Cardio load is nonsense in my opinion

[Dom123456]

I believe this has replaced the daily readiness, i'm not finding this new feature very intuitive, the goal keeps changing I have no idea how to gauge how much or little exercise is needed, weather a rest day or not basically, the only gist I get is that I need to do some sort of cardio exercise everyday, well I know that, it's good that it can be removed from the home screen.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[Microbro]

I’m with you on this issue!

What is the difference between “Readiness” and “Cardio Load”? Fitbit needs a stronger narrative. And while they’re at it, they should activate “Stairs Climbed” for our devices.

[Bill_209]

Activating 'stairs climbed' on an Inspire 3 is not an option, because the Inspire 3 does not have the hardware (altimeter) needed to support that feature.

[LZeeW]

@Dom123456   @Microbro   You will start getting your target load after calibration.  Your Readiness score should guide you towards reaching your target by doing that HIIT class or a longer, lower intensity workout.

[Dom123456]

What's that got to do with my post?

Rubbish, what's that's got to do with my activity, i'm an outside guy, not sure why people are defending this metric so much.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[LZeeW]

@Dom123456   Your Cardio load and Target load are different from your Readiness score.  It has not replaced your daily readiness score.  I understand that it might not benefit you and your lifestyle.  Feel free to turn it off.  Monitoring cardio load helps you set your training intensity, minimize injury risk, and it aids in your recovery.

[Dom123456]

Thanks for this chat warrior response very 90s, i'm a Fitbit (google customer lol) I don't need your opinion, this is my opinion as a customer, paying a monthly subscription, pretty pathetic this open blog thing really. Listen, agree/disagree then change, Fitbit is great.. but, I'm only trying to improve things, but if something is crap I won't promote it. 

[AugustPhillips]

Thank you so much for answering my question.

[Dom123456]

Let me know how to turn off the constant in app load tips would be good 👍 ? 

[Dom123456]

Totally agree, the format was a lot easier to navigate, I originally went for Fitbit for its fun simplicity.

---

This is half correct, if you have your mobile with you most apps will track stairs climbed, just integrate the stats, plus i'd like to see a basic way of entering blood pressure data. 

[JosephJohnson]

@Dom123456 is spot on. The recently released "cardio load" metric is misleading and likely some BS science that Fitbit came up with. The metric is basically useless.  And don't get me started, as Fitbit has been on a downhill slide ever since they were acquired by Google!

[hovdeo]

Trying to find some sense and logic to cardio load. Just did 30’ easy jogging 6’/km - cardio load 106. Two days ago I did threshold minus 4x8’ + 2x12’ z2 on stationary bike - cardio load 38. Every day I am being told I need to do a cardio load of one nine nine-297 to get back on track improving cardio fitness. 1h20m weight session yesterday gave me a cardio load of 140 average HR 117bpm Just confused about what they try to tell me. 

[hovdeo]

Had to remove 199 was not allowed. 

[Sparky617]

I've been trying to figure this out since I discovered it on the app a few weeks ago.  For background I'm a pretty fit 60+ year old man.  I generally walk 2-3 miles in the morning with my dog, and take a 17 to 30 mile bike ride 5 or 6 days a week, averaging over 100 biking miles per week, and 15 to 20 miles walking the dog.  Yesterday I biked 34 miles in 2 hours 30 minutes with and average speed of 13.2, average heart rate of 95 and zone minutes of 65 and cardio load of 61.  I also track with Strava using a chest strap HRM lists my HR average as 113, which I place more faith in than the wrist based HRM in the Sense.  The walk had 25 zone minutes and cardio load of 12.  Today the app says I'm at risk of "undertraining" and I should be aiming for a 183 to 242 cardio load!  I was also up on my feet doing some home improvement work for most of the rest of the day, and logged 21,921 "steps" 127 "active zone minutes" and 122 floors and my cardio load totaled out at 83.

So with all that, how much time does Fitbit think I can put into training every day?  Isn't 15,000+ "steps" a day slightly above average? Strava's "Athlete Intelligence" is a much better motivational tool. I'm pretty close to pulling the plug on premium, because I really don't see any value to the extra features, especially at $10 USD a month.  Searching through the forum here I'm really not getting a sense that anyone understands this, nor thinks it is useful.

[ADKzip]

Agree.  I'm a 74 YR woman who works out daily but not training for anything.  Also, I find it uncomfortable to wear my Inspire on my very slender wrist with shirtsleeves - and since it's dang cold in the Adirondacks in winter, that's pretty much all winter!  So, I get these utterly inane messages telling me one day that I'm training really well and can lay off and then, if I wear my Inspire on my clip, that I am under-training and need to kick it up a notch.  What utter and total crap.  There's a separate thread on this issue complaining about the inability to scratch the cardiac load messages from the app and it's clear that Fitbit has made that difficult to do.  I, for one, have deleted all the data and the positioning on the app but I cannot cancel out of the stupid daily message no matter how many times I push on the X with my finger or a stylus.

[RiekoC]

Hello @ADKzip 

Please consider adding your vote & comments to this feature request in the Product Feedback forum to allow users to move/delete the Cardio Load prompt in the Fitbit app  (<-- click link).

[CREDDERS]

I totally agree with the comments. The cardio load results are flawed. I am a senior and have a dedicated gym programme set by an instructor. His advise is train and rest before another training session. My aim is to achieve 75mins intensive activity a week.  According to my recent Cardio I should being doing it almost 84 -104 level daily to maintain my cardio fitness.  I agree with the comment it's best to ignore.

[poppybalzac]

It's certainly a challenge. It's demanding 2 hours a day minimum. Yesterday I cycled at least 10 miles, ran 5km, completed an icy lake swim, and a weight training class. Zone minutes over 200. Apparently I'm undertraining. No way!!! 

[RiekoC]

Hello @poppybalzac 

Unfortunately, you're at a disadvantage at reaching your Cardio Target with your yesterday activities since there's currently an issue with biking activities not getting the appropriate Cardio Load credit. Also, there's no Cardio Load credit for swimming since that activity doesn't track heart rate.

[ADKzip]

Here are a few more problems:

-- Fitbit doesn't track cross-country skiing.  If you are wearing your Fitbit on your wrist, it will track your vitals.  But if you are wearing an Inspire on a clip, it will track steps but not vitals.  Not sure it accurately tracks the "steps" you take gliding on skis but...

-- If Fitbit realizes you are on an elliptical (which it auto-recognizes only sometimes) and your device is on a wrist, it only tracks steps as what you are doing with that hand.  In other words, it tracks only half your actual steps.  At least it will track your vitals. 

-- If you tell the Fitbit you are on a treadmill instead of on your elliptical, it will track all your steps plus your vitals.  It actually tracks slightly fewer steps than if you are wearing your device on the clip but the clip doesn't track your vitals.

And during all of this it is using the data you paid Fitbit to track to develop its algorithms, which it claims are "personalized" to your age and sex in which the term "personalized" is stretched to its maximum extent.  Plus it's missing all sorts of data if you are wearing your device on a clip in order to fully and accurately track your steps, which I do for both health reasons and to win various health challenges and rewards.

Bottom line:  The cardiac load training data is suspect because not everybody is tracking their vitals all the time because they want to track their steps accurately.  PS The issue oi inaccurate tracking of steps on an elliptical has been documented on other threads.  The weakness in how Fitbit tracks sleep has also been document on other threads.  My hunch is that Fitbit, which evolved from a basic step tracker, hasn't yet decided what it wants to be when it grows up.