Allow to customize Active Zone Minutes Goals

[Jocrab]

Allow users to revert back to active minutes or be able to customise zone minutes. Preset goals are too high and unreachable for some. For those with health conditions or on medication, pushing themselves enough to increase their pulse to the higher fat burn zone can be either impossible to do or extremely dangerous.

Moderator edit: Clarified

[alexander853]

Is custom zone minutes available under settings?  Or is it your suggestion?  I would like to be able to do this too, since I get dehydrated easily and need to watch how much excessive exercise (as in fitbit's new cardio and peak levels) I get.

[harshani]

I agree that activity minutes should be added. Activity minutes are a generalized tracking option that can be achieved by many.

This is Scientifically not sound!!!!

Zone minutes are based on bpm ... and bpm changes from person to person based on gender, ethnicity, weight, medical condition etc. So to generalize and set fat burn and cardio zones are wrong. For some, this is not achievable. I am a scientist who works on metabolism and has actively done work that proves bpm is not the same even in the same litter born, same gender, same wight male mice. This becomes variable in women in many ways. For example women have different bpm based on their menstrual cycle (https://ouraring.com/menstrual-cycle-impacts-on-health). This is acsientific backed fact. 

how about ethnicity?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4293235/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9524048/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26694847/

these are some examples. even amongst men who are white, black, asian the bpm has to be analyzed differently for these studies. If that is true, how can fitbit have information enough about me to set my fat burn and cardio zones?

And yes medical conditions and drugs people have to take play a huge factor as well. 

My bpm is generally low (not a medical condition .... confirmed). I walked for 40 minutes straight at 3.6miles per hour and then upped it to 4mph. I hit 5 active zone time minutes. I took a video where my bpm was barely reaching fat burn. something is not right. 

So I waited for 10 minutes and hit the treadmill again and this time I hit 4pmgh for straight an hour ... once again I was barely reaching fat burn zone, but managed to bag some minutes.

Fitbit sells/markets this as the next 10000 step option. But it really is not. Fitbit has not optimized this counter enough to target a big group of fitbit users. My friend who has been walking for the past two hours (hiking) did not hit one active zone minute. I do 25000 - 30000 steps a day and I am barely hitting the "so called fat burn zone". Fitbit is not correct with their targets. they should give activity minutes which is a better-set option. 

They should at least have activity minutes as an option in the mobile app. When I called fitbit, they told me it is in the app. I went nuts looking for it .... but it was not there. then finally a supervisor told me its not in the app but the computer dashboard. Fitbit customer service had no idea where things were even.

[KarenS9]

Yes! Go back to the normal active minutes!! I have a low heart rate and even when working out to the fullest mine only reaches about 110, that's almost passing out for me!! 80-90 has been my fat burning zone and now after walking an hour briskly I still have 0 minutes in the zone! Give me my old active minutes option back!!!!!! 

[themightylayman]

I agree. PLEASE PLEASE bring back active minutes.

[kec5897]

Change it back to the Active/Exercise Minutes that it has ALWAYS been!!!  I track my own cardio & I am Extremely perturbed with fitbit changing my goals!!!!!  These are the same 5 goals that I follow & work to exceed EVERY day... altering them without my consent has destroyed my whole evening!!!!!  I have an interview to prepare for & this has been an INCREDIBLE waste of my time this evening!!!  I COULD actually be doing my cardio right now as opposed to fighting this ridiculous change!!!

[sfitzg5555]

I'm extremely unhappy with Active Zone Minutes. It's unachievable for what my program is. I lost 19 pounds, incentivized by the parameters in Active Minutes. I've missed only 3 days the entire year from reaching the 30 minutes of moderate exercise a day and now it's unachievable for me Zone Minutes. It's fine as an option for younger people, but the Active Minutes worked for me to accomplish my goals. Please restore that as a choice. Without that, I'll have to find another product. I wouldn't have updated to the new version had I known.

[kdub36]

My main source of exercise is taking walks. I know it's not much, but it's been working for me. Now that the active minutes has changed my heart rate zones, it's impossible for me to reach my target zones. I could walk all day and not record a single minute in the "Active Zone Minute" category which is very demoralizing. I have been tracking my fitness with my versa 2 for the past 9 months and now this update has completely changed how I assess my day for the worse. With these new heart rate zones, I could walk all day and get 30,000 steps, or I could sit on the couch all day and get the exact same active zone minutes. Please go back to the old target zones or let us make our own custom zones. 

