Active Minutes?

[Magsdesign]

I just upgraded from a Charge 3 to a Sense. Is there a way to set it to record active minutes vs. active zone minutes? I am not a fan of the zone minutes. I wonder why this was changed? Would love some help reverting back. Thanks in advance for any help and insight! Best, Maggie

[Julia_G]

@Magsdesign , it is not possible to revert to Active Minutes from Active Zone Minutes.  

The change was made because you are awarded Active Zone Minutes based on your observed (detected) resting heart rate, which sets your heart rate zones personally, rather than on statistical information simply based on your age.  It is very likely that Active Zone Minutes give you a more realistic view of when you are exerting yourself.

It might be worth trying it for a while and seeing how it works for you.  Welcome to the forums!

[AquaAura]

I’m having a similar issue - today I walked 4.5 miles in 80 minutes and was credited just 19 active minutes! I was walking pretty briskly over rough ground, so I can’t believe this is accurate! My resting HR is usually pretty low (54/55bpm) so I’m not sure that it is calibrating properly! 

[Magsdesign]

Agree. I’m having the same issue. It’s frustrating because Active Minutes were a much better way for me to measure my exercise and stay motivated. Hopefully they will add an option to revert in the next update. 

[Koda]

Agree, it took me a couple days to realize why it was calculating a lot more active mins. Then realized how the active zones calculation worked. Now intermittently it stops calculating any active mins. My goal is 45 mins a day. When I saw, surprisingly, that I only had 16mins I realized I had to do another 1/2 hr. Went out and power walked for 30 mins which should have left me someplace between 46 - 106 depending on heart rate. Instead it still showed 16mins. I tried to manually enter active mins. It just screwed up mileage, steps, etc. Changed everything but active mins.

IMO, Surge has great potential BUT was prematurely released and is really still a beta vs. Many of the "features" don't exist yet (ie Google **ahem**'t), support knows virtually nothing about the product, and it is bug ridden. ECG, SP02, the home button, either are coming soon or I took days messing with it to figure out how it works. Sad, been w/fitbit since 2013 when support was superb. Now fitbit support is the absolute worst. 

[Micsb]

To get active zone minuttes you need to do slow running or walking uphill. Walking will not be enough to raise the HR high enough if in descent shape. 

I also went from a lot of active minutes coming from Inspire HR to 0 when walking with my Sense. Now I get the active zone minuttes by running or walking uphill. I like the change personally giving an incentive to include more taxing exercises and walking up and down hills.

[Koda]

Thank you for the reminder. I have learned that lesson the hard way. Walked
in the past while being distracted and it turned into a dawdle (sp?)
Unfortunately I walked the exact same route at the same pace that I had
walk every night. Even picked up the pace to test that issue. 50% of the
walk is uphill. Checked my heart rate to be sure it was in, an active zone.
The entire walk was either in the fat burning or cardio zones. Too bad, I
also like the zones but like many things on the Sense I've found they work
inconsistently. I'll try the old phone reboot and uninstall reinstall app
as a quick fix attempt.

Pam

[bobby2478]

The problem is I can walk for 2 hours, over 10,000 steps, but because it's at a leisurely pace my heart rate never jumps above 120 bps, which is the lowest "active zone", meaning I get ZERO credit for active minutes. While I understand the fact that the more intense your activity and thus the higher your heart rate, you should get more credit, it doesn't make sense that you could exercise for several hours and get absolutely ZERO credit for active zone minutes if your heart rate doesn't hit 120 bps or higher. It would seem that doing any activity, even lower heart rate, is better then nothing at all.

They should consider awarding 0.25x per minute of activity if your heart rate doesn't qualify for "active zone minutes". That would mean 4 minutes of low intensity exercise (heart rate below 120 bps) would still qualify for 1 active zone minute which would require them to create a new "active zone" for heart rate below 120 bps (could even award fewer, like 0.10x, meaning 10 mins of activity below "fat burn" zone would quality for 1 minute, would require a new zone below "Fat burn")

[WPaulS]

I'm in agreement with others here, Active "Minutes" were a much better gauge for me.  I understand their intent to change the way they measure the metric, but it's just not executing well, at least not for me.  I'm not a runner, (disability), but I am an avid walker.  If they can't/won't change it back, we should at least be given the option of which metric we want to use...no different then which tiles we choose for our Dashboards.

[steveo57]

I totally agree.  I hope the admins will look at this because at least you could get SOMETHING for your effort.  It is disappointing to do an exercise for a while and then see "0 Active Zone Minutes.  It is disappointing.  If as he said for example .25 active zone minutes you would have do 4 minutes at that rate to equal one active zone minute.  At 4 times the lower effort ought to equal 1 point. Make this an option in Heart Zone area in settings because I do not care about the Heart Associations requirements but leave it as a validation checkbox for people who are required by their employer health insurance to meet the 150 active zone minutes to get a discount.