Yoga and pilates not counting to active minutes

[ClaireFinnie]

Hi. I do pilates and yoga classes but have noticed that neither of these count towards active minutes. They register on daily activities but not to total minutes.

[LZeeW]

@ClaireFinnie  Active minutes are effort related and are based on the concept of the Metabolic Equivalent (MET).  One MET is you at rest.  You need to sustain an activity of three METs to earn active minutes.  Three METs is like a brisk walk.  You also need to do this level of effort for ten minutes before they start to register.  

Yoga and pilates generally don't sustain the active minute requirements.  You can read more here .

[ClaireFinnie]

Thanks, wondered if it was something like that. So in theory I could do hours of pilates or yoga and it not count. It does make me wonder why fitbit bothered to list these activities if this is the case.

[LZeeW]

@ClaireFinnie  Fitbit uses many CDC guidelines when developing features.  The CDC uses moderate to intense activity for its exercise recommendations, so this is where the moderate activity part comes in.  It's really hard to get active minutes from yoga.  I think the thing that might limit active minutes in Pilates is getting and keeping the exercises that you do for the 10 minutes that triggers the active minutes.

That said, while you might not get active minutes, this doesn't mean that yoga and Pilates are worthless as exercise.  They're great exercise!  The world would be a whole lot healthier if more people did yoga and Pilates.

An insider observation -- I think the Workout option gives active minutes for less intense activity than expected.  Try a Pilates class using Workout and see what happens.  My observation comes from the following -- I can sort and fold a large load of laundry and it isn't auto-recognized as an activity.  I can sort that same load using the Workout option and get active minutes!  I'm a scientist.  I do experiments. 

[ClaireFinnie]

Thanks for the ideas x