Set as Run or walk, while training to run?

[MoniqueE82]

Morning, I have the fitbit Alta HR.

I have only recently become more active.

The same route I use to walk, I am not trying to partially run.

My major problem is that now instead of getting 300 Points through Discovery Vitality for the workout, (30+min at a required heart rate) I am getting "Insufficient Activity" with no point allocation, because it is measuring my workout as 20+min walk and 20+min run which then individually is not 30+min.

How do I overcome this please?

[Dominique]

Your first "problem" is you have a tracker that autodetects activities, as opposed to other models (e.g. Charge 2, Ionic) that will let you start and stop activities, and also let you define what they are.

Your second "problem" is you are assessing your fitness / motivating yourself with an external, arbitrary program (I have no idea what Discovery Vitality and its point system are). You could choose to exercise for your own health and fitness, not for the purpose to get points in some program. At least it’s what I would do. 

[MoniqueE82]

So there is no way to fix my first problem...thanks for an honest answer.

2nd Problem - Discovery Vitality, is my medical aid rating system on which they base everything - life cover, food, traveling etc etc....all linked to your Vitality status.  I have to accomplish about 90000 points to keep my status, and keep my financial discounts and kickbacks activated. So please note that my motivation is definitely my fitness and improvement of my health, but Fitbit and Discovery partnered and encouraged us to use these devises. So I expect them to them work and record workouts properly for the purpose that I bought it.

[Dominique]

OK, I see their rules for earning fitness points are defined here. If your goal is to obtain a certain number of points, I guess it means you should choose your activities so as to optimize/maximize the number of points you are going to get from them. 

[WavyDavey]

I would recommend taking a little time to calibrate yourself to the Alta HR. As @Dominique mentioned, it uses auto-detect, so you are somewhat limited in what you can do in terms of activity tracking.

As far as I know, the Fitbit will use its sensors to determine the amount you are moving. At some point, a fast walk becomes a slow run, and it may take some experimentation on your part to find that border, to keep the tracking either as a walk or run. I would also play with my arm motion, to keep it either swinging as in walking or running.

Sorry to be a little vague, but it does take some experimentation to find the "sweet spot" of the tracking of the Alta HR.

[emili]

I offer no additional help, I am just curious how this works.. so let's say you did nothing but walk for 30 minutes straight at a normal pace- would that give you the required points? Or do you have to be at a cardio HR before points are awarded so it isn't giving you points for the walk? Or is it just strictly looking at active minutes and because it doesn't see a duration of 30 it isn't giving you credit? to be honest if it is the latter, I would make sure I did a 30 minute walk and then ran to my hearts content not worrying about the minutes..