Versa 2 and Active Zone Minutes

[Lovestofly]

My versa 2 just updated, I wish I had paid more attention, because now I have active zone minutes instead of active minutes. Seven years of history, gone. I’m not training to be an elite athlete. For many years I have use my Fitbit to track how long I am active in my day, and that’s the way I like it. I’m not really even into heart rate monitoring I prefer perceived exertion… Which has worked for me because I have lost over 60 pounds in the last 10 years, and ran several half marathons!

I would love if fitbit would offer users a choice if they want regular active minutes or active zone minutes. Losing active minutes is a dealbreaker for me, and I just got my versa last week. Super annoyed. 

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Lovestofly]

I was able to edit it, but it doesn’t seem to have an impact on my active zone minutes. Also since the update and switch to active zone minutes, my active minutes on my dashboard are no longer accurate either. 

This morning I have done nothing but take a shower and eat breakfast. I currently have 25 active zone minutes, and 14 active minutes.   

[Lovestofly]

This morning I paid close attention to my heart rate and I figured out why I’m getting so many active zone minutes when I’m not active, it’s because besides being based on heart rate, there’s no 10 minute threshold like activity minutes had.

The heart rate only needs to be elevated for one minute to count. Which is ridiculous because with people that have busy daily lives, heart rates go up and down all day with quick short bursts of activity, anxiety, etc.

For example this morning I ran down to the kitchen, was running around the kitchen giving my kids breakfast and making my coffee, and my heart rate went up. When I sat down after only a couple minutes, I had gotten two minutes. I don’t want them, it wasn’t exercise, it was just moving around, but this is what keeps happening to me, and I am ending up with far more active zone minutes than I want, and an inaccurate measure of how much actual fitness enhancing activity I am getting. 

[MrMarv]

@Lovestofly -

It all comes down to FitBit's revised definition of "Activity".

• It used to be "Is your body active."
• Now it's "Is your heart active and how active is it."

As far as I am concerned, the jury is out on this - even with me having a viral damaged heart that only delivers one-fourth of the oxygen that most hearts deliver. And I will listen to my cardiologist before I listen to FitBit. He doesn't know it yet, but we will be having a more specific conversation on what he considers the best exercise regimen heart rate wise in our next visit, though I may take it easy on him and just send a message using the practices web portal so he can think it through.

I just decided to take control and ignore the individual two to five minute spikes and concentrate on what I have control of - my exercise regimen. Those are the AZMs that I am concerned about and the total minutes aka "Active Minutes" in "exercise mode".

Yesterday's 119 AZM total included three treadmill sessions totaling 70 minutes (10 below zone, 20 in fat burn and 30 in cardio) for 80 AZM, one interval session on the rowing machine for 7:40 (7 in fat burn and 1 in cardio) for 9 AZM and one general exercise session on my total Gym for nine minutes, 2 in cardio and 1 in peak for 4 AZM.

So, I personally consider that as 86 Active Minutes and as an aside 93 AZM.

On Tuesday I had 297 AZM with about the same dedicated exercise regime with the additional load of a lot of up and down ladders and walking on very plush grass around my house that my device considered "Intense activity" between 11:08 am and 2:32 pm. I can agree to it being fairly intense for someone 68 years old and it was indeed a bit of a workout, but I just treated it like the normal "Joys of home ownership", just like trimming the pigmy palms, which sometimes gets "auto-recognized" as "sport activity", generating an exercise record, and taking out the trash.

As I have said in another thread or two, with apologies to Leslie Gore, "It's my data and I will interpret it how I want to."

If you are not already doing the same, may I suggest you consider it?

Good luck.

[Lovestofly]

I wish I could have a better attitude about this, I am in an absolute rage over it, to be honest.  This Versa 2 was my birthday gift to myself in a hard year...and fitbit has ruined it for me with this change to AZM after less than a week. I'd go back to my Inspire, but I already gave it to my daughter who likes it...and I do love my Versa 2, except this. 

It is very important to me to get activity into my days besides my dedicated workouts, as it is better for my mental and physical health. I am accustomed to fitbit tracking that for me, and that is the way I like it. I do not want to know about my heart rate raising when I am in a car, serving meals, flipping laundry etc-and I certainly don't want such things marked as activity and contributing to activity goals. It is very upsetting to me that a "fitness" tracker will not properly track my fitness. If I wanted a heart rate tracker, I would have gotten one.

I have discovered I can remove AZM when they are added at times like that, which helps, but it is not what I want. I want regular active minutes back and am very, very upset that cannot happen.  I am not retired, I work very full-time and have 2 children still at home...I do not want to devote my limited free time to mental arithmetics and going through my AZM deleting all the inaccurate ones. I guess I will go back to what I did before fitbit, which was have my timer on my phone track it...remembering to start and stop everytime I go for a walk..etc. But I won't like it! 

[MrMarv]

@Lovestofly -

As far as I am concerned your attitude is just fine. I used to be a lot more vocal over it. See my post on the FitBit Dashboard thread Why am I seeing Active Zone Minute now? 

If FitBit's change is at cross-purpose to yours then it is your right to say so. Personally, I pretty much agree with you and I have yet to see the American Heart Association applauding FitBit nor have they yet seem to have adopted the new heart rate zone definitions that are often referred to as "Training Zones". I wonder why they are called that - duh! It's because athletic training sites prescribe to the "new" formula.

Don't let them get you down.

[JimGreiner]

I also found that the Zone Minutes would add up, even when I was doing NOTHING!! My fix, was to lower my age in the Personal Settings in the app.

 I changed my birth date year from 1954 to 1974, which made me 20 years younger, which raised the thresholds which the Zone minutes will begin to count both Fat Burn and Cardio Burn (2 for 1) minutes. It is now harder for me to get those Zone Minutes, which by the way are a very important tool to track workouts.