Challenges not Based on Steps, eg. Sports, Stairs, Active Mins

[Lianne393]

It would be nice to have different types of challenges that aren't solely based on getting our steps in. 

For instance, the number of active minutes in a day, loss challenge, calories, water consumption. Some activities don't count steps such as cycling, skiing or skateboard.  I would like to be able to compete against my friends while doing other activities.  

Moderator edit: Word choice

[PureEvil]

@JasonRankin,

The issue with other types of challenges is that they're ultimately unfair:

• Challenges for most distance favor taller people; it takes fewer steps for a 6' person to walk a mile than a 5' person.
• Challenges for most calories burned favor heavier people; it takes far less activity for someone who weighs 250 pounds to burn 300 calories than someone who weighs 120 pounds.
• Challenges for most flights of stairs favors taller people; it takes less effort for a 6' person to climb a flight of stairs than a 5' person.
• Challenges for most active minutes are probably pretty fair.

Since a step is similar effort independent of height and weight, it is the one that is the most fair among the stats tracked.

[Rich_Laue]

With only 190 votes, is this really a feature many people want? 

[JasonRankin]

I agree with everything you said, but it would be nice to have the choice because I have 4 friends all of similar height and weight and we want to compete by calories. We all exercise differwntly. So closest we can do is compressed the weekly summary. 

[dlk1728]

It would be great to add stairs to a step competition. Figure out a point total per flight (100?) and add that in.

[b0x]

For the people that would like to see if fair for all, maybe base the calories burned off of the same weight instead of your actual weight. It would level the playing field for sure.

[JasonRankin]

It could even be a formula like calories burned per pound of weight. 

[phillymuscle]

it would be cool to also have a a workout challenge see who can hit there goal of 3 to 5 days. I love the idea of stair challenge we need more then just steps.💪

[paigeski]

Any developments from FitBit admins on adding challenges outside of steps? I cycle, kickbox, do yoga, and weight train and am getting smoked by my coworkers who march in place and swing their arms when sitting. 😒

[Tracy1212]

I'd love a stair climbing challenge and or a daily activity challenge!

[XydQyv]

I think there should be a challenge that gives a point for hourly excercise and a point per hour of sleep.

[Alexshenton]

Excellent idea

[eltequilero]

I would like to challenge my friends to stairs/floors competition.  Please add this challenge to the list.  This can be a daily, weekly or monthly challenge.  I am getting bored with just doing steps, it would be more fun to incorporate "floors" as well.  I see the original request was made in 2014, surely it does not take that long to add a challenge to the list!  Please make it happen!

[Faithygirl]

There are many challenges for steps but there areally none for exercising. I would like to see one up for that.

[GJPinKY]

So disappointing that this was proposed in 2014 and nothing has been done with it.  

If fitbit won't do this I'm not sure they'll do anything.   I should be able to challenge anyone in anything the Fitbit tracks. It doesn't seem like it would be expensive to add this sort of programming 

I have lots of ideas but it seems to be a waste of breath if something this simple isn't done 

[tcornsimp]

So for almost three years (since original post in 2014) and hundreds of people asking for a floor challenge .... Fitbit still does not have this feature. 

Way to listen to your customers!

[calebrepkes]

Yeah I also have the idea they dont care. As all of this information needed
for a stairs challenge is there already. They just dont care.

Even though their customer support for devices is flawless.

[ChrissyL]

I think a calorie or active minutes challenge sounds great! I have a fairly active job, so do well on my step challenges, with the addition of steps from the gym and exercise classes. I haven't had my Fitbit long, and find the challenges help me move more. But, what a great motivator to have a challenge that competes for calories burned! 

[Moe1981]

my friends and I were more interested in an active minutes challenge feature rather than just steps. Obviously one can walk around the city all day long eating fries and ice cream ending up with an awesome 25K steps that says very little about their "health". We'd like to challenge each other where it counts more... active minutes. Is this feature anywhere on the horizon?

[PureEvil]

@paigeski and @ChrissyL,

Well, while I won't speak about active minutes, I can tell you that calorie burn challenges are ultimately unfair.  Much of your caloric burn is calculated based on your gender, age, weight, and height and naturally activity.  Your male friends, who typically weight more, are going to have a much easier time burning calories.

For instance, I have a test Fitbit account that has no activity on it.  I mean literally, not a single step and it shows me as burning 1950 calories a day.  With my normal step activity (15k+ with a daily 30 minute walk), I normally land around 4000 burned calories.  How much exercise would you have to do to get 4000 calories burned in one day?

Caloric burn challenges will only work among folks of the same gender and similar weight, height, and age.

[b0x]

I would say to counter act that problem PureEvil, that in the calorie challenges that every person uses the same numbers to come up with the calories burned. For instance, the calories would be calculated based off a 5'7" male weighing 200 pounds. When they report it, they can show how many calories were burned in the challenge as well as actual calories burned. The second number purely being for your own record. The challenge would only base itself on a single height/weight. 

[Rich_Laue]

That would be fine, but fitbit monitors actual calories

[PureEvil]

@b0x, sure you can counteract that problem by doing a proxied equivalent... but if you're going to do that, why do a proxied caloric burn equivalent?  Why not just do a proxied step count equivalent (your caloric burn is equivalent to X steps if walking)?

...and then people will debate whether the algorithm that Fitbit uses to calculate it is ultimately fair or if it's biased in some way ("there's no way that X minutes of elliptical burns more calories than Y minutes of yoga...").

[paigeski]

And those are the people I want to challenge.

Totally understand the science behind it - just looking for another solution, other than competing for steps.

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[Club49]

Seems logical... Is there an update as to how "fitbit" feels about a Floors challenge?  

[ejfehr]

Yes!  Tweeted at @Fitbit to ask about this.  Please do this.