Does anyone out there do Crossfit?

[Lrmiles]

This morning's Crossfit WOD was 90 boxjumps, 90 Kettlebell swings and 90 Toes to Bar and my fitbit recorded light activty and 300 or so steps.  ARE YOU KIDDING?  this was a serious workout that took 25 minutes.   How do you determine how many calories you burn on something like that?

[SteveH]

Don't forget that your fitbit is a pedometer. All it sees is the steps you take and it calculates effort and calories based on those steps.

Much of your Crossfit did not involve taking steps and much of it required much more effort than merely walking.

Therefore, if you want accurate data, you need to manually log the activity:

http://help.fitbit.com/customer/portal/articles/413311-how-do-i-log-or-record-an-activity-

[Lrmiles]

I did log my crossfit activity, but how do I figure the calorie burn for the
intensity of the workout?

[CeLL_Belle]

I do Crossfit and it does not pick up any of my workouts except for running. I usually try to estimate # of minutes for oly lifts and record that under free weights. For example, tonight we did an 8 min EMOM of 3 position clean and jerks and then 9-7-5 DL and run 200 meters in between. My Fitbit def. picked up the running, but for the lifting I recorded roughly 12 minutes of free weights. Otherwise, I am not too sure. You could try browsing through the activities listed, maybe there's some type of gymnastic activity? At least you know you are burning more calories/being more active than listed, so it can only help your progress.

Moderator Edit: Edited font color.

[zebraa]

I find the same problem with recording elliptical, treadmill and swimming - when I just walk I get active minutes when I am walking at a fast pace - but when I logged my treadmill workout this week - logging distance and calories it decided that that wasn't very active at all. Seeing as my heartrate was up where it shoudl be and I was sweating etc I found that amazing. Same as when I manually log swimming and elliptical - with all of those I work hard but they are not counted as 'active minutes' most of the time. Occassionally they are. It is strange and startign to annoy me!

[Baciu91]

I suggest you to use FitStar: Tony Gonzales it syncs with your fitbit so you dont have to input nothing and it feels more like a personal trainer.

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for the FitStar tip!  I do CrossFit at home but a lot of traveling for my job so I'm gonna have to try that app next time.

I have the same question about tracking CrossFit WODs- the best solution I can come up with after much playing around is that you can't.  You've got to figure out what the calorie burn of the exercises is and enter it manually.  FitBit is best for runs.  That said, all the accelerometer-based gadgets seem to have that same limitation (Nike Fuelband, that jawbone thing, etc.).  It would be REALLY nice if the FitBit page had some more options for tracking CrossFit WODS, but then again it's a fairly small community so they probably won't.

[Cognosticator]

I started Crossfit about a month ago.  I got a Polar FT7 heart rate monitor I use in conjunction with my Fitbit.  Unless I am running, the Fitbit doesn't show the active hour I work out.  Sometime it will display 7 minutes of active work.  The heart rate give avg HR, max HR calories burned and times for fat burning and fitness work and time of workout.  I use to think I needed to stay in the fat burning heart rate zone until I did some reading on the subject and found out in the fitness zone I am still burning fat, and at a faster rate than the lower zone and with the fitness zone you continue to burn fat after your workout.  I am loving this Crossfit workouts also.

[Lhawks]

I do Crossfit as well.  I log my activity under push-up, sit ups.  I still feel like I don't credit for energy expended.  Not sure how it can be better recorded.  Box-jumps and thrusters and wall balls, gas me and I got 2 minutes of heavy activity.

[Fitmomatlast]

I got tired of this exact thing. The friends in my group use ONLY walking as their workouts, and will have sky high numbers, when I am doing Crossfit 3x week, with many workouts trumping any amount of walking.  I decided to try to assign a step count for workouts and add it manually. I do have a polar heart monitor that I've worn in the past as well.  But if you have a competative group that you are in, it gets frustrating to have folks with jacked up numbers when your work out doesn't record it.

[WAC]

I was going to suggest the same thing, A HRM with the FITBIT makes a great pair, I use both together all the time.

[blendedyogi]

This used to annoy me so bad.  I would get 5 active mintues for a 45 minute WOD and my friend who walked 30 minutes had many more active minutes.  Really?  lol

[fitmissjen]

I feel your pain!

I have actually given up logging my crossfit WOD's on to my Fitbit. I know i have just smashed out a seriously hard workout, and at the end of the day that's really all that matter. I still make sure i reach my step goal and my calories burned, so i guess the WOD is a bonus!

I would love to talk more about crossfit with anyone who was keen. I have my first comp in February, pretty nervous...yet super excited at the same time!!

[fitmissjen]

Also, i forgot to mention, i cant wear my fitbit HR during lifting WOD's anymore as i have now started wearing wrist wraps.... 

[KathyReese]

So what is the solution?  Why isn't fitbit weighing in on this?

[blendedyogi]

Haha, that is so funny, but true.  Annoying though....grrrr

[blendedyogi]

Dear all, I suspect this is an issue with all HR devices that are on the wrist.  Since I originally posted this, I've  gone through 2 more watches.   1) Polar (with a HR chest band 2) iwatch.  The Polar band, HR statistics, app and general user interface is WAY batter than fitbit and by far surpasses accuracy and workout details.  However, it requires wearing a strap-boo!  Bit of a pain, but you get used to it.   I then went to an iwatch (for other reasons) and noticed the same HR issues when i workout.  It says my HR is 58 when I'm wodding (KB swings, thrusters, etc).  Really?  Guess I'm dead when I workout.  Anyway, I think it's just a flaw with any wrist device that tracks HR info.  If  you TRULY want accurate data, statiscs and better analysis of  your HR, etc you need to switch to a device that requires a strap for HR tracking (Polar is awesome at this).  Goodluck and happy woding, steps, and tracking eveyone 🙂

[USAF-Larry]

@blendedyogi I think the difference in HR monitoring with a wrist band vs a chest band, is due to the different technology used.  The Charge HR tracker, which I have, uses two low level LED pulses to monitor the pulse rate, while they typical chest strap monitors the electrical impulse of the heart and transmit it a watch or other receiver. I suspect the electrical impulse of the heart would always be more accurate than LEDs sensing the pulse.

[Flomfla]

Hi mate, what about the bpm rate? I don't look the calories (because this device just read the step) the WOD did you attend was power!!! So check the rate about how many BPM this is a good indicator 

read about the rate for effort (BPM vs time ) type of exercise is better get a idea of you are working in you effort or in your high level (sorry my English is not the best)

but here a couple pappers about what I'm talking 

- http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/PhysicalActivity/FitnessBasics/Target-Heart-Rates_UCM_43...

- http://www.livestrong.com/article/399634-the-average-heart-rate-for-men-while-exercising/

Fort the WOD I recommended use the BPM like indicator of your training 

regars

flomfma  

[Luvroses3]

I'm having the same issues. Has anyone tried the Alta HR? Just curious if I should switch to that when I upgrade. 

Also, it's nice to know I am not alone in this issue because I know I worked out hard but my brother who just takes a walk around the block gets way more steps and activity than me. 😞