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

[acnwgirl]

YES!!! Bring on all the challenges! Create your own, calories, active minutes, and hydration! Really you could create a challenge based on anything that fitbit tracks. Hours active throughout the day, calories burned, floors climbed, active minutes, active heartrate zones, etc.

[Keijicpy]

As someone that is more focused on losing weight, the number of calories burnt is more important to me as compared to steps or distance. I am sure there are many like minded people who are more interested in burning calories. Furthermore, there are many activities that burn calories without getting steps. Hence, I would like to suggest implementing calories burnt badges and achievements. Competitions that use calories burnt rather than steps would be more fair since people with disabilities can also be motivated to be more fit as they wouldn’t feel ostracised from competitions that use steps to decide a winner. Therefore, using calories burnt instead of steps could revolutionise the Fitbit community and thus motivate people to give it their all while working out to burn more calories rather than for the sake of getting steps.

[NatalieLouisa]

Fitbit is crying out for this feature, I really hope it gets implemented! 

[MarcelBK]

Good idea, thanks for taking the time to share it with us. Keen to hear what others think?

[Tricia.dahms]

I would love if I could challenge people in different areas, not just steps. Maybe a weight loss challenge? Or water consumption? 

[Frostation]

Sleep is important for everyone just like exercise the body needs time to regenerate.

The Step Workweek Hustle is great! But what if there was a Sleep Workweek Hustle or Weekend Warrior?
This would encourage people to catch an earlier nights sleep to challenge their friends/buddy's.

It would work with the same principle as the Step Workweek Hustle but instead it would count the time in hours/minutes of sleep one would be getting. At the end of the week/or day it would give a total amount of hours and minutes slept. This would show if you're getting enough sleep compared to your friends or lacking it.

Obviously sleep view is only available in private so it would not necessarily show the exact nights sleep but only the total calculation of minutes asleep.

[SunsetRunner]

This idea x 1000. Would be such a useful and relatively easy feature to implement (as FitBit tracks it anyway, it's nothing new). Steps are great, but it would be fun and motivating to be able to mix it up each week.

I can't believe this thread was started almost 3 1/2 years ago and it's still not been implemented. Come on devs, it can't be that hard!

[PureEvil]

@SunsetRunner,

While I know this sounds like a good idea, it's a lot more subtle than you'd think with respect to fairness.

Steps and active minutes can be pretty equitable.  I believe that it takes a similar amount of effort (I'm not saying calories burned, but 'effort') for folks of different body types to take 'a step'.

Calories burned: First, Fitbit counts (on your dashboard) calories that include your BMR.  So right off the bat this isn't fair, but second, larger people burn calories at higher rates for the same activity.  A petite woman can workout for 2-3 hours and still not burn as many calories as a large man who has been sitting all day.

Distance: Since distance is a product of number of steps and stride length (which varies by height), then taller folks have a natural advantage to this.

Flights of stairs:  Simply put geographic location.  I live in Seattle; my sister lives in Florida (extremely flat).  I can easily get 30 flights of stairs in a day.  She lives in a one story house with no way of doing stairs.  When I went to visit her, I struggled to get 10 flights of stairs, much less 30.

Naturally you don't have to accept any challenges to which you've been invited, but I think in some level Fitbit users expect Fitbit to manage some level of fairness.

[1978fit]

Wanted to suggest making challenges more customizable.  Make challenges that challenge calorie burn or exercise days per week.  Wife the market beyond just steps.  Maybe miles or pace times. Just more than steps.  Time to expand Fitbit please 

[Candance.R]

Total daily steps are not all literal steps. Your watch computes your
workouts into a number of steps, based on a combination of HR and duration,
and this is how exercise is reflected in your daily performance. People who
are credited with 50,000 steps a day do not literally walk that much. They
are living weights and doing intense cardio to stack up how many "steps"
those activities are worth.

So a skinny female can attend the same yoga class as a heavier man, he gets
credited for more 'effort' in the class, and thus his daily step total is
higher than hers.

