How to get less active minutes?

[JamieWalks]

If you get less active minutes and more steps then you'll burn more calories, right? I get steps without active minutes when I walk without having the intent to exercise but I can't do 10,000 steps just doing that! Is there a way to get a lot of steps but not a lot of active minutes? I like to get 15,000 steps per day but I feel unmotivated to go on walks because I'll just get more active minutes and burn less calories 😞

[Marcy]

Your Fitbit tracker recognizes and awards active minutes when the activity you're doing is more strenuous than regular walking, which includes everything from a brisk walk to a cardio workout or run.  So you really should want as many active minutes as possible as more strenuous exercise burns more calories, regardless of your step count.

[JohnRi]

No the more active minutes, the more calories you burn.  And active minute is based on heart rate and steps.  If you are moving then you are burning calories.

Having 0 active minutes would mean you are not exercsing at all, and burning very few caloires.

To answer your question, your fitibit is setup in auto recognize things like walking, running, biking, etc.  By defatult they are set to 15 minutes.  So in theory if you never hit 15 minutes doing anything, you would have 0 minutes.

You can also change the setting in account, exercise, and change the detection to like 3 hours!  And it would never detect any active minutes.

But really you want them, no idea how you got the idea active minutes would burn fewer calories.  That's like saying driving fast burns less gas.

[shipo]

@JamieWalks, speaking strictly for myself, I'm confused about what you're asking; would it be possible for you to rephrase your question?

[JamieWalks]

Ooh. Thank you guys so much. One of the things I was confused about though is that on Friday I got 13,363 steps and only 27 active minutes but I also burned 2,084 calories. On Monday, I got 15,089 steps and 90 active minutes but I only burned 2,035 calories! Why is the number less/almost the same?

[JohnRi]

And active minute is just a minute where you were moving.  Not all active minutes are equal.  You could be walking at 20:00 mile pace or you could be walking at 15:00 pace.  If you did both for 60 minutes, you'd get the same number of active minutes, but you would burn a lot more calories at the 15:00 pace, versus the 20:00 pace.

My guess Friday you were moving a lot quicker and harder than you were on Monday.  Even though on Monday you had more steps and minutes, I suspect that pace was slower, and not at as hard as it was on Friday.

Bottomline don't worrry about the active minutes, and concentrate on calores burned.  It's good to have them, and generally the more you have the more calories you burn, but that's not always the case.

[shipo]

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@JamieWalks wrote:
Ooh. Thank you guys so much. One of the things I was confused about though is that on Friday I got 13,363 steps and only 27 active minutes but I also burned 2,084 calories. On Monday, I got 15,089 steps and 90 active minutes but I only burned 2,035 calories! Why is the number less/almost the same?

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In addition to what @JohnRi wrote, the difference in steps is only 1,726 and the difference in calories is only 49.  Said another way, you can probably see a calorie difference of that much by climbing a few extra flights of steps.  Another thing to keep in mind is temperature; as a general rule, all else being equal (something which isn't really possible) your body will burn more calories on a hot day versus a moderate day.

As a general rule, I don't even pay attention to calorie differences less than say 500 on any given day.

[GershonSurge]

Active minutes aren't counted unless you get ten of them without stopping.