snowshoeing and home workouts

[speechie2004]

New to firbit.  Went snowshoeing today for 35 minutes but it only recorded 20 "very active" minutes and hardly impacted my calories burned even though it was a very difficult workout.  And when I lightly bounced on the trampoline earlier in the day (while sitting down) it recorded that as 11 "very active" minutes - and it was not active at all!  Can someone help me understand why this is?  Also how accurately will it record active minutes or calories burned in a home workout that has some weight training and some cardio (like p90x for example?)

[jhouse101]

Apparently not, it doesn't track heart rate so has no idea how many calories you burn.  Your daily calories burned will be exactly the same everyday, (Basal Metabolic Rate based on your height and weight), unless you manually enter physical activities.  I'm starting to think this think is a very expensive pedometer, beyond that I haven't seen any benefits.  Can someone out there explain the value of this thing?? No piont in wearing a wristband all day when you still have to manually track activity.

[SnowWight]

Last poster is incorrect. The Fitbit will track your calorie burn based on how many steps you take, how fast you take them and how many floors you climb. You only have to log 'non step' activities. In addition it also measures your BMR and adds that to calories burned.

[josephz2va]

Showshoeing is mostly walking with restraints attached for safety. It's not a very active exercise unless you're running with the snow shoes on or climbing a mountian (Hiking). Vigorous Exercises consist of pushing yourself to the limit in cardiovascular (4.5 MPH or higher on a treadmill for example).

But you can always manually record missing vigorous activity by Logging Snowshoeing as an activity and how many minutes. Note that this will alter the realtime fitbit data.

[TandemWalker]

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@SnowWight wrote:

Last poster is incorrect. The Fitbit will track your calorie burn based on how many steps you take, how fast you take them and how many floors you climb. You only have to log 'non step' activities. In addition it also measures your BMR and adds that to calories burned.

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Actually, you don't get any additional calories for floors - floors is just a statistic, aimed at motivating people to keep moving. However, all the steps taken for going up and down the stairs/hills are included in your step count and do attract their due share of caloric burn.

[TandemWalker]

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@josephz2va wrote:

Showshoeing is mostly walking with restraints attached for safety. It's not a very active exercise unless you're running with the snow shoes on or climbing a mountian (Hiking). Vigorous Exercises consist of pushing yourself to the limit in cardiovascular (4.5 MPH or higher on a treadmill for example).

But you can always manually record missing vigorous activity by Logging Snowshoeing as an activity and how many minutes. Note that this will alter the realtime fitbit data.

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I agree with everything you have here @josephz2va  except for the part that snowshoeing is " not a very active exercise." Believe me it is and you don't have to run with the snowshoes to understand that it is indeed a very active exercise, that consumes as much energy as cross-country skiing in my opinion. That being said, I never wear my One for this activity - I log it manually instead. I created my own activity, using a burn rate I got from the web.

[slysam]

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@speechie2004 wrote:

New to firbit.  Went snowshoeing today for 35 minutes but it only recorded 20 "very active" minutes and hardly impacted my calories burned even though it was a very difficult workout.  And when I lightly bounced on the trampoline earlier in the day (while sitting down) it recorded that as 11 "very active" minutes - and it was not active at all!  Can someone help me understand why this is?  Also how accurately will it record active minutes or calories burned in a home workout that has some weight training and some cardio (like p90x for example?)

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Fitbit's activity level is based on how much and how fast you move each minute. The accelerometer tracks movement forward and back, right to left and up and down. I tend to see higher activity minutes on bouncy activities like aerobic dancing, running, jumping rope, etc. My guess is that it would overestimate mini-trampoline bouncing as it would assume you are bouncing from your own effort like when I jump rope (which certainly is vigorous). I would not wear it if you sit and bounce on a trampoline. Others posted they have seen high activity minutes per the intensity on a trampoline.  If your body is moving in pattterns that appear to be activity it credits you. It is mainly a motion tracker. Sometimes people see inflated or false activity bouncing on an exercise ball, riding a golf cart, driving a car on a bumpy road, riding a motorcycle, operating vibrating machinary. Basically if you are moving from momentum not powered by your own muscles. I would log those if I was getting an inflated count (there are a lot of common activities including driving, riding a motorcycle, sitting and typing, etc in the activity database). I luckily don't usually have this issue though. 

