Fitbit tracks anxiety as an activity?

[devilsiq123]

Hi,

I just got a fitbit charge HR. I have an anxiety disorder and find myself anxious during the day which increases my heart rate significantly and often reaches the so called cardio zone. Apart from tracking heart rate during exercise, I find it useful to know my heart rate with regards to my anxiety as it helps me to identify triggers, however what I noticed is that my fitbit confuses my anxiety attack with activity and adds active minutes and calories burned..

Another problem I have is when tracking an exercise like p90x it actually adds steps and distance that I have not actually walked?

Is there a way to change the settings to avoid this or perhaps adjust the log? I mean an anxiety attack is not exactly my idea of exercise 🙂

[Julia_G]

Hi, @devilsiq123, something I have recommended to another user before is this: when you feel an anxiety attack coming on, press and hold the button to start tracking an activity.  As you feel it subsiding, press and hold the button again to stop the activity.  It will sync to your log as a "workout".  You can then go into your log and "categorize" your "workout" with a custom activity you create -- for example, "anxiety".  You will then be able to keep a record of how often and when these episodes occur.  You might even find it helpful to have it tracked, as long as it doesn't get muddled up with "real" workouts...

You almost certainly do burn extra calories during an anxiety episode, so I really wouldn't worry about that.  I am afraid there isn't really anything you can do about active minutes, because that is not a user editable metric.  Just be aware that in order to meet your fitness goals you may need to have more than the usual number of active minutes, depending on how often you get these attacks. 

[livethelife]

this is a great idea! I am going to try it so that I can see what is going on with my hr during an anxiety attack 

[suzette72]

I am so glad I stumbled onto this idea. I am trying to manage stress and anxiety. This is a great plan, thank you so much.

[jamiejer10]

Hi @Julia_G,

Would this also work with the Fitbit Alta HR? And what "button" are you referring to? Is it in the app itself or the watch?

Thanks in advance 🙂

[Julia_G]

@jamiejer10, unfortunately this would not work on the Alta HR.  You would need to have a Fitbit that allows you to track an activity manually -- the Alta HR does not have this facility.

You could do this using the earlier generation Charge HR, or Fitbits with "multi-sports mode the Blaze, the Charge 2, Charge 3, Versa or Ionic.

[jamiejer10]

@Julia_G ok. I went to the store today to exchange it with the charge 3. Where is the button that you're talking about on the charge 3?

[Julia_G]

Hi, @jamiejer10, this is quite an old thread, and referred to the Charge HR, which does have a button, and simply pressing and holding it started a "workout".

Newer Fitbits are quite a lot more complicated!

I was puzzled by talk of a "button" on Charge 3 as well...!  But Fitbit does refer to the indent on the left side as a "button" (though I would not call it that!) -- it does act the same as a button, so if you press it, things do happen.  

And since the Charge 3 has the "multi sports" mode, you can use that (non)button to track workouts, or any activity or circumstance that you would like to have a record of, including your heartrate activity during that period (for example, I have a "custom activity" called "resting" so I can monitor my HR for periods when I am, well, resting...)

You can get details of how to track workouts (or any activity) in this help article.  Basically, with the Charge 3 you use the app to set up your "exercise shortcuts".  I recommend using the generic "workout" for tracking custom activities (e.g. anxiety, or resting, or whatever), so you should make sure that "workout" is among your exercise shortcuts.

Then, when you feel it coming on, swipe left to "exercise" tap to open "exercise" swipe to "workout", press the (non)button to start...

Once it syncs, rename in the app to your custom name ("anxiety" or whatever).  Note, you must create your custom activity in the web based dashboard, but once created it will be available to select in your app.

When I write it out it sounds complicated, but it is actually very quick and easy.  In a way the older Charge HR worked best for that -- you just needed to press and hold the button...  But the new Charge 3 does lots of other things, and once you get the hang of it works almost as quickly as the old Charge HR.

I hope this helps.  If you do get the Charge 3 and are having any difficulty, please do post again.  There is always someone here to help.

[jamiejer10]

@Julia_G ok I think I got it. Thank you, you've been loads of help 🙂

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi @jamiejer10, welcome to the Forums! I'm glad to hear that @Julia_G was a great help! 😄

Just in case you're interested, some of the latest trackers (including the Charge 3) have a feature called Guided Breathing Sessions which will not track anxiety as an activity but will help you in case you feel like you need to calm down a bit. See the comparison here.

Anything else you may need, we're here to help!

[NathanKlich]

My Charge 2 told me I earned an extra 1000 calories just from the panic attack that I was having. I wish there was a way that you could either not have it track heartrate/calorie expenditure relation or if you could hit a button or track it and have it deduct the calories it "thinks" you've burned doing "cardio" ie, having an episode to make the calories in and out more reflect your activity level. 

[DenzelNoup]

I've tracked my panic attack several times using FB. It seems that during an anxiety attack, my body thinks that I'm running a marathon. I'm serious. I noticed a specific pattern in the fact that the data is very similar. And the calories burned are also suitable. It is not for nothing that they say that nervous people are most often thin. Of course, eating disorders have another form - overeating. But I do not relate to this. During an anxiety attack, I feel killed. Recently, I even learned that there is a concept of social anxiety. I read about it here https://fherehab.com/anxiety/social-anxiety-disorder. I think I'm susceptible to this. Maybe you have it too...

[Nvenkateshmurth]

Hi Julia,

i just got my fitbit sense and faced the same issue highlighted above but this solution is not a correct solution at all. There is a high possibility that i am in a certain level of stress due to thoughts and i dont realise it at all and my heart rate has gone up to 110 and above. 

Why cant a simple combination of heart rate and actual physical activity be used to show the active minutes. How can an elevated heart rate without an associated activity be ever called as 'active minutes' this is wrong. I think this should be considered as a bug. 

If a conference call at work gets nasty adding to stress, should i ask the participants to hold on to press a button in my watch because it started recording it as active minutes, this isnt practical. I am sure Fitbit records HRV as a data which can affectively be used to differentiate between both. 

Today my active zone minutes is 152 where i just did moderate walking for 40 minutes.. this data is wrong. 

please do appreciate for your response on this.

thanks,

Venkatesh

[SashaPhoenix]

This is exactly what I was thinking. It seems very obvious to have zone minutes be high heart rate plus movement. How am I 'active' when I'm sitting for 2 hours at work. It makes zone minutes useless as any realistic metric. 

Yes you can go in and delete the time periods that are incorrect, but im not going to fiddle around for 10 minutes a day selecting timing between actual zone minutes etc.

Just make zone minutes require movement plus heart rate.