Activities Logged, but not as Exercise

[Goldd3000]

So I'm a little confused and not sure if my fitbit one is working as it should. 

Before I exercise, I hold the button to get into Activity Mode and see the timer start. I hold it back down after I'm finished and see the total exercise time. This has accurately reflected when I sync my fitbit under Log > Activities. I am okay with how that is working, however, I find it curious that Activities do not appear to be "Exercise". Is there a reason why my ONE is tracking activities but I have to manually enter Exercise if I want any in the Exercise section of my app or web app dashboard?

Above: Two Activity entries accurately logged

 

Above Active Minutes recorded (I agree and understand active minutes mostly) but No exercise logged?

Above Current dashboard showing No recent exercises?

[RobertoME · Accepted solution]

Hello there @Goldd3000 welcome aboard to our community. Note that for the activity records that your One is tracking, they wont appear as exercise on your app or recent exercise tile. This doesn't mean that the stats recorded by your tracker are not counted for your daily activity totals. There are different methods to track your exercise but the One and the Ultra tracker doesn't work in the same way as the other trackers. So if you want this information appear on your exercise section of your account, you need to manually enter the exercise either on your app or your online Dashboard. Rest assure that your One is working fine.

Hope this helps and let me know how it goes.

[Goldd3000]

I suppose this solves my question. Thank you for that clarification that was not expicitly mentioned when purchasing the product. Had I known, I would've purchased a different FitBit... what other model would give me the ability to enter into exercise mode and automatically track the exercise? Is there a feature that I should look for?

[RobertoME]

@Goldd3000, well your One is a great tracker, however I could say is from the past generation of so many new features doesn't work in the same way as with the new models. If you re looking for some specifically feature, I can recommend the Charge or the Charge HR.

I have used both of them and my favorite is the Charge HR, as it will give you the option to track your heart rate while the Charge does not have this option. About the Charge HR, in addition will automatically track your exercise using the new feature SmartTrack and when you use the exercise mode, it will allow you to categorized the activity to a different exercise of your choice. Which is exactly what you are looking for. Based on my experience; I think is the best way to track your exercise in a discrete way, but it will depend of your lifestyle, perhaps you are interest in  tracking your activities more professionally, then your best option is the Fitbit Surge. 

Although I don't know if you have heard the news? Note that in March there will be a new model that we are all excited about it and will include some new features and the one that already exist. This new tracker is called: Blaze. You can find more information about this tracker and the other models by visiting our website in our product section: http://www.fitbit.com/ca/home

If you have more questions I'll be around. Catch ya later my friend.

[pieatot]

i have two trackers(One and Charge) and this explains why the exercise isn't logged when i use the One in activity mode. I bought the One as i dont like wearing a wristbased tracker all the time. Had i known this i probably would have bought a different product altogether. Is there any other fitbit tracker that is pocketable but can track like its wrist based counterparts? Or is there a firmware update that can make the One/Ultra on par with the charge/charge HR?

[TandemWalker]

Hi @pieatot. All pocketable trackers are pedometers, while wrist-type trackers are activity trackers. To the best of my knowledge, there is no pocketable/clipon Fitbit tracker (or any other make for that matter) that will do the equivalent of an activity tracker. I have both a One and a Charge; and the One is the one I use daily. I use my tracker in Activity Mode only for step-based walk/jog workouts; and log everything else manually.

             TW             

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(If this tip solved the problem for you, please mark this post solved, as this will be helpful to other users experiencing similar issues.) 

[Unraveledgirl]

But if you manually add the exercise the is it really tracking it twice?

[RobertoME]

Hello @Unraveledgirl, I'm glad that you are posting in our community. To answer to your question, when you manually logged an activity all steps, calories, and active minutes and other data recorded by your tracker are overridden for the duration of a manually logged entry by the activity's entered values. To avoid that your steps are not counted twice.

Hope this helps and see ya around fellows.

[pieatot]

thanks for replying tandemwalker. i am curious though. Does the One track differently(with less detail) because it is an older model? or is this a limitation of being a clip-on pedometer as opposed to a wrist based activity tracker? What i mean to say is can the One track the same way as the Charge if Fitbit wanted this to be the case? I sometimes run with the Charge in my pockets and not on my wrist as i dislike running wearing something on my wrists. 🙂

[Unraveledgirl]

I did this tonight and it just added steps to my day and it did by override what the One tracked during my walk. Thoughts on what I'm doing wrong?

[TandemWalker]

Hi again @pieatot. Well, the Fitbit One is indeed an older model, but it is still the best yet in terms of step count accuracy.