I am not sure how well it would track snowshoing as I have never snow shoed yet, but generally it doesn't do as well for gliding/non-step activities like cycling. Though it sounds like it was picking up your movement, you need to be moving at a pretty quick pace for very active minutes. Walking I need to exceed 4 miles per hour which is pretty quick for someone who is 5' 1". Walking that around speed (3.8 - 4 mph) I would typcially see about 20 minutes for a 35 minute walk if fitbit tracks the activity. If my GPS/heart rate monitor app logs my calorie burn then I lose all my very active minutes and it is all moderate for pretty much the same calorie burn. I think likely there was more movement it picked up during the very active minutes than the moderately active minutes in the same activity. It may underestimate though especially if hills were involved, snowshoeing is probably in the exercise database. (I have better luck using the phone app to search).

About home dvds, it depends on the activity in the DVD. Fitbit does well with movements that include steps, hops, jumps. It does okay with jumping jacks, traveling moves, fast feet, running in place, jumping rope, etc. It does not do well with weights, resistance activiites and nonstep activities. So with original P90x... You would want to log the weight lifting workouts, the yoga workout, the stretching workout. You might be fine not to log the martial arts workout or the plyometrics one. These likely include a mix of activities it can track and those it cannot. I do use a heart rate monitor for exercise (did before I had a fitbit), the activities it tracks well (in my opinion) I usually find my fitbit and HRM agree or are within about 20 calories eitehr way of each other. 

[slysam]

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@jhouse101 wrote:

Apparently not, it doesn't track heart rate so has no idea how many calories you burn.  Your daily calories burned will be exactly the same everyday, (Basal Metabolic Rate based on your height and weight), unless you manually enter physical activities. 

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This is not true! I've had a fitbit for over three years now.  I usually only log non-step activity like weight lifting, yoga, swimming, etc. I went a month without logging any activity as a test. My Fitbit calorie burn was not the same everyday even when I didn't log anything. It was higher on more active days and lower on less active days. My Fitbit calorie burn does vary by how much I move in the day. Also my fitbit calorie burn estimate is usually pretty similiar to my heart rate monitor's calorie burn estimate for step, hop, jumping type movements.I do agree there are some activities a tri-axis accelerometer like Fitbit will not track well and it is more accurate if you log those activities. 

The following site has a nice explanation of how tri-axis accelerometers work. This isn't a Fitbit and is a wrist worn device (I have a Fitbit One so is worn differently so wouldn't respond teh same way to eating potato chips or waving). The calorie burn, etc though is mainly from the formula Fitbit (or other devices) use to interpret the data and they do factor in our BMR. But an accelerometer does work differently than an old-school pedometer. (though a lot of newer digital pedometers are really accelerometers).  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/projects/2014/03/accelerometers.html?ref=personaltech

[Flylow21-Judy]

Snowshoeing is a VERY active and tiring exercise.  Imagine tyring to walk in snow and each step, even with snowshoes on, your feet sink to knee depth.  We snowshoe/hike a lot in the winter here-snow depth averages 25 feet per year in my town-a great way to get out and enjoy the mountains and get in an exercise.

[PenniLess]

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@josephz2va wrote:

Showshoeing is mostly walking with restraints attached for safety. It's not a very active exercise unless you're running with the snow shoes on or climbing a mountian (Hiking).

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From your answer, I'm guessing you've never been snowshoeing. 

Here is a more definitive answer taken from the Livestrong website:

"As with any activity, the intensity at which you work and your body size determine your actual calorie burn. A person who weighs 125 pounds burns about 240 calories per half hour of snowshoeing, while a 155-pound person burns 298 calories. The SIA says you can expect to burn about 45 percent more than walking or running at the same speed."