For anyone looking to go back to your old heart rate zones: I found that the target zones are based on your age and resting heart rate. So to get my heart rate zones back to where they were, my app now thinks I am 65 (I'm 25 lol).

Moderator Edit: Formatting

[spicediva]

I want my active minutes back, I used it to track my time on the elliptical every morning.  I can't believe I was not given a choice to choose what I wanted on there,  I have a low heart rate as well and will never be able to get to that minimum for zone.  Please return the option for active minutes. I heard a quote that fits here, not sure who wrote it but I will try my best not to mess it up.  It can take months to find customers and seconds to lose one.

Moderator Edit: Formatting

[sfitzg5555]

She summed it up perfectly. Part of the allure of Fitbit is that it was inclusive of all levels of fitness and allowed for positive feedback even if you aren’t or can’t be a workout warrior.

[JonErrington]

This active zone minutes feature is unwanted and quite honestly, makes me not want to bother. Whereas i used to do 60 minutes of walking every day, now i get nothing. I now have no idea how much exercise i've done and have lost interest in the feature to the point i've set it to 1 minute and removed it from my app display.

Thankfully, the counter for days exercised still uses the active minutes so the function is still there, but hidden away. 

I'm sick of so many unnecessary and unwanted "upgrades" that get forced on to our devices and apps, without any consideration to the fact that we paid for these devices and bought what they offered. I dislike intensely every change pushed out over the last two years, from the awful redesigned GUI, with pasty colour schemes, removal of the celebratory graphics on hitting targets, to the irrelevant sleep score, fitness challenges going to the top of my home page every time, instead of remaining on the challenges page where they used to be, the almost daily friend requests from people i've never had any contact with now coming through, the pointless messages at the top of the app every morning, the location of premium moved to where my thumb is most likely to mis-hit it, to the now "new" stupid exercise zones feature, that doesn't actually tell me how many minutes i've walked, or exercised, instead creates a random number that could mean anything.

I would not buy my Fitbit with the current set of features and quite frankly, feel with the changes being forced out on to us, we should have the option of a full refund for our devices. It used to be great, but is getting worse with every update and no longer motivates me. What would be so simple, is for Fitbit to release these options to people with an option of enabling and more importantly, disabling. Those who find counting in real numbers and tracking exercise on the actual minutes they spent doing it, would stay with the original version. Those who like making up fictional figures can use the new system.

[RestfulDolphin]

Change it back to active minutes!  Zone minutes are NOT beneficial at all.  Come on, fitbit.  And not even an option to use active minutes over

zone minutes?  

I am tired of the updates with no options.  Your devices are not cheap, latest software update is horrible!  This has really messed with

my daily goals, etc.

Thanks for nothing!

[MaxBrennan]

I am 100% with you!  I mostly walk and target 100-120 active minutes per day as my benchmark.  Now since walking doesn't get me to these "zone minutes"  I end up with 0.  Come on Fitbit.  I did call customer service to complain and she said she would "put it in the notes of my call".  Yeah great.  I'm sure your notes will be read by anyone.  Come on Fitbit!  I agree with the previous comment that if they don't at least bring back active minutes as an option on the watch, then I'll be looking for a manufacturer that will.  Anyone want to buy my Versa 2?

[RestfulDolphin]

I do the same! I just read a medical report a couple of days ago that stated distance is important when walking, don’t worry about exhausting yourself, just move. Thanks to fitbit and their brilliant update, you must exhaust yourself all day long to reach the active zone minutes.  Yes, you can change that, but give me the option to choose what I need to track to suit me. Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @Jocrab. Thanks for taking the time to share this suggestion about being able to customize your active zone minutes with us. We rely on feedback like yours to help us develop products and features that we know our community wants to see. If this suggestion receives votes from other customers and gains popularity, it will be shared internally with various teams at Fitbit. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visit our FAQs. You might also be interested in this other suggestion: Please include "Active Minutes" in addition to "Active Zone Minutes".

Watch this space for status updates. In the meantime, try visiting Health & Wellness to talk with other members about all things health and fitness.

[sfitzg5555]

Here's my vote. Bring back Active Minutes. I'll look for options otherwise.

-- Shane

[sfitzg5555]

We will see if Fitbit listens. Lots of us out there in the same circumstance.

