRR).

When you compare the two, you get more points from Zone Minutes at lower heart rates and more points from Cardio Load at higher heart rates.  The cross over is at about 70% HRR which is about where you enter the Anaerobic Threshold.  Since the Cardio Load calculation is exponential, it kind of takes off after that.

[mathgeek3_14]

Based off the simple firmula, and based off my workout yesterday,13 minutes
vigorous and 27 moderate my cardio load should have bee. 53 but it showed
up as a 38 and that doesn't cout for the 22 minutes of light load.

Bottom line is fit it dies not calculate correctly when you are on a bike
or spinning and the activity selection should not matter it should just be
based off the heart rate data.

[YachatsMike]

I read that Cardio Load looks for motion, too.  They don't want to give you points just because you drank a quad espresso and it jacked your pulse up.  I move my arms a little when I ride my exercise bike and that seems like enough.

[mathgeek3_14]

That explains why it works slightly better on a mountain bike vs road Bike.
I dint think an espresso raises my heart rate that much. If people want to
cheat themselves let them. I'd just like an honest reading.