Which option: Run or Walk?

[Bjcm]

Last August when my doctor told me to lose 30 pounds, I decided I didn't want to be like my dad who spent his 65th birthday recovering from bypass surgery or my grandfather who died at age 64 of a heart attack.

I join the local rec center and started walking, working up to one mile on the indoor track (6 laps equals one mile) Then I started jogging--just a a 1/4 of the way around the track--that's all I could do and walked the rest of the mile.Slowly, I started to increase my jogging time. I now walk 2 laps to warm up, jog 2 laps, walk 1 lap, jog 1 lap, and then walk a lap to cool down to get my mile in. I'm jogging half a mile and walking half a mile five days a week. 

I have achieved my goal of 30 pounds and yesterday a message popped up on my fitbit app, "Congratulations, you're in excellent cardio condition for a man your age."  I could hardly believe it. I feel great.

My question is, when I start my walk/jog routine, which exercise mode should I select on my charge 2 fitbit, walk or run?  My routine is 1/2 and 1/2.  How do these two modes differ?

Thanks in advance.

[Bhuvana]

@Bjcm: Congrats on your weight loss journey! I don't think you can set up interval based on distance. It is based on time. For example you can set run time for 5 min and walk for 1 min. 

I hope I am correct. 

[Bjcm]

I have no idea of how to set my Charge 2 for time intervals Where can I learn more about the setting you are referring to?

[Bhuvana]

From your dashboard, click on settings. Select Charge 2 view device settings 

Select interval workout. Initially it was 30 seconds. I changed to 5 mins of move and 1 min of rest. Also specify how many times you want to repeat this. 

I hope this helps. Good Luck

[Bjcm]

Thank you for sharing.  All this time I have only used the setting on my iPhone; I didn't know that I could change settings via my laptop.  Always learning.

Perhaps instead of selecting the type of exercise I am doing (walking or running) I should let the fitbit just sense my exercise activity (walking and running) after ten minutes.

[GershonSurge]

I have a charge 2 and use Run for running or walking. I think they work the same.

[Bjcm]

I think you are right, except that when I select RUN from my Charge 2, it activates the GPS tracker.  It means nothing to me because I'm running on an indoor track at the rec center.  

However, I think that the GPS needs to be activates for the Voice Cues to work, is this right?

[Bjcm]

I'm looking at the dashboard on my phone, Weekly Exercise does show the GPS function working on some days when walk reports display.  

I need to learn more about the Mobile Run app.  I found this website:

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/2099

[schmict]

If you are on a track you probably already have a good sense of distance.  For me, I chose the "workout" function on my charge 2 when I walk.  It seems to track your heartbeat better than walk function.  You can always edit and rename it to walk in the dashboard edit and it will calculate distance and steps

[Bjcm]

Thanks for your suggestion. I think it is an excellent idea; I'm changing my settings now.

[Bjcm]

You suggested that the exercise type could be renamed.  Can't figure out how to do that.  Please advise.

[schmict]

if you have recorded a workout, go to your activity log tab, at bottom of page you should see activity history by date.  Click the pencil icon next to the "workout" and change to walk or run or whatever.  There is a drop down.  I have renamed from workout to walk and it will then calculate distance, although I am not too concerned with distance I like my activity recorded and accurately named by date. 

[Bjcm]

I'll check it out now. Thanks.

Is the renaming feature only available on the Workout mode?

[schmict]

I think so. Also, I think that once you rename them you don't have the option to rename them again.  Or, I haven't figured out how.  The ones I recorded as walk, or interval workout, early on, didn't have the pencil icon to edit the name.  So I do interval every other day, and walk the other but record them all just as workout, it does better at heart rate and that is really what I am most interested in.  It seems walk mode and even interval doesn't record heart rate as often,  you can tell when you look at the graphs

[Bjcm]

Thank you again for your insight.  I have spent little time with the online version of the fitbit website; I have mainly used the app on my iPhone. So, you have opened up a whole lot of new features to me.

I went into the Log>Activities>  and then review my history.  (I had no idea this history was online until now.)  Several of the activities had pencil icons by them; some were labeled walk, some labeled workshop. Most activities did not have the pencil icon.  Not quit sure what causes it to appear.

Thanks,

[schmict]

Yea, I don't know why it doesn't appear for some.  Thats why I just use the "workout", then rename them.  I like the graphs much better looking at them from a laptop...they are not as good on my Ipad app.