Heart rate zones

[Ktowne]

I have recently started using my Fitbit charge hr again, I have a pretty active life, I exercise, and have 3 kids to care and chase after. Since I started wearing my Fitbit again, about 3 weeks ago, I've noticed I'm getting very few active minutes a day, despite my activity. I will be out of breath with activity and only register 15-20bpm a day. Only when I exercise do I get any bpm or just very few otherwise. My resting heart rate is 58, my max is 136 (looking at my heart rate dashboard), do I need to set a custom heart rate zone?? If so,  how do I calculate an accurate one?

[JboneCapone123]

When you say bpm, do you mean your HeartRate or Active Minutes? Fitbit uses your height and weight to set the heart rate. For me, I can't do any weights. I just do cardio so my heart rate doesn't get really much above 110 max. Usually what I think Active minutes are Is when you start to exercise and your ChargeHR senses your heart rate is going higher it will start racking up the active minutes. 

Here is a Fitbit article about what are active minutes. Hope this helps...
http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1379

[Dominique]

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@JboneCapone123 wrote:

Fitbit uses your height and weight to set the heart rate.

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I’m not sure what you mean by "setting the heart rate". Your HR is whatever it is based on your activity level. By default, HR zones are set according to your age: your peak HR is determined with the formula 220 - age (which may or may not apply to you, but that’s another matter) and HR zones are derived from that. I’m not aware that height and weight affect in any way what Fitbit does with HR.

[Dominique]

@Ktowne: being out of breath and active minutes are two different things. It’s perfectly possible you’re out of breath, but don’t reach the threshold for active minutes. OTOH, it’s also possible you exceed the threshold for active minutes without being out of breath (for instance, walking briskly if you are very fit).

Have a look at your activity graph for the day. and check the number of green bars for calories burned:

These are what will determine the number of active minutes you’re going to get for the day. The above is the graph for my activity today. It translates into 194 active minutes.

[TMacNJ]

I believe that unless you reach the completion of a ten minute interval, it won't matter if you were killing yourself with burpees for nine minutes, thirty seconds and pushing your heart rate to your actual maximum, not just your target heart rate maximum . . . That entire period of activity will not be counted by a FitBit as active minutes at all, although it will show up in your calorie count as burned calories.