how do I measure "other" exercise manually? in Fitbut Luxe device itself? or in the app?

[DJMAKT]

I can't believe I have to resort to "Ask The Community" for such a simple basic question, but google-searching turned up no clear answers, and they didn't bother to include an instruction manual with my new Fitbit Luxe, so here I am. I'm unfortunately NOT tech-savvy btw, so maybe most other folks would immediately know this answer intuitively. Not me!

How do I 1) manually START the fitbit with measuring a workout (say, for example, with my Meta Quest 2 headset) and then an hour later 2) how do I STOP measuring the workout, and then how can I 3) display the # of calories I jsut burned? If anyone can answer this please for the love of god dumb it down to basic detailed step-by-step instructions, for someone who's not tech-savvy with gadgets. Pretend like your'e talking to a 6 year old. I've spent the last 20 minutes tapping here & there & everywhere in the phone-app, and even in the wrist device itself and am stumped at how to do this.

VR headset exercise doesn't fall into any of the "auto recognized" categories unfortunately. So I just want to be able to easily hit a couple buttons to manually START my calorie-measuring, then later STOP the calorie-measuring, and finally DISPLAY the calories burned in the last hour or whatever of working out. Seems pretty simple, and I hope there's a short & simple solution out there. Thank you!

[JohnnyRow]

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How do I get started with Fitbit Luxe?  

Luxe manual (pdf) 

From the Exercise section of the manual:

I recommend using "Workout" as the exercise type.  It is a good all-purpose option.  I'm trying to locate good video on how to change exercise options listed if "Workout" is not listed there. Then when done you can see workout summary, including calories burned calories, I suppose on wrist, but on phone app by tapping on dais of exercise tile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6qIQCzxsqY

[DJMAKT]

Okay thanks I'll give it a try tomorrow and let you know how it goes.  I did find that 6-step set of instructions myself, but they were unclear to me.

[JohnnyRow]

I fear anything more than that would have to be on phone getting feedback step by step on what you were having problem with, which is not practical here.  Perhaps you could post exactly which part you run into problem, if not right from the start, or maybe will have to get support on phone to stay with you as you step through it.

P.S. Just re-read origin post and it is all on wrist, not on phone app, as it starts out "On Luxe, swipe left or right to Exercise App."

If you are using VR headset, I'm sure you will soon master Fitbit.

[DJMAKT · Accepted solution]

Yikes!  Well that was a massive fail.  I did follow those instructions just now, during my workout this afternoon, but the #'s displayed at the end didn't even come close to being even marginally accurate.  I started the Workout Session and exercised for about 65 minutes.  The Fitbit Luxe displayed 108 minutes instead.  I burned around 331 callories, according to the trusty internal headset app called "Move" inside the Meta Quest 2.  And here again, the Fitbix Luxe displayed 800 calores instead.  Just so bafflingly bass-ackwards wrong, I wonder how this company is even still in business?  Oh well - I'll try again tomorrow, and if I get the same wildly inaccurate results, I'll return it back to the store!  Thanks anyway for trying to help Johnny, but it appears the device is likely defective altogether 😞 

[JohnnyRow]

For starters, if you got 108 minutes for a 65 minutes session, it is obvious you did not start it at the beginning of the session and end it 65 minutes later.

It is possible to study and learn the Exercise App without actually doing a VR headset session just to become familiar with it.  You can just experiment with it: tell it you are starting an workout, continue whatever you are doing, then ten minutes later, tell it you are stopping your workout.  Then look at you workout summary.  But perhaps you have had your full and would rather just return it as long as you seem happy with your "trusty internal headset app".  That's fine too.

[DJMAKT]

"it is obvious you did not start it at the beginning of the session and end it 65 minutes later." = You are incorrect.  Please re-read my post above, and try again!

[Dopovo]

Hello @DJMAKT Would it be possible that those 107 minutes are actually Active Zone Minutes (AZM) rather than Activity duration?

Fitbit measures the efficiency of the workout looking at the heart rate where you get 1 minute if your HR is at low level and 2x (1 minute = 2 minutes) if higher.

Now, it would be interesting to see also why the calories are so high. This could be because of incorrect reading of HR (I know it sounds strange from the once leader of the market but in the last years Fitbit devices use from poor to terrible HR sensors) or because you input a wrong weight (just trying to guess)

[JohnnyRow]

@Dopovo  and 800 cal in 65 minutes isn't totally unrealistic, even with true heart rate, depending on weight, having no idea of his trusty internal app, buy hey, I'm just learning English.

