what is considered a 'very active minute'?

[Roseman]

I am just curious what causes fitbit to recognize a minute of activity as 'very active;' I keep thinking I am active and do not seem to get much credit.

[highspeedmarge]

I did a 30 minute bike ride today and didn't get any VAMs. If I walk while pushing the stroller, even at the same pace as when I don't push the stroller, I don't get the right amount of steps or VAMs. If I go in and add the activity, I will get my steps but not my VAMs.

Frustrating!

Any insight or suggestions.

[fitRN]

Go to top of screen and key in VAM. Select the first search option that comes up. There is some technical info there that you may find helpful. Part of the problem you are experiencing may be placement of your fitbit. I have a ONE which I sometimes wear around my neck and sometimes in my pocket depending on what activity I am doing. It is a little frustrating to get VAMS at first. I use a Rebounder to get my VAMS with the ONE on a cord around my neck. The PACE of the activity gets me VAMS. Like any new relationship, some things are frustrating while getting to know each other! Once you get used to pace and placement to achieve VAMS I think you will find this little device a huge motivator to MOVE, and it will become an essential part of your day. It will make you SMILE! I hope this will help...don't give up!

[Colinm39]

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@fitRN wrote:

Go to top of screen and key in VAM. Select the first search option that comes up. There is some technical info there that you may find helpful. Part of the problem you are experiencing may be placement of your fitbit. I have a ONE which I sometimes wear around my neck and sometimes in my pocket depending on what activity I am doing. It is a little frustrating to get VAMS at first. I use a Rebounder to get my VAMS with the ONE on a cord around my neck. The PACE of the activity gets me VAMS. Like any new relationship, some things are frustrating while getting to know each other! Once you get used to pace and placement to achieve VAMS I think you will find this little device a huge motivator to MOVE, and it will become an essential part of your day. It will make you SMILE! I hope this will help...don't give up!

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@fitRNPlacement is critical with the Fitbits. I have tested the One and Ultra and reversed them and did the identical tests. Waist and Ankle mounting the calories were double normal on the ankle mounting and reversing the Fitbits exactly the same. My HRM was close to the waist mounting in both cases. The Ultra and One are within a few steps on a 5000 planned test walk. So I'm happy with the accuracy.

I accidentally had my Fitbit on when I was bouncing on an exercise ball and a few hours later I wondered where all the VAM came from. The exercise ball at an average of 98 bounces/minute had 100% VAM. I discounted that reading because the effort was not there. Others on the rebounder have also reported the same thing as you have.

Walking, I need to walk at 4.2+ mph to achieve some VAM and occasionally VAM occurs at 3.8+ mph.

Happy fitbitting....

[mary59]

active mins is when you run ,jog , jump those are ative mins.walking is just steps .

[Colinm39]

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@mary59 wrote:

active mins is when you run ,jog , jump those are ative mins.walking is just steps .

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@mary59I have just added a note to the Solution at this link

[AHollyS]

Why is it when I am on the elliptical I get VAMs.....but if I add that to the exercise log it takes them away? If I delete the logged exersize they show back up.

[slysam]

AHollyS, the activity intensity minutes (moderately active, very active, etc) is based on the calorie burn per minute. Very active minutes require a calorie burn at least 6 times your resting calorie burn rate. When you log an activity, the Fitbit estimated calorie burn is overwritten with whatever you logged. The calories burned are evenly divided among the duration so even if you log the same burn as Fitbit had detected the average burn per minute might decrease. Most likely, the calorie burn you logged was actually less than what Fitbit credited or it may have been exactly the same (butresult in a lower burn per minute). This happens to me a lot, if it is an activity my Fitbit One can track reasonably well. I usually only log the activity if my heart rate monitor credited significantly less than fitbit (to prevent too inflated of an allowance) or if my heart rate monitor had a calorie burn more than 50 calories higher than Fitbit (mainly non-step and resistance activities). It does seem to vary how well Fitbit can track elliptical workouts. In my case, my Fitbit burn is usually a little higher than my heart rate monitor's burn estimate for the elliptical (unless I use higher resistance settings).

[EKG7]

Colin,

  The numbers and logic you provide seem to make sense.  Appreciate your posts and explanation of the meaning of those numbers.

EKG7

[SunsetRunner]

Motorcycles are good steppers to:)

[SunsetRunner]

From what I have read on herein different posts, your better off not logging something that already counts VAM.

[Lou-dale]

It must be frustrating to put in hard effort and not get your active minutes as you had hoped. Oddly, the opposite has happened to me.

My new Flex arrived just as I went down with gastric flu and spent 3 days in the foetal position. A mere 1,200 steps all day! Then I needed to walk down the road to the doctors; tiny steps, tottering like a drunken sailor because I'm dizzy and exhausted. Ta da! I've scored 9 active minutes!

I guess Fitbit skews to measuring Active Minutes on stride frequency (lots of little steps, must be working hard) or by comparing to 'normal' activity levels (in my case, near comatose).