All Fitbit trackers track steps via a 3-axix accelerometer. The Fitbit One is calibrated to be worn on the torso and, for the most part, will only pick up steps (and floors via the altimeter) and not much else. As opposed to wrist-type activity trackers which will inevitably pick up hopefully all your steps; but will also pick up some of your energy expenditure from your upper body movements, especially those from the arm on which the tracker is worn.

As to whether or not you can wear your Charge in your pocket when running, that's entirely up to you. The Charge is calibrated to be worn on your wrist; doing otherwise will cause it to lose in accuracy. That being said, if step count accuracy is not that important for you, I think that it is a pretty safe bet to say that whatever the error factor is (for wearing it in your pocket), that it will be relatively constant. So for the purpose of gauging your performance over time (trend line), wearing it in your pocket will do just fine as long as you always wear your Charge that way every time you run.

Cheers!

TW

[TandemWalker]

Hi @Unraveledgirl. I don't think you did anything wrong. If you're wearing your tracker during an activity, be it step-based or else, your Fitbit One will inevitably log steps. Upon syncing, those steps of course will show up on your Activities log. If you subsequently log a manual activity during the time frame when those steps were recorded, the manual log will not obliterate those steps but supplement the caloric burn to give you full credit for your activity. To the best of my knowledge, steps automatically recorded by your tracker can only be deleted by logging a driving activity, as expained in How can I delete data. Hope this helps. Have a nice day.

TW

[SunsetRunner]

This all seems like very bizarre behavior. I assume the Fitbit One logs accelerometer data and chronological data such as when a user starts a timed activity and then sends that over when synced. From there it seems like if someone wanted to log the timed activity as exercise it should be a short putt to do so. This seems to be more a limitation of the software on the app than the tracker itself.

I took a run today with the tracker. Started a timed activity, and when I got home manually entered in a Run exercise and about 9k steps were added to my profile, even though I had the One on me during the run and I assume was collecting the correct number of steps duing that time period. Can you explain this behavior to me?

[TandemWalker]

Hi @SunsetRunner. When wearing your Fitbit One, you don't have to manual log walking and running activities. Syncing logs everything for you. If, during the day, you used the timer functionality to time a specific walk or jot workout, this workout will automatically appear separately on your Activities log; so again, there is no need to log anything manually.

TW

[SunsetRunner]

I don't think you are understanding the problem that those on this thread are voicing. A timed activity in our activity log doesn't show up as exercise. This is bizarre behavior.

If I start a run/walk/hike on my app it logs it as exercise. But I have a Fitbit so I don't have to carry a phone to track my run. So I start a timed activity and when I get back to my computer and is all synched up, it doesn't show up as a run or any other type of exercise, even if I try to edit it so it does. It's just my step count and calorie impact, ect... during that time period. I also can't edit the miles because it uses my walking stride for distance, and I didn't set up a running stride.

This is why I need to also log it manually. Because it isn't showing up as exercise. Had I had my phone with me it would have shown up as exercise, but that's the reason I use a Fitbit, so I don't have to carry my phone on runs or whatever.

[TandemWalker]

I think I do understand; but if I don't, I must admit that this wouldn't be a first.

If you are wearing your Fitbit One, you do not have to log anything manually. A simple sync will take care of your step count, distance, caloric burn, floors, etc. If you go for a dedicated walk or jog workout that you want to time in order to track your performance improvements over time when using a specific training track or course, using the timer functionality of your Fitbit One would cause that event to show up separately on your Log Activities dashboard page.

I manually log activities all the time for things like punching bag workouts, rowing, stationary bike, etc.; but I never log manually walking and running, except for those very rare occasions when I forgot to wear my tracker.

TW

[SunsetRunner]

Okay. So how do I get my run to show up as exercise?

[TandemWalker]

You don't. Your runs will show in steps; and if you use the timer to capture your runs separately, they'll show up as such on your activity log. That's how it works for me. What shows as exercise are non step-based activties that I log manually, as stated in my earlier post, such as rowing, bicycling, etc. That does not mean that running and walking are not exercise, of course they are. But step-based exercises is represented STEPS, not in exercise.

TW

[pieatot]

i really appreciate the info being shared here. But i think the main issue here is that the One will not log timed exercises(such as running) as a workout and the user will therefore have to log the said exercise manually. Whereas the Charge will automatically credit you with a workout once you sync it. So the One creates an "extra" step for me in order for the fitbit app to acknowledge my goals as being met. I was really hoping that the One can be the only one i use but that is not the case based on my preferences.

[TandemWalker]

HI @pieatot. The purpose of my post was to answer the question raised, as one fitbitter trying to help a fellow Fitbitter. The Fitbit One being a pedometer as opposed to an activity tracker (i.e. a wrist-type tracker), I personally have no issues whatsoever with the way it works. But I get your point and I think it's indeed an excellent candidate for the Feature Request forum.

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Requests/idb-p/features

TW