very active minutes seems inaccurate

[WindWalker]

Strangely, my "very active minutes"  clocks in at only 4 mins!  but I was 20" on the eliptical + 20" of fast walking.  

It accurrately tracks the " very active minutes" walking on the beach.

What am I missing!?

Very grateful for any insights the community might be able to share with this newbie!

Thanks!

[SunsetRunner]

I personally just ignore the active and very active minutes .. as they are never what you think they should be. Your impression of what is active and the FItbit does never seems to be similar. So ... just concentrate at the things that are much easier to measure .. being steps, floors etc.  Just rememeber that anything where you are making an effort is a good thing. So .. just take it and run with it.  I don't think that the active / very active minute thing will ever match our expectations. Just not worth stressing over.

[Dominique]

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@WindWalker wrote:

Strangely, my "very active minutes"  clocks in at only 4 mins!  but I was 20" on the eliptical + 20" of fast walking.

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Elliptical is not the kind of step-based activity for which you would get very active minutes. See:

https://help.fitbit.com/customer/portal/articles/1020095-what-are-%22very-active-minutes%22-

As to "fast" walking, it depends on how fast it is. For instance, I need at least 6.8-6.9 km/h (4.2-4.3 mph) in order to consistently get VAMs. The threshold may be higher or lower for you. I'm surprised you're getting VAMs more easily at the beach, as it's more difficult to walk fast on soft sand.

[Dominique]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

I personally just ignore the active and very active minutes .. as they are never what you think they should be.

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I personally find VAMs very useful, and it's one of my main motivators nowadays. They help me go the extra mile when walking, or rather go the extra mph.

If a lot of what you do is stationary and/or non-step-based, then your Fitbit indeed won't be good at recognizing the intensity of such activities. In the end, it's just a pedometer.

[slysam]

Are you looking on the phone app or website dashboard? Just curious because on the app they seem weird and though I don't follow the app that closely, recently I noticed they did not match. On the website, my very active minutes have a consistent standard. For Fitbit tracked activity it is based on how much and how fast I move each minute and seems to be rated higher for impact activities. Walking, I need to walk faster than 4miles per hour. For logged activity, it is strictly average calorie burn per minute. Sometimes I can log my calorie burn for a very vigorous workout (usually this issue is with interval workouts) and it will be rated as "moderately active" because it averages out to be just a little short of "very active". For logged activity, I need to burn more than 5 times my resting rate each minute. It is kind of all or nothing with logged activity since it is using the average calorie burn per minute, for fitbit tracked exercise it is minute by minute. I have seen very active minutes from using the elliptical (and not logging it)--I think it just depends on how fast you are going. In my case it would need to be a speed that would be at least 4mph if I were walking or running (the elliptical's speed and distance wouldn't be a good indicator here as they usually assume a very long stride length, fitbit would look at it as either walking or running depending on the movement it picks up). I wear a Fitbit One, it may be different for the wrist worn devices in terms of the movement the device picks up. Since impact and up and down movements do seem a big factor with my torso/hip worn One, I am not sure how that translates to the Flex/Force.

[nottaken101]

I find the activity read-outs helpful, too, even if they're not 100% accurate per se. They force me to walk fatser and monitor my largely sedentary lifestyle.

[Sultanmerchant]

Yes same problem ...when I look at my steps graph it shows lots of green as I have walked on the treadmill. Green means very active minutes....well afterwalking 30 mins it shows very active minutes as 6 ...something terribly wrong...in the past it would show 25 mins very active if I walked 30 mins....don't know why it is misbehaving now??????

[Sultanmerchant]

and I see this on the Dashboard of my computer not on an app by the way.....

[SunsetRunner]

I have found my Flex to be "optimistic" about very active minutes. Brisk, but not flat-out hard, walking is considered very active.

And I get no reading at all from elliptical or stairclimber machines.

