Let's talk active minutes

[SunsetRunner]

I received my fitbit for Christmas and started wearing it daily on 12/28.   I LOVE it.   It took me a few days to get familiar with everything but now I think I am good to go.   I have found, for me, active minutes are more important than any of the other stats/goals.   I feel everything else (steps, miles, stairs, calories) will all fall in to place the more active I am.    I know the default is 30 mintues.   I have worked up to 80 per day.   I reevaluate my goals every Monday based on the previous week and make adjustments, usually make it more challenging.   I'm wondering though, am I putting too much pressure on myself with a goal of 80 active minutes?   I did an intense workout with my trainer today for 30 minutes but only 12 counted towards my active goal.    OK, enough rambling, sorry.   I guess what I really want to know is what is your active minutes daily goal?   Yes, I know everyone is different but I am just wondering where I fall among others.

Thanks!!!

[betpchem]

Here's the thing about active minutes - they only count your step-based activities. If you did weight training or swimming or some other non-step based activity, I would say you should count it toward your goal no matter what the fitbit says. You can put the activities in manually and keep track that way.

For myself, it's not the active minutes goal I'm paying attention to, it's cardio minutes. I'm using the exercise tracker on my charge and keeping track of how often I push my heart into the cardio zone. I get a lot of steps, but for most I'm not moving very fast.

[Tave]

I upped my daily active minute setting to 60 minutes.  During the week I surpass it since I trek to and from work.  My main focus is the steps.  Like you with your active minutes, I feel things fall into place better when I track my steps since it takes at least about 2 hours of decent paced walking to hit 10K.

Also, I don't know what model Fitbit you have, but on some there is a setting for workout that will count all your time with the trainer as active minutes.

[awood08]

What is more important to you?

Having active minutes of movement or your calorie burn? Steps or your intensity of workouts?

Mine is set to 60 minutes a day, if I'm doing weight training and core work I never end up reaching that 60 minutes. If I'm doing my cardio classes or going for a run I can easily hit that.

If you want an accurate log of active minutes you'll have to log them for the excercises that don't have continuous step counts.

[emili]

I am a cardio girl- I do at least 45 minutes everyday, a bit more on the weekend. To me, 80 minutes of active time everyday seems like a lot. The next time you do the 80, take a moment to pause and figure out how you feel after. If you are exhausted or it takes you a couple of hours to recover, you are doing too much. If you are ready to tackle the mall and clean out your closet, then you are in a good place. It's important to just stop and feel.

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for the replies.   I am in the process of re-evaluating how I look at things.   I think having a goal of 80 was too much but it seems I can "naturally" just about make it if that makes any sense (it does to me LOL).     Now I'm looking more at calories in vs. calories out.