very Active Minutes

[Charity2014]

Hi..Everyone!..Pardon..the..spaces..apparently..my..computer..is..having..a..moment!..My..question..I..just..finished..a..workout..and..my..fitbit..logged..20..very..active..minutes....less..then..10..min..later..my..tracker..is..ony..showing..5!..what..is..up..with..that?..I..logged..on..to..the..computer..to..see..if..it..was..different..versus..on..my..phone..but..nope..still..showing..5...any..ideas?

[Catman1954]

Hi. There's been an entire discussion about how inconsistent the Fitbit is when recording Active Minutes for folks, depending on their activity. Sometimes we get credit, it seems, and sometimes not.

I walk for my exercise and usually get credit for active minutes if I let the fitbit record the data (as opposed to me entering it myself). That doesn't always work, though.

For example: today, I forgot to put my fitbit back in my pocket when I went out to walk my 3 miles. I averaged about 16 minutes per mile (which normally gets me in the active minutes column) and logged it as such. But didn't get credit for it.

If you've logged your workout and you know the number of minutes you believe were active, I found that tweaking the minutes involved with sometime get the website to give you credit on your dashboard. The way I look at it, you're not cheating, just find the formula to give you credit for what you've already done.

Until the software is fixed to the point it can better judge what is and isn't active, I don't see this being resolved. You'll just have to find creative ways to log your workouts that will give you credit. Since there's an edit function on this (along with delete) you can use trial and error to find what works.

Good luck!

[Dominique]

What kind of activities does your workout consists of? Which Fitbit model are you using? Do you log any of your workouts manually? All these will affect the number of very active minutes you'll end up with.

You may also find the following help article useful:

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

[Catman1954]

Dominique:  I used to log all my walks, even when I had my Fitbit (One) with me at all times -- and even when I would get credit for minutes it considered active. Typically, it would give me anywhere from 35-50 minutes of Active Minutes during a typical 3 mile walk.

However, when I'd log the walk as an activity, the site would then TAKE AWAY those active minutes, even as the Fitbit had logged them as active after I had completed it! It's like the system is schizoid and can't make up its mind.

Yesterday, I forgot to put the Fitbit in my pocket before my walk and, even though I did 3 plus miles at a clips of about 16 minutes per mile, it gave me no credit for Active Minutes when I logged in manually under Activities -- whereas in the past I almost always get credit for that rate.

So you see, there's a problem with the software. It's simply not consistent in how it judges this; which makes it confusing to those of us who try to meet that goal each day.

[Dominique]

If you manually log your activity in the Dashboard, it gets "flattened out" and you lose your VAM's. This is described very well by @Colinm39 in several older posts such as this one, or this one.

There should be no need for you to manually log activities that are step-based (walking, jogging, running etc.). You can log them with your Fitbit One (by pressing the button when the activity starts, and pressing it again when it ends). This way it will appear in your Dashboard and you will get useful stats for that activity (how many calories you burned, how many steps you got etc.

As to the model you are using, you managed to pick the Fitbit tracker that is the "stingiest" with VAM's. Yes, all Fitbit trackers do not grant VAM's in the same way: for the same activity, the Zip will give you the most VAM's, the Flex will give you less and the One will give you even less. I'm not sure why Fitbit wasn't able to make their trackers consistent with regards to VAM counting, but that's the way it is.

[Catman1954]

Dominique: I appreciate the informative feedback. I didn't realize it got flattened out (I missed that when I read the stuff you linked). However, I learned pretty quickly to just let it go and not enter it separately...and I believe you when you say the One is the stingiest on VAM. Too bad, because I really love this little gadget, and it's helped me accomplish a lot of my health goals.