Pete

[Sultanmerchant]

Mine behaves the opposite I walk at 4.4 mph on treadmill and it does NOT record the same as very active minutes

[Dominique]

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@Sultanmerchant wrote:

Yes same problem ...when I look at my steps graph it shows lots of green as I have walked on the treadmill. Green means very active minutes....well afterwalking 30 mins it shows very active minutes as 6 ...something terribly wrong...in the past it would show 25 mins very active if I walked 30 mins....don't know why it is misbehaving now??????

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You didn't mention what Fitbit model you are using. The algorithm for very active minutes varies widely from one tracker to the other. The Fitbit One is the stingiest with VAM's: merely walking won't necessarily earn you VAM's for the entire period, you need to walk faster than a certain threshold.

[Heybales]

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@Sultanmerchant wrote:

Yes same problem ...when I look at my steps graph it shows lots of green as I have walked on the treadmill. Green means very active minutes....well afterwalking 30 mins it shows very active minutes as 6 ...something terribly wrong...in the past it would show 25 mins very active if I walked 30 mins....don't know why it is misbehaving now??????

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Have you logged a weight loss since before and now?

If moving the same pace, but you weigh less - you are burning less now.

So as mentioned in other posts, your calorie burn per min reached the multiple of say 5 x resting level. But now it doesn't mostly, unless you increase the pace.

Or has your pace just slowed down?

[Sultanmerchant]

Yes weight loss..pace is the same

[Sultanmerchant]

Flex

S.H.Merchant B.Com, BGL (Hons), LL.B (Hons),STI, TEP

[Heybales]

Ok, just ran some trial entries.

Look at your resting metabolic burn, sleep time or non-moving time, given as calories per 5 min, in your Activities Chart.

For walking - 

Light activity is up to 3 x that value per min.

Moderate starts at 3.1 to 4.9 x that value, but your pace must be about 4 mph at least.

Very Active starts at 5 x that value, but your pace must be 4.7 mph or better.

So standard divisions I've seen elsewhere as guidelines from AMA.

Very Active is 5 METS or above, 3 - 5 METS is Moderate.

Tried with bike ride, and the Moderate 3.1 x still works, but the Very Active is 6 x.

So who knows what other activities may use as variances to that.

Like I didn't do running, but I'd hope that would be VAM, but I could see if calorie burn low and speed slow, might not.

[Sultanmerchant]

Thanks

S.H.Merchant B.Com, BGL (Hons), LL.B (Hons),STI, TEP

[samscat15]

I have the same issue.  Just walking to work, which I count as a moderate pace and not breaking a sweat; it counts as very active minutes and alots me more calories to eat.  I think it has been giving me an extra 400 or so calories a day, which I of course have been eating, and I'm not losing weight like I wanted too.

Is there anyway to adjust what it counts as active minutes for a person?  

[Sultanmerchant]

I have the opposite problem. It does not recognize all my active minutes. I can be walking briskly on my treadmill for 30 mins and it only records 4 mins as active minutes

S.H.Merchant B.Com, BGL (Hons), LL.B (Hons),STI, TEP

[Heybales]

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@samscat15 wrote:

I have the same issue.  Just walking to work, which I count as a moderate pace and not breaking a sweat; it counts as very active minutes and alots me more calories to eat.  I think it has been giving me an extra 400 or so calories a day, which I of course have been eating, and I'm not losing weight like I wanted too.

Is there anyway to adjust what it counts as active minutes for a person?  

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No, can't adjust.

It's already adjusted for you and your weight and pace. It must burn so many more calories than when you rest, and be so fast a pace.

Are you counting calories you eat - accurately?

Weigh everything, since calories is per weight, not volume. Measuring is for liquids only.

[TandemWalker]

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@Sultanmerchant wrote:
I have the opposite problem. It does not recognize all my active minutes. I can be walking briskly on my treadmill for 30 mins and it only records 4 mins as active minutes

S.H.Merchant B.Com, BGL (Hons), LL.B (Hons),STI, TEP

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That would be because walking on a treadmill is different than walking outdoors. There is no motion forward on a treadmill, and the sponginess of the platform compounds the issue further. Your One captures movements via 3D axis accelerometer and unless there is motion along one of the three axis, chances are that the step count will be off, so will the intensity.