[DJMAKT]

Hi Dopovo - thanks for the helpful post.  Definitely a defective Fitbit device I have 😞  Nope I didn't type in my weight incorrectly, I just double-checked it yesterday: I do have my correct age, height, and weight all entered accurately.  I tried out the Luxe again today on a 1-hour long bike trip, and while the TIME estimated by the FitBit was actually accurate (much to my surprise! 62 min) the # of calories the Fitbit Luxe estimated I had burned during that hour was unforunately a wildly inaccurate 332 calories (!) when I know the correct # is almost twice that, at around 600 calories average, for an hour's bicycling by someone of my height, weight, age, and MPH speed.   

So again here, my Fitbit gadget is a big let-down, with the poor accuracy of its calories "guesses" on both biking AND general workouts.  Oh well, I technically bought it for sleep measurements, so I'll just set it off to the side during the day and only wear it at night.  Although it is troubling: if this company can't even get the calorie-counts right (if those #'s are so badly off that they're not even in the neighborhood of being accurate) what else are they skimping on?  What other shortcomings or hidden defects is Fitbit harboring?  Maybe the sleep #'s it's giving me every morning are also the same unreliable badly-calculated data as the calorie-counting is?

[JohnnyRow]

I'm sure @DJMAKT isn't interested in my comments here, but for anyone else reading this, I wouldn't put much faith in reading calorie count for biking from a chart, even considering biking speed.  There are so many other factors that go into biking calories, including road surface, weather wind conditions, bike used - top racing bike or fat tires with one or 3 speeds, biking skills - are you a skilled shifter, do you keep a good regular high pedaling cadence or pedal like crazy for a minute then coast for a couple of minutes, sit upright taking full wind resistance or stay low to avoid wind resistance, etc.

[DJMAKT]

Another glitch-filled, badly-miscalculated, wildly-inaccurate exercise session today!  For starters, I worked out for 63 minutes, and the Fitbit app says it was "103 zone minutes" so hey, just a minor forty-minute rounding error....no biggie!  Then its calories burned estimation isn't even in the ballpark: 730 calories in my hour, claims the Fitbit Luxe, when my VR headset says it was only 300 calories. 

The only reason I can think of where Fitbit is making its mistake is being on my wrist.  And when you play VR games like Beat Saber, you're constantly making slicing/swatting motions with your hands & arms.  So maybe Fitbit doesn't understand what VR games are, or how to compensate for that, with their little algorithms?  I mean there's only 7 million people who play VR games on the Meta/Occulus Quest headsets, you'd think the "engineers" at Fitbit could figure out a way around that.

All the wildly inaccurate calorie counts & wonky time/duration estimates here are so discouraging and frustrating.  I just don't understand how an amateur-hour gadget that is THIS error-prone and consistantly unreliable can even be allowed to be sold to the unsuspecting public.  Don't they do any beta testing for these things?  Is every product sold by Big Tech nowadays simply junk, and we're just gonna have to get used to it?

[Purrfit]

Fitbit doesn't need to understand gaming systems.  Fitbit doesn't manufacture VR games so why would they care?

I'm just going to play devil's advocate here for a minute.  Is there any possibility that maybe your VR game system's stats are what is wrong?  I mean Fitbit's entire purpose for existing is to provide real-time health stats and the technology they incorporate into its products is designed to operate close to the same as its larger and less mobile counterparts used by health practitioners.  Whereas your VR gaming system is designed to enhance your gaming experience and entertain you. The "calorie counter" and "zone minutes" are just extra virtual reality features thrown in there to further entice you to keep playing.

[JohnnyRow]

I think you are still missing the distinction between Zone Minutes and activity duration.  If you could re-read @Dopovo 's post above and note his distinction between zone minutes and activity minutes, you might see the explanation for what you describe as rounding error.

Or just tap the Zone Minutes circle near top of phone app and read explanation there.

[DJMAKT]

Hi Purrfit - please re-read above, I also experienced wildly-inaccurate calorie-counts BIKING (i.e. riding a bicycle) so that does confirm the defectiveness of the Fitbit, and proves that its badly-miscalculated mistakes are NOT due to just one form of exercise only 😞  Believe me....I wish this were not the case!  But numbers don't lie.  (Well, unless they come from the Fitbix Luxe, in which case it's only EVER capable of a lie!) 

[Purrfit]

So, just curious then, if you already have a device or method that gives
you far more "accurate" numbers in all your fitness activities, then why do
you need a Fitbit? 🤷‍:female_sign:

Carlene 🐵