Going up a flight of stairs is very objective. Same effort no matter who
you are. It is a much more equitable competition than total steps. Same
with water intake -- 40 oz is 40 oz no matter who you are. Same with sleep
-- 7 hours is 7 hours.

This business of total steps (when steps are credited based on arbitrary
factors) is the least fair competition of all.

[PureEvil]

@Candance.R,

I'm not sure I'd agree with the flights of stairs.  A toddler whose knees are the height of each steps is going to struggle more with each step.

Similarly, have you ever climbed up an escalator (each step is 'bigger' than conventional stairs) when it is not working?  I know that I find those tougher to climb.  Well, steps on a regular set of stairs are equivalent to an escalator's 'steps' for a shorter person, right?

Either way, caloric burn is certainly going to be unfair.  To illustrate the point:

In this case the woman would need to burn an additional 50% more calories to be even with a man who hasn't taken a single step.

[EssVee]

Dear moderators / product team,

This thread has become an unwieldy dumping ground where you throw all non-step challenges. 

Please de-couple water challenge ideas and stop treating everything as if it were the same... And as a result not tackling any ideas. 

[Candance.R]

I have never seen a small child with a Fitbit watch. Most young people are
approaching adult height by the age of 13 or so. Anyone who is at least
4'10 can climb stairs with no trouble. Any shorter than that, and you're
talking about a little person with an entirely different lifestyle.

[PureEvil]

@Candance.R,

Instead of conjecture, let's actually put numbers into this.  We can both agree that climbing the steps on a typical escalator is tougher than conventional stairs, right?

Well, let's quantify that...  Based on this image, the typical height of an escalator step is .25m (T) or effectively just under 10".  The standard height of a step in the US is 7".  So effectively a 30% difference.  So if you're 5'2.4" (50.4 inches), a conventional 7" step is going to feel like an escalator step will feel for a 6" (72 inches) person.

Yes, everyone still manages to climb them, but I'm not sure that you can conclude that it's the same for everyone.

[Candance.R]

I'm 5'2. I pretty much bounce my way up stairs without dragging my feet, so the height of the step is not a big factor. Anyone who drags their feet climbing stairs will encounter resistance to some degree. Being forced to raise your foot an extra inch or two is hardly persecution.

On the subject of raising feet, let's not forget that leg lifting is harder for obese people. Walking causes fatigue in overweight people because of simple physics; they have more mass to move through space. Propelling 300 lbs down the sidewalk uses more fuel than propelling 100 lbs. But no one on FitBit wins any workweek hustle for managing to move 300 lbs a moderately long distance. Skinny people who move their bodies a longer distance always win.

Are we trying to compete for comparative effort (which is nearly impossible to measure) or compete for results (which FitBit prefers because it's easier to track)? We can't do both at once. The best we can do is to offer more options that lean one way or another.

[Pr0x1mo]

Yes, can the challenges include distance?  Here is why.  I experimented with this on my own.  I've walked one day for 10 miles... i did this twice on separate occasions i got 22 to 24k steps in.  But, on a day where i actually ran 10 miles, when i was done it only logged 16k steps, and another time it logged 17k.  If we're doing a step challenge, that means someone who just walked 7 miles within a day could beat my 10 mile run which is rather ludicrous if you think about.

If not, when doing the step challenges include the distance as well?  Also when i do the solo adventures, like NY for 21.6 miles or so.  I completed that in a day and half because i ran 10 miles one day and 11 the next,  but it kept telling me i was behind around 15 thousand steps to complete.  Again, it should take into account your distance, not just steps.

