Cycling....

[zomba66]

is there any way for the fitbit to record you activity while you are cycling.  I road for 3 hours today and it told be that I was active for 23 minutes.  Just curious...

[JPAZ357]

The fitbit is really based on step movements. You can trick it by putting it in a leg pocket if you're wearing shorts/bibs/pants that have one. 

[Colinm39]

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@zomba66 wrote:

is there any way for the fitbit to record you activity while you are cycling.  I road for 3 hours today and it told be that I was active for 23 minutes.  Just curious...

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@zomba66It would be interesting to see what steps and calories that lengthy ride picked up. There are Fitbitters who have cycling as there only form of exercise and they wear the clipon fitbit at the end of their Lycra. There is a humorous side to one of them, we were in dialogue and talking cadence, and he realised he had logged 21m steps which were revolutions and should have been 42m leg movements.

This type of Fitbit is very accurate measuring steps for the cadence and I have found on testing, if the Fitbit is slightly below the waist, like in a jeans coin pocket, while using an exercise bike it generates calories equivalent to walking at about 3.5 mph. But not active minutes. I need a walk speed of 4.2mph to create active minutes.

At one stage there were avid cyclists looking for an answer and feeling like they were cheating the system,  I ran tests on my exercise bike. I'm in the fortunate position that I have extra Fitbit's and the tests in this link have been replicated with my Ultra and the One. The Classic died after 2.25 years.

[Heybales]

If you correctly manually log that non-step based activity, your steps will remain, and if good enough pace or you have a calorie burn already, you'll get Very Active Minutes if it indeed was a workout for you.

I just logged my first mountain bike ride, and while only about 6 mph, and an avgHR matching lawnmowing, it was all given VAM time.

Even the non-step "steps" were given the green line too, and that was with it on the hip as normal. Of course it only saw half the steps, but I think in this case it saw a ton of extra "steps" in the bouncing.

If step goal mattered to me, I might care about that.

[flyboy]

I've tried clipping my Flex to my shoes for cycling, and had trouble with it putting itself into sleep mode.  So I started using the large wristband and putting it around my ankle and tucking it inside my sock but constantly worried that it would fall off and that I'd lose it. I gave up trying different things and started just wearing it on my wrist like I normally do and get quite a bit of credit for my cycling miles that way. 

You can also manually enter it into your log function on the site as cycling if you're so inclined. 

[Kejaco]

I use the mobile app RunKeeper to track my bike rides. It is GPS based and it can connect to Fitbit to save your excercises with calories burned.

It doesn't change your step count from fit bit, but it adjusts the calories burned and very active minutes.

[CLhaupt]

mm where do you cycle at?

[MrsL]

I just clip it to my shoe.

[CeeBee2]

I use MapMyRide app to log my cycling miles. This app will synch to fitbit, recording your steps. You will still have to manually enter your workout to fitbit,which is what I do. At least this way you get your miles,speed, time, and calories burned to input. Seems like a lot of work, but it seems to be accurate.

[Gummie]

http://www.bikeforums.net/general-cycling-discussion/642653-converting-cycling-step-count.html

I have a Fitbit HR & wearing on the wrist it registers steps and active time. As a slow rider at 10mph,  my steps on a 24 mile ride equate to about 740 steps per mile, which is broadly in line with figures per link above.

Just seen Fitbit advert on Sky sports 1 which shows cycling as being amongst activities. Can they provide any guidance on steps equivalent ?

[Heybales]

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@Gummie wrote:

http://www.bikeforums.net/general-cycling-discussion/642653-converting-cycling-step-count.html

I have a Fitbit HR & wearing on the wrist it registers steps and active time. As a slow rider at 10mph,  my steps on a 24 mile ride equate to about 740 steps per mile, which is broadly in line with figures per link above.

Just seen Fitbit advert on Sky sports 1 which shows cycling as being amongst activities. Can they provide any guidance on steps equivalent ?

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It's shown as supporting cycling because the Surge can turn on GPS and track your route.

The Surge and Charge HR can both estimate calories burned based on HR _instead_ of using steps which has no accurate translation to calories burned on a bike.

So just start an activity record when you ride, which starts the HR per second logging, stop when finished.

There's your calorie burn for the activity.

No need to do anything.

There is no need for steps equivalent, the HR devices are doing better than steps to estimate calorie burn.

[Gummie]

Heybales

Thanks for this. I'm more interested in number of steps as in a leader board with friends for steps but useful information to know. I should probably focus more on HR and calories burned.

When you say start an activity record when you ride - do you mean wear Fitbit HR & sync after - & review HR chart ? I've a windows phone (lumia 535) which will not sync with Fitbit so I sync via pc. I also record or log via Mapmyride which is paired with Fitbit.

[Heybales]

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@Gummie wrote:

Heybales

Thanks for this. I'm more interested in number of steps as in a leader board with friends for steps but useful information to know. I should probably focus more on HR and calories burned.

When you say start an activity record when you ride - do you mean wear Fitbit HR & sync after - & review HR chart ? I've a windows phone (lumia 535) which will not sync with Fitbit so I sync via pc. I also record or log via Mapmyride which is paired with Fitbit.

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If your exercise goals to improve your body are based on getting steps for contest  - then quickly expect exercise to no longer be transforming the body.

Don't be sucked in to the mistake of allowing a contest to rob you of better workout time if limited.

Start an Activity record - press the button on device.h

What you do later besides the actual device sync is entirely up to you - but if purely step goals, probably doesn't matter much anyway if getting a good workout by reviewing the data.

[msew4you]

Thanks