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

[Jupiter394]

There is a setting to change your max heart rate. This moves your heart rate zones. It seems like this would help most people customize when they are getting zone minutes.

[Adeababe]

I already had mine adjusted and I got zero active zone minutes.

Regards, Adriana Smyly

[crnalah]

I have adjusted mine, Fitbit jumped in and readjusted it and it is basically apples and oranges.

At 72, Active minutes are valuable to me.

At 72, Zone minutes are worthless to me. 

What part of that don't you rah rah Zone Minutes people understand?

I found a clock face that still posts Active Minutes.

I would guess that in line with Fitbit's policy, this clock face will disappear shortly. 

I will then buy an Apple watch. 

A company that does NOT listen to any of our complaints is worthless to me.

How hard can it be for Fitbit to offer us the choice??

[Jupiter394]

@Adeababe How disappointing. Sorry it didn't help.

[Milo1134]

Zone minutes are of no intrest to me. I am aware they can be manipulated. I preferred using a system that tracked the actual activity and not a random and irrelevant calculation. It’s meaningless.

L.

[Woozle]

I added to this conversation earlier in the thread, but I found by editing my HR zones and using a watch face that only shows active minutes rather than Zone minutes my problem is essentially solved but Active Zone Minutes keep fluffing up my stats because I have to up the weekly active zone minutes to equate to my old 30 Active Minutes a day.

It's all a massive work around for the same job it used to do by default. If the starts can be manipulated, how does it encourage customers become more active? It won't because the minutes they are active have now gone way off course.

[meagjs]

Please bring back active minutes. I’ve just purchased a new fitbit device based on a positive experience with my first, only to be sorely disappointed when it updated to active zone minutes, which are wildly inaccurate and completely demotivating.

[TJMcDonnell]

Last week I easily surpassed 700 zone minutes while your recommendation is a measly 150 zone minutes per week.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @TJMcDonnell, thanks for explaining why you would like to have the option to allow to customize Active Zone Minutes Goals. Thanks for sharing your feedback. I've moved it into a similar request.  A lot of users are asking for this option, I hope we receive updates soon.

[katstevens13]

WoW! After how long has this thread been active, we finally get a response
from a moderator!!

[garfima]

It's been months!!!  Just give us the option of Active minutes or Zone minutes.  Let the customer decide what works for them. 

[olivia010]

Yes please change it back to active minutes or give us the option to a) choose active minutes or zone minutes or b) give us the ability to change the zones. If I’m just taking a casual walk, my heart rate doesn’t always get into Fitbit’s preset fat burn zone, which doesn’t earn me minutes and makes it harder to enjoy Get Fit Bingo. Also, it counts minutes randomly throughout the day when I’m doing things that Fitbit thinks elevates my heart rate for long enough when I’m not really doing anything. Like standing over a hot stove top while cooking which makes me hot and obviously raises my heart rate (it sounds silly but it has seriously happened before) 

So yeah, I really want active minutes back, not these stupid “zone minutes”

[andlei]

"Active minutes" worked better for tracking my activity than "zone minutes". I'm getting zone minutes and "hitting my goal" for folding laundry and wandering around the grocery store. I don't want to trick myself into thinking I'm exercising more than I actually am--I want to be motivated to push myself.  With active minutes I could check my 'cardio' vs 'fat burning time' and see if I was hitting the number of minutes per day of cardio that I wanted, in addition to general activity and steps. The information was there, so it seems strange that Fitbit switched to something with less clarity that is less motivating. It's important to me to be able to track how much time I'm active without that time being inflated. Please consider returning to active minutes, or allowing customers to choose.

[JayAlecto]

For all the folks wanting to undo zone minutes, I assume you mean "give the option to use one or the other." As angry as you are that the choice was made FOR you (forcing everyone to the new zone standard), those of us who rely on zone minutes, and find it a much more useful tool than active minutes, would be just as angry to have our preference taken away. The only real solution to this issue is to allow users to choose between active or zone minutes. I rely on zone minutes to help me fine-tune workouts that are meant to have different effects on me. I'm an average-healthy, active, 53-year old female, and zone minutes work great for me. I can't imagine trying to do what I do with active minutes alone.

For those who walk as their main or sole exercise, I'm not understanding why you aren't using steps as your primary goal/stat.My experience with the stats is they're more or less useful depending on the form of exercise, and aren't necessarily meant to be taken altogether. I do quite a lot of cardio in a day, but most of it is basically "in place," so my actual effort is important, but steps are useless, because even setting my Fitbit to a cardio workout setting has my Fitbit registering all sorts of steps that I never take. I don't think Fitbit meant for all the stats to be equally useful for all exercises, but rather for us to decide which stat goals to set based on our preferred activities. I completely ignore my steps stat and only follow my zone minutes. If you're walking, just .. set a step goal to reflect your intended activity levels and go with that. What difference does it make if your zone minutes aren't as fluffy as you like? You know you did the work from your steps reading.