[megzz]

I just want more challenges, I have had my fitbit for awhile now and I want more solo challenges,, I don't do the 2 person and up challenges cause my friends who have them only monitor their steps and sleep, they dont do the challenges,, so I am getting bored with these challenges,, same thing every time I click on them,, I don't even care to look at the land marks cause I have been past them a dozen times.  so many places that you can set up for,, Florida or Texas beaches,, deserts in Africa , walk through paris,, just a simple walk through any town or any place in the world,, you could make hundreds of challenges for us this way,, just tired of these same old ones. Heck walk down a road in Nebraska and look at the ears of corn along the way that would be more interesting then the same challenges I have been doing over and over.  we need challenges that are able to compete with just solo or more friends,, the challenges with more than 1 person I can not do because I have to find someone on a fitbit who will actually accept do to a challenge  make all challenges 1 person or more,, then us people who can't get any one else to join can at least have the enjoyment of walking those trails or seeing the scores we get.  the world is a big place there are so many little paths and so many big wonders you could create a challenge with .  we need more ,, keep us from getting bored with same old thing.  If I want to see the same old thing every day I can just look outside at my daily routine.  Paid good money for this fitbit and I think we need more challenges ,, more fitbit world places to walk ,, maybe even do it goal oriented to how people set their goals I don't know,, I just want to see more of the wold in my walking then the same couple places

[WindRunner9000]

 Perhaps you can implement a Workweek /Weekend hustle challenge that tracks HR (heart rate) .. I find that there are ways to cheat the steps, however, a HR measurement would be impossible to manipulate and, therefore, a more accountable measure and even healthier motivator/goal.

[alwillis]

I absolutely agree! The "video game" trophy-seeking aspects of the fitbit are what I find so motivating! I would LOVE trophies for drinking enough water, staying in your target calorie range, staying in your bedtime/wakeup time ranges, trying multiple types of workout, etc, etc. 

[kaitlynmcq]

My co-workers and I all have fit bits and would LOVE to have challenges based on more than just steps. We engage in all different types of activity (biking, yoga etc...) and feel that could be a great way to feel competitive but be able to find different types of activities. 

Additionally, a sleep competition would be amazing! Sleep is so important and it would be fantastic to challenge others to see who can get the most sleep! 

Also, could you choose which days the challenge would start/end? For instance, our company is open 7 days a week and we're in and out on weekdays and weekends. For the workweek hustle, those who work weekends aren't as active, and vice versa. If we could choose a challenge from say, Wednesday-Sunday, that would hit a little bit of everyone's active days. 

AND we'd love to work as a team to challenge other companies. Since there are 10+ of us who have fitbits at our small company, we'd love to work together to see if we could outstep another neighboring business. 

I have so many ideas because we all LOVE our fit bits and we're incredibly competitive! 

[pythram]

I absolutely agree! I would appreciate being able to challenge my friends to reach their own daily goals. Or challenge them to drink water. Maybe calories burned. Or even if they're meeting their personal daily goals. 

Say I want to challenge my friends to reach at least 3 of the possible goals, regardless of what they are. We're not competing to do the most or work the hardest (since we're all different). Say my goals are water, gross calorie input/output, and a distance; but my friend is focused on his/her sleep, floors climbed and water.

"Ding! Your friend just met their water intake for the day! 1/3 daily goals met! Just 354 more steps to reach your distance goal to get 2/3 of your daily goals met!"

[Brit_flong]

It would be nice to have more challenge options other then just step challenges! Such as work out challenges to see who can work out the most in a week. 

[smb44589]

I agree, the  default challenges are getting rather stale now.  With the amount of money we spend on our fitbits, we should be able to compete against other fitbit users on any element that it records, such as number of floors, calories, active minutes, etc.  Users have been asking for a number of years but nothing ever happens?  Why is that?

[Mary.ro22]

My friends thought it would be great to create a challenge that is somehow more across the board then just steps. With my job, I am on my feet all day, constantly walking around, my other friends have desk jobs. Some drive to work, some catch public transport, and some cycle. Therefore, we thought it would be great to create a challenge that counts calories burnt, or active minutes perhaps. 

We love the design of the Fitbit step challenges- you can easily see what the other competitors ‘scores’ are up to in real time without constantly annoying them to text their progress. But yes, more varied challenges please- calorie burn/active minutes/cycle challenge they would be great alternative challenges.

[vandella]

I would love to see more options to challenge your friends and self with. I would so like to have more adventures added both solo and with friends.