How Do You Set Your Personal Fitbit Goals? By Day, By Week, By Month?

[JonKragh]

Hey All-

I'm wondering how you all mentally set your fitbit goals for yourself?

So for example steps, do you set a mental goal like so:

1. I'd like to get 10K per day every day? or
2. 10K per day but one off day?
3. A weekly goal? 80,000 steps per week?
4. A monthly goal?

As some of you know I'm doing a challenge app/website for fitbit and I want to get the personal goal setting inline with how you all work.

For Activity - I generally workout 6 days a week so I'm probably going to do a gaol type that mimicks that for an active minutes and/or a target heart rate challenge.

All ideas are appreciated!

Jon

[Heybales]

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@JonKragh wrote:

Hey All-

I'm wondering how you all mentally set your fitbit goals for yourself?

So for example steps, do you set a mental goal like so:

1. I'd like to get 10K per day every day? or
2. 10K per day but one off day?
3. A weekly goal? 80,000 steps per week?
4. A monthly goal?

As some of you know I'm doing a challenge app/website for fitbit and I want to get the personal goal setting inline with how you all work.

For Activity - I generally workout 6 days a week so I'm probably going to do a gaol type that mimicks that for an active minutes and/or a target heart rate challenge.

All ideas are appreciated!

Jon

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Love your idea of active or very active minutes - for those of us that have choosen to do other workouts that are not step based but are actually better for us.

Oh - I have no step goals, couldn't care less. I get what I get, my workout adds whatever happens to be.

My HR goals depend on what the workout is.

Today HR was to be kept in mid-aerobic level on run (if I'd remembered HR strap anyway). So that I can do a harder workout tomorrow on the bike and a harder run, because rest day will follow and be needed.

[JonKragh]

Thanks so much @Heybales! Awesome feedback!

So for you & your fitbit is it fait to say active minutes is probably the best metric for a challenge if you were to do one?

I'm able to grab fairly active, and very active minutes.

Thanks!

Jon

[awood08]

I sit behind a desk all day so I prefer to reach my steps goal each day. That way I know i'm getting enough activity in. But 80% of my 10,000 steps come from the gym. Either on the elliptical or treadmill and that is what is more important as the preivous person said. I woud love to be able to set work out goals each day. I write it down on my calendar at home but I would love it incorporated into an App that will allow me to preset my work out goals for the day.

[JonKragh]

Awesome feedback @awood08!

What kind of workout goals might you want to set? Would that be seperate than steps?

Would something like 30 minutes, 4 times a week of Highly Active Minutes? Or something else?

Thansk for the feedback! I'm tweaking the goal setting portion of my challenge platform so it's flexible enough for everyone to set goals that make sense for them, but still work together towards your goal.

[awood08]

On the ellipitcal I wear my fitbit flex and it counts all my rotations as steps, so that's where the majority come in which is great. Personally for me, I'd like to leave it like that where my steps are just a continuous count regardless of my workout. But the only goal tracking as far as excercise is active minutes. And I manually add in the excercise during the day. I think it would be great to have another option to set my workout in advance, example:

Mon: 30 minutes ellipitcal workout, 15 minutes weight target: arms, 15 minutes weight target: chest

Tues: 30 minutes treadmill, 15 mins excersise bike

Wed: 30 minutes ellipitcal workout, 15 minutes weight target: legs, 15 minutes weight target: abs

Thurs: 30 minutes treadmill, 15 mins excersise bike

Fri: Rest Day

Sat: 30 minutes treadmill, 15 mins excersise bike

Sund: Rest Day

Something that basically has a separate section for me to plan my workouts in advance. That way I can mix it up, set up what I want to do that day and have a plan set.

Hope I explained it good enough 🙂

[JonKragh]

Thanks so much @awood08 that is amazing feedback!

I find when I setup my plan ahead of time like that I am so much more setup for sucess.  It seems like you have it together!

Are you making good progress?  Thanks again I know the things that I'd want to put into this but it's all about finding out what would help others in this app, so thanks so much for the feedback!

[awood08]

I'm excited to see what you come up with. Is this your first time doing this type of thing for Fitbit? 

My progress is great down 23 lbs in 8 weeks, dropped 6 inches in my hips and waist plus multiple inches elsewhere. Fitbit has been amazing!


Sent on a Samsung Galaxy S® III

[Heybales]

Some sort of very active minutes is the only challenge I would join.

Because so far the step challenges haven't matched up with the workouts that happen to produce decent steps, so there'd be no use in my mind. Because I'm not changing the training.

[JonKragh]

Dang @awood08!!! That is amazing progress!

Congratulations!  This is the first time I'm doing htis for fitbit.  I have a challenge website that I didn't know if poeple would use it.  The one's who do love it.  So I've been building hte mobile app and have fitbit integrated now (not released yet).

