Active calorie goal

[melaniewymer]

Having 10k steps etc as a goal is great but it would be fab if we could set active calorie goal instead. Ie achieve 500 active calories (500 calories over and above resting calories used). I know we can set a goal for total calories used but I'd like to see a goal for additional calories used through exercise.

Moderator edit: Labels/Subject for clarity

[Skibum100]

A person can get 10000 steps as a school teacher, but a person playing tennis or working out in a gym will burn more calories with fewer steps. It seems calories burned would be more significant. Why can't we have such a category?

[ketanmujumdar]

I agree with this one, that would be a good challange. Should be a way to customize the challange with distance travelled or active minutes.

[Andhanni]

While I like the idea.  There are some small issues I see.

1. People burn calories differently.  So the amount of computation required from Weight, Height and other vital items in the formula need to be accounted for it.

2. This would also mean that a person would have to input on a regular basis their consumption to properly give the burn as as well.

Just my observations.  Sorry.

[melaniewymer]

Hi actually I noticed that if you choose to export your data as an xls file you'll see that there is already a field marked active calories that downloads data so this should be fairly easy. It's only measuring calories used over and above base calories so consumption of calories doesn't matter. Since the data already seems to exist behind the scenes it should be relatively easy to implement. Let's hope so anyway 😀

[jtomas]

This seems, from googling, like something that's been requested quite a lot and it's unbelievable that Fitbit haven't at least added it as an advanced option to be honest.

Instead you're having to do the maths of removing your BMR from everything to work out calorie burn above it which is mad, especially if you want to be able to use the data in apps like myfitnesspal etc.

I'm going to return my Fitbit I think if there's no timescale to add this, given it's hardly a new feature request...

[Pimmoz]

Hi Fitbit,

Next to steps I cycle a lot so I have set my Fitbit to track calories instead of just steps. Also calorie tracking is a much better fitness tracking than just steps as shown in several studies.

I am tracking the total burned calories because this gives me a much better idea of my overal activity during the day. The main reason we want to be able to set a goal for active calorie tracking is the following:

1. If I'm active during the day (not only with steps) I now have to guess what the total calories will be at the end of the day at that current time. This is because the BMR value keeps adding to the total calories burned when I'm resting.

2. When I'm resting in the evening my fitbit finally reached the calorie goal and notifies me while I'm long done for the day.

I'm sure this is not how you intended this goal to work and I do not understand why this is not already implemented a long time ago.

I can easely calculate my active calories via your amazing API with an App or in my data analyses spreadsheet (excel) since all the data is there. A simple IFTTT app could easily accomplish to notify me when I reached my goal but I shouldn't have to do this.

Your doing a great job with the fitbit products (and API!) and with this feature it would even be better.

I hope to see this feature soon.

[dave.chandler80]

+1 for Squash

[MarcelBK]

Good idea, thanks for taking the time to share it with us. 

[SantiR]

Hi everyone, thanks for sharing this suggestion. We're always striving to enhance Fitbit products and services, and we appreciate all of the input we receive from our customers. We do not currently have plans to release this feature. You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs located at the top right box of the Feature Suggestions Board screen. For now, we will leave this suggestion open for votes (and closed to comments) so that we can continue to track community demand over time. Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us and we will let you know if anything changes.

[Carmen.moreno16]

I wish Fitbit would show active calories similarly to how Apple Watch does it as most of us wish to set active calorie goals.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Carmen.moreno16, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to set active calorie goals. This feature suggestion already exists, so I've moved it into a similar request. While we don’t currently have plans to release this feature, we always appreciate the passion and creativity that comes out of this Community. Since we know this idea is important to many of you, we have left voting open to continue tracking interest and will post another update if anything changes. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs.

I hope to see you around.