[crnalah]

My active minutes count at several sites that reward me monetarily for achieving active minutes, like Silver Sneakers, my Medicare Advantage plan and Walgreens. They do NOT reward me for Zone minutes. 

I spent several days in Williamsburg, VA recently with some slow walking elderly cousins, one on a scooter. I had 13K steps one day, no active minutes and no Zone minutes. So...no reward. 

I believe your post is rude. My workout, my step count, my active minutes are NOT your workout, your step count nor your active minutes and your attempt to "mansplain" your philosophy about exercise totally disregards my philosophy about exercise. 

[JayAlecto]

@crnalahFirst of all, I'm a woman -- I state that quite clearly in my comment; your use of the term "mansplain" makes no sense.

I'm suggesting an approach, and stating that I don't understand why it doesn't work for others. If others want to explain why it doesn't work for them, I'm happy to listen. Not so happy to be called rude because I wasn't born knowing what your specific situation is and how your requirements may differ from mine. I can appreciate that other people are using other programs that might work better (or only work) with active minutes. Now I know. You could have alleviated my ignorance without resorting to the text equivalent of putting a bag of dog poo on my porch and setting it on fire.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi everyone, and thanks for sharing this suggestion. We’re very happy to let you know that this has been released on Fitbit Charge 4, Inspire 2, Versa Smartwatches, Ionic, Sense and Luxe. You can find more details here: Which daily stat can I set as my main goal on my Fitbit device?. To customize Active Zone Minutes Goals > Open Fitbit App > Tap on your picture > Activity & Wellness > Daily Activity o Weekly Activity.

@Jocrab, in recognition of your excellent suggestion, each of your votes will now count as 5 votes – you have the power! Thank you for sharing this idea, and thanks to everyone who voted and commented for your enthusiasm which has now materialized for everyone’s benefit. We hope you all enjoy this new addition to the Fitbit product or service!

[Guy_]

Hi Yojana

What has just been released?

Where or how do you choose active minutes instead of active zone minutes?

[pkj]

As I read this:

Status changed to: Released

Hi everyone, and thanks for sharing this suggestion. We’re very happy to let you know that this has been released on Fitbit Charge 4, Inspire 2, Versa Smartwatches, Ionic, Sense and Luxe. You can find more details here: Which daily stat can I set as my main goal on my Fitbit device?. To customize Active Zone Minutes Goals > Open Fitbit App > Tap on your picture > Activity & Wellness > Daily Activity o Weekly Activity.

This doesn't address the concerns raised on this thread at all. What your customers want is the option to see "active" minutes instead of "zone" minutes. Many of us do not want and cannot use "zone" minutes. Did I misread your release information? Is there a way to choose "active" minutes now, as requested?

[pkj]

Hi everyone, and thanks for sharing this suggestion. We’re very happy to let you know that this has been released on Fitbit Charge 4, Inspire 2, Versa Smartwatches, Ionic, Sense and Luxe. You can find more details here: Which daily stat can I set as my main goal on my Fitbit device?. To customize Active Zone Minutes Goals > Open Fitbit App > Tap on your picture > Activity & Wellness > Daily Activity o Weekly Activity.

This doesn't address the concerns raised on this thread at all. What your customers want is the option to see "active" minutes instead of "zone" minutes. Many of us do not want and cannot use "zone" minutes. Did I misread your release information? Is there a way to choose "active" minutes now, as requested?

[garfima]

I don't want to customize Active Zone minutes. I WANT THE OPTION OF ACTIVE MINUTES VS ACTIVE ZONE MINUTES. 

[spicediva]

Geesh, the whole post was about being able to get Active minutes back on the fitbit.  I have had to use an external timer to keep up with my active minutes.  I workout in the morning before work and the whole point in using fitbit active minutes was to track how long I was exercising so I am not late getting ready for work Monday through Friday.  Really Fitbit? really?  You didn't listen to a work anyone said for the what? last 10 months.

[spicediva]

Sorry meant to say "word" in the last sentence.

[Adeababe]

So did this not make the active minutes come back? I can’t see anymore because I bought myself an Apple Watch and don’t use my Fitbit anymore.

[Guy_]

@spicediva  Did you know if you click the 3 dots you can correct your comment ?

[PaulaYvette0628]

Done and moving to Apple. It has been months and Fitbit is clearly NOT interested in users that have are trying to develop healthy habits but may have health or physical limitations.

Sent from my iPhone