So I'm tweaking how challenges work to make sense to make it a really good experience for everyone.  I've been looking through threads here trying to find pain points - and I'm looking to solve them and add my own twist.

When I launch can I PM you to give it a try?  Thanks so much

[JonKragh]

Awesome @Heybales! I'm working on the active minutes challenge!

I'm thinking a 4 week program where you set how many times a week you want to hit your active minutes and what that goal is.

Once I get it together I will share and promote on Facebook as well (which is my main source of getting people to join the other non fitbit challenges I have).

Can I reach out to you when it laucnhes?  Thanks!

[awood08]

Absolutely, thanks 😉

[birdiefu]

My main actual personal goal is not measureable by fitbit (weight on the bar). Most of the other "goals" like steps, active minutes, etc I don't pay much attention to other than total calories.

Maybe if there was a way to get as *close* as possible to a calorie target without going over/under perhaps for intake and/or burn rate. I don't want to really encourage those who over-exercise or undereat to have an even larger deficit by saying get the highest burn or lowest intake, so trying to be as spot-on as possible to a target goal might be a better way to approach it.

Perhaps the most days in a row of hitting this target to a certain tolerance would be a way to make a "challenge".

[mesquite77]

Mine is a monthly goal - 360k or 372k steps/month.

I have a desk job, so on days where I don't get my run in or hit the elliptical, I am at only about 5k steps.  A monthly goal gives me flexibility - generally on the weekends I'll catch up with much more active days (14k - 18k steps).  My sample size is small -  I 've only done this in May and have started again in August (lost a fitbit in the lake and have had less "steps" spending our weekends on the water).

The next challenge I am envisioning is # of miles run + elliptical "miles" in a month.

[mommyknits]

I like the idea of active minutes... that would incorporate the non-step activities like cycling that I've recently taken up again.  For the bike, especially, I strive for monthly cumulative distance goals.  I participate in lots of FitBit Step Challenges but I often find it hard to get huge numbers of steps because I also do 3-4 Bootcamp workouts a week and unless we do a walk/run intensive workout, many of the more strength focused workouts don't generate as many steps as basic walking would.  And now with the cycling on top of that, the steps maybe aren't my main focus any longer.  Just some thoughts....

[MrsKiwiEd]

YES!! I'm new to Fitbit & feel like I must be missing a piece of Fitbit technology education? I really need a program like this! Rest days are so important for me. I only take one per week, but my Fitbit goals look terrible on that day. Help?!

[Heybales]

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@MrsKiwiEd wrote:

YES!! I'm new to Fitbit & feel like I must be missing a piece of Fitbit technology education? I really need a program like this! Rest days are so important for me. I only take one per week, but my Fitbit goals look terrible on that day. Help?!

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Start making your mind over that you are using the numbers as data - not being defined by them.

Or you'll regret the next step when you are defined by the scale, rather than just using the number as data that may or may not be informational.

So now think down the road when you review your diary where it shows you missed some goal you had.

You'll easily be able to see that you hit your desired rest days - or easily see you didn't take them.

Considering a good workout should tear you down, it's the rest for recovery and repair that actually builds you back up - stronger if diet allows, and allows for the next stronger workout.

You bet you need that rest, no matter what a goal may say.

Same problem when some people look at their average pace for a jog, and they don't always see it fast as they think it should / could be.

How foolish - some jogs may purposely be slower, and frankly as fast as you can each time is just begging for an injury. Talking about your body forcing you slower then! 

[GershonSurge]

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@MrsKiwiEd wrote:

YES!! I'm new to Fitbit & feel like I must be missing a piece of Fitbit technology education? I really need a program like this! Rest days are so important for me. I only take one per week, but my Fitbit goals look terrible on that day. Help?!

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I suggest looking at weekly or monthly steps as a goal. Personally, I find if I get more than about 120,000 steps a week that pretty soon, I'll be forced to take a rest day.

Some people alternate resistance training days and cardio days. Their step counts suffer, but their strength improves. Both types of fitness are important.

My suggestion is to plan your days at least a week in advance and evaluate how well you are able to stick to your plan. If you can't stick to it, keep a log of the reasons why. Over time, adjust your plan to match reality.

There is another way to evaluate the health effects of your training. That is Ken Cooper's point charts. Men should get 30-60 points a week. Women only need 25 points a week. You can use a simple calendar to track points and total them at the end of the week. You will likely find yourself driven to either jogging, bicycling or swimming to get enough points.

Ken Cooper has several books on Amazon. I suggest reading the latest one.

[essieL]

Daily goals seem to work best for me. Set it a little higher in your mind than your actual step count goal in your settings. Achieving those daily goal make the bigger ones possible. Sometimes it means tromping around the house a few times before tucking in for the night just to get in those extra steps.  Before you know it another milestone badge will appear! 

[MrsKiwiEd]

Great perspective! Thank you!