-- Shane

[Adeababe]

HELP! I have set my zones based on my high end BPM. Due to medication my heart rate stays relatively low but previous to the update I was able to rack up active minutes biking on my Peloton and doing other Peloton floor exercises. Now, with the new tracking not one minute of my biking yesterday counted as active minutes. This is really taking the air out of my sails. The thing is my heart rate does get higher and the app still assigned me no active minutes. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? I changed my max HR a while ago, the app said my fat burn zone starts at 92 and yet still no active zone minutes. I contacted your customer service and they were no help. Please fix this or change how these things are tracked. I will have to change my whole routine and probably which watch and application I use if this can't get updated. I sweat my **ahem** off and would love to stick with Fitbit. I loved the app before this update.

[sfitzg5555]

Well said. Loved this app until the update. Going to look at options for the first time since 2014 because of this.

-- Shane
Sent from my iPhone

[davetroyer]

I'm a heart transplant recipient and like many others, do not have a "normal" heart rate. These active zone minutes has set my goal heart rate well beyond what my cardiologists recommend and would be extremely dangerous if I tried to achieve them. Before this change, I was able to properly track my heart rate and level of cardiovascular activity which I need due to have no vagel nerve (brain can't slow or speed up heart rate) and now I'm left guessing. Without the ability to choose which system to use, I'll go looking for a better alternative and if how this update is any indication, it won't be difficult.

[Percula]

I LOVE the active zone minutes system. To me it makes much more sense that shuffling along chasing a step total or just “active” minutes. This new system is a great way for me to be ACTIVE!

[garfima]

The Zones are to difficult to meet to someone who walks. I walk two hours a day and lost 61 pounds. Active minutes and steps were the motivator. I can't walk faster due to an injury. Please make it an option as two display active minutes vs zones. 

[spicediva]

Percula Base Runner-well I guess you would be the 1 out of the many people in this post that the zone helps. 

Does Fitbit want to jeopardize losing the many people that want the active minutes as a choice? 

How many more people out there that use fitbit and active minutes are disappointed that it is gone actually know about this post and the fact that we can vote for active minutes to be added back as a choice? 

If I would have had the choice to add/remove zone or the option to keep active minutes, I would definitely choose active minutes, it is what is best for ME and I was not given that choice, I can't speak for anyone else but myself and I would like to have active minutes back as an option.           

Z

one will not help me no matter how many hours a day I exercise, my zone level will never reach the minimum level.  

[lyssfitz]

I agree with this suggestion. I'm just a regular Fitbit user, not taking any medications like the OP,  but I'm also super unhappy that Fitbit has changed active minutes to active zone minutes. I like to use my Fitbit to track less intensity exercise e.g. using light weights, walking etc. I used to use Active Minutes to track that. Now there is no way for me to track that anymore. It would be great if either Fitbit brought back active minutes, or allowed users to customise their own heart rate zones as suggested by the OP.

A third option perhaps, would be to have a total exercise category, where it just adds up the total exercise minutes that a user has recorded. This might be good track towards goals for things like weights, pilates, yoga, stretching, walking etc. which are important for physical fitness but don't necessarily get heart rate up super high. 

Today in the "Activity" tip on my iOS app, Fitbit said that "Research has shown that 15 to 30 minutes of low- to moderate- intensity exercise, 3 times a week, eases anxiety..." Well Fitbit, if that's the case then why have you stopped letting us count low- to moderate- intensity exercise towards our daily goals? 

Fitbit may also want to think about how you can communicate better with your users. In my opinion, it is a fairly poor user experience to install a firmware "upgrade" only to find out that the main thing you used your Fitbit to track, can't be tracked anymore. It would have at least been better if in your email newsletters etc. you would have communicated that Active Minutes is changing to Active Zone Minutes. 

In summary, prior to the firmware upgrade, Fitbit Versas could be used to motivate users to do many different types of physical activity to reach a daily Active Minutes goal. Now Fitbit Versas can only be used to motivate users to do lots of cardio. Super disappointing. 

[MadMax58]

Please bring back Active Minutes as the default!!  Maybe leave Zone Minutes as an option for the tiny minority of Fitbit users that report liking the new Zone Minutes. 

Zone Minutes can be un-achievable for a variety of reasons - individual HR (which can even vary day to day and throughout the day independent of activity intensity), meds, type of activity (e.g. walking or swimming without a Fitbit because there are so many reports of supposedly waterproof Fitbits dying after immersion, at least with Ionic watches), etc...

Also, my medical insurance gives a discount on premiums and deductibles based on Fitbit data for certain key parameters, including Active Minutes (achievable), not un-achievable Zone Minutes.     

[mikeinto]

This was not well thought out by the folks at fitbit. If it's not changed within the week I'm done. Way too many options out there right now.