Swimming on Fitbit

[Sooshpoosh]

I do intense swimming training 4 times a week, but unless I go on a run, the Fitbit app counts my swim as having a cardio load of '0'

This is annoying as the app is often telling me I haven't met my cardio/exercise target today, when I've already swam twice!

The Fitbit also doesn't track my heart rate during swims, if I don't actually track the swims, will it keep monitoring my heart rate without breaking?

Is there a way so change the app so it counts swimming as a sport, and tracks my heart rate during it? Thank you

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Sooshpoosh, welcome, swimming is in some respects, a grey area for Fitbit's stats. For instance, HR is not supposed to be tracked when swimming, this is a legacy from "Fitbit" times before Google took over. As a result, some things do not work as we might like. Now I'm a daily swimmer, I wear my Inspire 3 in the pool but rely on the auto-recognize feature to record my swims, HR is recorded but the effort is not allocated to swimming. This is what I see-

To ensure the auto-recognize feature is active go to the Fitbit app "Today" screen on your phone>touch your icon in the top right corner>Fitbit Settings>exercise>swimming>ensure the "Swims longer than" is set at 10 minutes>ensure the green slider in the upper right is in the "on" position and SAVE.

I hope this helps, please post here again & let us know how you get on.

Cheers

[Sooshpoosh]

Hello,

Thanks so much, 

I tried it this evening but it didn't seem to work. Does the auto-recognise feature need to be set to however long my swim will be? I set it to 10 minutes but the same thing happened.

 as seen on these screenshots; my heart rate and cardio load stop tracking 10 mins into my swim. Have I misunderstood something? Thanks so much again!

 

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Sooshpoosh, thanks for the feedback, The auto-recognize feature recognizes swims longer than 10 minutes with this setting (you can't set it at less) The only downside to the feature is that I lose 2 lengths (50 metres) from my final total. How do I track swims with my Fitbit device? - Fitbit Help Center describes some of the issues that might affect the accuracy of the data you collect while swimming. The primary data stream used is your HR, make sure you activate the water lock before starting your auto-recognized swim. Review the link above, you are getting HR so I wonder if you are pausing. Let us know how you get on by posting here again.

Cheers

[Sooshpoosh]

Hi, 

Thanks again for your help!

Water lock is what seems to be the problem- it turns on automatically when I swim, whether I choose to record it myself or use auto-recognise.

In that particular swim, I didn't pause or do anything, just set my auto -recognise to 10 mins and got in the pool. Started my swim at 1830 and it stopped recording at 1840.

Any more suggestions? Thank you 🙂

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Sooshpoosh, thanks for getting back to us, as I mentioned earlier I use my Inspire 3 to track my swimming daily (about an hour & 40 minutes) with the auto-recognize set at more than 10 minutes. I'm not seeing the effect you report. Am I correct in saying that HR stops recording after 10 minutes? (your previously posted graph seems to show this). I know that when I swim the Inspire 3 tends to move down my wrist towards my hand, do you have any scar tissue or tattoo on your wrist (this frequently prevents the sensing array from detecting our HR) please let us know. The next time you swim keep going & let us have a screen-shot of the full swim exercise once you get home.

Cheers

[Sooshpoosh]

Hi, thanks again for your continued help!

Nothing wrong with my wrist, my inspire 3 always checks heart rate normally otherwise.

Am I right in saying;

• If I swim for an hour, my auto-recognise feature should be set to an hour?
• Should I turn on water lock before swimming, with an auto recognise of an hour still? Or just 10 mins?

I tested it out the other day, my heart rate still works with water lock (not whilst I was swimming) 

Please let me know if either of these are the case,

Thank you!

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Sooshpoosh, Thanks for getting back to us, The auto-recognised setting of "Swims longer than 10 minutes" waits for 10 minutes before it recognizes your exercise is a swim. The Inspire 3 accelerometers and your raised HR are the data streams used. My setting is Swims longer than 10 minutes" and I swim for 100 minutes, the result is an almost full record (usually 50 metres short on distance but correct on time).

Before you get in the water turn on the "Water Lock" and don't touch it until you finish your swim & leave the pool. This feature prevents water on the Inspire 3 touch screen triggering changes in your Inspire 3 via the touch-sensitive screen.

Can you do as I do, let us know how long you swim for (start & finish times) and let us have a screenshot of your HR in the Fitbit app when you get home.

Cheers

[Sooshpoosh · Accepted solution]

Hello, 

Thanks so much!

when I turned on water lock, and let it auto recognise for more than 10 minutes, it counted my heart rate and cardio load!

As you can see, I went swimming at 1830

 

 thanks again!!