why doesn't flights of stairs count as very active minutes?

[whippetdoc]

Does anyone know why flights of stairs don't count as very active minutes? I climbed 7 flights today - which shows up on  my dashboard but only shows 2 min on the "active minutes" and yes, it took me more than 2 minutes to climb that many flights 🙂

[LCHFmom]

I think it depends on how "fast" you are going up the flights? 

[Jim_M]

"stairs" themselves are not used by fitbit for any calorie burn calculation.  They are ONLY for self modivation.

It's the steps and your speed that are used by fitbit.

[Colinm39]

Fitbit is all about calories.. Floors are just a gimmick to get us active and only use the steps x speed to calculate calories, maybe some impact. See this esarlier link about VAM

Read this about VAM

[whippetdoc]

I understand! Thx
?
denise

[heiditracker]

I have disagree with the idea that stairs don't burn enough calories to be considered "Active".  When I wanted to add exercise to burn more calories, I started climbing my stairs everyday for 30 to 45 minutes, I would take 2 stairs at a time to work my thighs harder.  I lost 10lbs in 4 weeks.  I log that exercise as "Hiking" becasue it is a form of climbing and I think deserves the calorie burn credit.

[Jim_M]

Fitbit doesn't use stairs/floors in ANY calorie calculation.  They are only for self modivation.

[slysam]

You can get very active minutes from climbing stairs if you go fast enough and if you spend long enough climbing the stairs. Or if you log it. I don't know if Fitbit does shorter intervals than one minute--as near as I can tell it is minute by minute. So if one minute you are moving quickly throughout you probably see vam, if you move quickly for 30 seconds and stand still for 30 seconds it may average out to be lightly active or moderately active. The category fitbit puts it in has to do with calorie burn per minute and te movement the fitbit picks up. Remember, Fitbit doesn't on its own have a way to credit you for resistance exercise. I do find that it under credits me for stair laps compared to my HRM when I do 5 floors up and five down. It usually counts the floors fine, but the calorie burn is similar to what I would get walking or jogging. I do get VAM if I go fast enough, and it actually credits me higher on the downward portion of the laps (in tems of calorie burn and activity level). When I take stairs in the course of my daily life I don't count it and just let Fitbit track what it tracks, when I do stair laps for exercise I do log it using my HRM calorie burn.

[Ali]

I consistently get very active minutes in my stair climbing. I do the stairs at the same pace I walk, I climb 100 flights a day, from basement to main floor, over and over.