[Tami13]

My new surge it giving me way too many very active minutes. I seriously haven't done anything but a slow walk today and I have been awarded 31 very active minutes. Not a fan of this..my fitbit one was very accurate for me in this catagory. Is there a way I can adjust this in my settings so I would receive a more accurate reading?

[Colinm39]

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@Tami13 wrote:

My new surge it giving me way too many very active minutes. I seriously haven't done anything but a slow walk today and I have been awarded 31 very active minutes. Not a fan of this..my fitbit one was very accurate for me in this catagory. Is there a way I can adjust this in my settings so I would receive a more accurate reading?

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@Tami13Here is the link which may answer all of your queries

[slysam]

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@Tami13 wrote:

My new surge it giving me way too many very active minutes. I seriously haven't done anything but a slow walk today and I have been awarded 31 very active minutes. Not a fan of this..my fitbit one was very accurate for me in this catagory. Is there a way I can adjust this in my settings so I would receive a more accurate reading?

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I have a One and a surge too, I am not in the loop as much as Colin lately though. I just wanted to point out that they are using different standards. It can be a little difficult to compare devices because of this. The One (last I noticed) reports "very active" minutes meaning you burned a certain amount over your resting rate during those minutes (it was at least 6 times your resting rate). I don't know why those are called "active minutes" as actually a lot of healthy exercise is not in this category. I believe the Surge is reporting "active minutes" which is both your very active minutes the One reported and your moderately active minutes (the one reports those on your desktop, but they just don't count towards "very active minutes"). A lot of walking (really most walking should be "moderate) and aerobic exercise is what is considered "moderately active" minutes. So in some ways, this is actually more correct. I am surprised a slow walk counts, but if you had it in exercise mode your heart rate was likely factored. I think for the Surge, you also need to be active continuously at least 10 minutes for it to count (?). My guess is your minutes were of the moderate variety and maybe even on the low end of that standard. The settings do make a difference--mainly whether set to dominant vs non-dominant wrist and how that compares to how you actually wear it. I have mine set non-dominant and wear it on my less dominant hand. For everyday, I actually prefer my One as well. I think the Surge is great and has some nice features (such as convenient heart rate monitoring). I don't know that the stride setting makes a big difference for accuracy *unless* your distance estimates are way off. I set my stride the same on both devices for comparison, but I only calculated it using the One. But my Surge distances seem fine. Yours?

[slysam]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:
From what I have read on herein different posts, your better off not logging something that already counts VAM.

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True, if your activity is actually "very active". If it is crediting inactive time as "very active" than you might do better logging your activity to correct that (i.e. very active minutes riding in a car, if you have that issue. I luckily do not). Of course, you can log if you prefer, it is always your choice. Or you can keep it simple if that is your choice.

[slysam]

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@Lou-dale wrote:

It must be frustrating to put in hard effort and not get your active minutes as you had hoped. Oddly, the opposite has happened to me.

My new Flex arrived just as I went down with gastric flu and spent 3 days in the foetal position. A mere 1,200 steps all day! Then I needed to walk down the road to the doctors; tiny steps, tottering like a drunken sailor because I'm dizzy and exhausted. Ta da! I've scored 9 active minutes!

I guess Fitbit skews to measuring Active Minutes on stride frequency (lots of little steps, must be working hard) or by comparing to 'normal' activity levels (in my case, near comatose).

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I am sorry you were unwell! 9 active minutes really is not much (it is plenty when you have flu). The CDC recommends something like 30-45 per day (varies by intensity). Some devices count active minutes both as when you do vigorous activity and when you do moderate activity. You may have been doing moderate activity during that walk. I think lots of little steps can skew it a bit though, but it isn't actually just the total step count. It is the speed of those steps and how much motion (forward/back, side to side, up and down usually with a tri-axis accelerometer like Fitbit has).  Fitbit does change their formulas, but at least recently the intensity level has to do with your calorie burn those minutes compared to your resting rate. The calorie burn is based on the movement data and how the fitbit formulas interpret it. But it isn't really just straight forward steps. you can have a sedentary day (I think 1,200 steps count as that) that still contain some moderate or even vigorous activity. It is possible something could be off, but I would personally suggest waiting until things are "normal" to judge this.

[Tami13]

Thank you, everyone for helping me out on this. I am a little more relieved on my very active minutes now. Thanks again!

[Gaye]

I get the same nonsense.  Yesterday I shoveled heavy snow for an hour and a half and got nothing in the way of active minutes.  Yet a brief walk down the street got me 3 minutes.  What?

[mpc69]

When I first began using my Fit Zip  in November 2014 it showed active minutes on a graph on the dashboard. I no longer get that information - only the number of steps per day. I really liked seeing the more active times because it provided good feedback and encouraged me to  be more active. Is there a way I can see that type of graph again?

[Colinm39]

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@mpc69 wrote:

When I first began using my Fit Zip  in November 2014 it showed active minutes on a graph on the dashboard. I no longer get that information - only the number of steps per day. I really liked seeing the more active times because it provided good feedback and encouraged me to  be more active. Is there a way I can see that type of graph again?

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@mpc69You should have the tile, click on where shown below and see if your Tile is there.