@RichGee wrote:
Fair enough, I'll go with consensus. Actually what I was asking the help desk was about manually logging an activity. It may well be that if you use the phone app it will overwrite if you wear the tracker. Sorry for confusion. And apologies to Fitbit help if that is the case.
I'll bet no apology is needed for Fitbit, wouldn't be surprised if they got it wrong.
Some of the devices when you start a workout on them, and finish - create an Activity Record - a snapshot of the stats Fitbit has during that chunk of time - duration, steps, distance, calories, HR if a HR device.
They are given a name based on what you selected or what it guessed.
That can be edited after that fact to something more specific.
Some devices dont' have ability to start/stop a chunk of time to see those stats - they will remain buried in the total daily stats. So you manually create your own Activity Record with start & stop times - to see the same stats during that chunk of time.
A snapshot is the same, even if the the stats are changed, or like a literal snapshot - people move when it's finished.
All devices (because it has nothing to do with the device actually but your account) allow creating manually a Workout Record, this is you selecting an activity type, or creating one, entering in start time and duration, and optional distance and calorie burn.
That Workout Record will override the stats Fitbit had for that chunk of time for calorie burn.
Steps and distance it depends if you use a walking or running activity type, but then those steps are not eligeble for comparing to others and contests - or else people could easily cheat on their steps.
So if Fitbit saw 4 miles, and you enter 4.5, your daily stats will go up by 0.5 miles.
If Fitbit had 300 calories and you found a more accurate 500 and entered it - your calories goe up by 200.
If Fitbit had 10K steps, and your new distance divided by stride length calculates to 11K steps, your steps goes up by 1K.
Now, you entering in a Workout Record of more accurate info will NOT replace the snapshot of an Activity Record - 2 different things.
Activity Record will continue to show what was.
Workout Record is showing what current is.
Daily totals is reflecting what is, not what was.
This applies whether you do it on the app or your account on the web.
Both places allow creating both kinds of records.
How to tell the difference?
You can't edit a Workout Record - only delete it. So better name it specific in the first place.
You can edit an Activity Record - like give it a more specific meaningful name (bike around the lake) to find it again later. And you can have notes on it (very windy made it slow) to compare later.
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