How do I know which activities need to be logged and which the Versa picks up from sensor data?

[LadyforCamus]

Hi everyone!

I’m new to the fit bit, and I have some questions about how the Versa 2 estimates calories burned from physical activity. I understand that it begins with my calculated BMR. I also understand that I need to log exercise sessions like weight training, biking, running, etc. But, my question is, what about activities of daily living like shoveling snow, heavy house cleaning, going up and down the stairs in my house? Do I need to log these activities like I would structured work outs?

I had read somewhere that Fitbit uses the HR to derive calories burned, so I would think I wouldn’t need to log house and yard work. But, then, if it uses HR to calculate calories burned, why would I need to log anything, including structured work outs? Hopefully that makes sense!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[JohnnyRow]

For calories burned, you don't need to log anything.  It all comes from heart rate.

The issues of logging workout usually come from some people wanting to get credit for exercise sessions, say if a goal of exercising 5 days per week.  Also to be able to see more details of the exercise session, such as 'what was my heart rate while doing this', or to be able to look back in history to see what exercise you did when.

If you do want that kind of information, there are a few ways:

1) Several activities are auto-recognized; i.e. if you take a 20 minute walk, fitbit will probably recognize that by itself and log it as an exercise session.  To see the types of exercise that can supposedly be auto-recognized, tap the 'days of exercise' tile on phone app, then tap the gear icon near top right to see the activities and be able to change the minimum time of that activity needed for it to count as an exercise session.

One limitation of this is that auto-recognizing these activities is no sure thing.  Walking is pretty consistent but some others not so much.

2) Use the exercise app.  Here you tell  Fitbit when you start and stop the activity and tell Fitbit what the activity is.  You start this by scrolling right (swiping right) from main clock face until see 'Exercise' icon.  A lot of complaints could be avoided if people would use this instead of just counting on Fitbit to auto-recognize everything.

3) For activities when you were not wearing the tracker, you can manually log the activity after the fact, to get credit for it.  Some people do this for times when they were wearing the tracker but their activity didn't get recognized, and this usually leads to confusion.

That's probably more than you were looking for, but again, short answer is you do not need to log anything and it will calculate calories, and also get all daily totals correct, including calorie burn, steps, active minutes, etc.

Also here is a help section that talks about calories:

How does my Fitbit device calculate calories burned? 

[LadyforCamus]

Okay, that clears things up tremendously. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond!