Fitbit Sense Exertion balance shows 0

[SunsetRunner]

I get a reading on two out of the three but I never see anything for an exertion balance it's always on zero.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[AlvaroFitbit]

@SunsetRunner Welcome to the Community. 

Let me help you with your exertion balance showing as 0. This number indicates whether you are doing physical activities that help reduce the stress level on you or if you are over exerting your body. A low number indicates that you aren't working out or working out too much. You would need to check this and see how it may be affecting you. You can read more about stress calculation here.

Let me know how it goes.

[Aireneokasa]

Hi there.

How does one know if it's too much or too little that you move? For instance my exertion score is 7.

 I happen to work out 7 days a week, for at least 120 minutes/day. I assume this means I'm exerting my body too much, not too little? Or is this too little, considering my age?

[N8teGee]

How are we supposed to know which it is though @AlvaroFitbit? There's no way to see if the score is low because we haven't worked out enough, or because we've worked out too much. What we really need is a more detailed breakdown of the score. In its current form it's practically useless. 

[Beezy1978]

So, what I’m doing is experimenting. My balance is usually a nice high score, but went down over the last couple days. So, I’m going to work out today and see what she tells me. 🤪 I wish we could see the “fitness fatigue score”, as that is likely where the answer lies. I’ll come back and let you know what I find out about myself, perhaps it will help you guys as well. 🌹

[JKetch625]

YES! This is driving me NUTS. My score recently plummeted but I work out every day and have no idea how to figure out if its telling me it's too much or too little.

[SunsetRunner]

I'm not alone!  I came here because I'm having exactly this problem.  I just upgraded to the Sense and my "Stress mgmt score" has dropped from 91 to 64 over the week.  It's gone down each day almost entirely from "exertion balance".  For most of the days I didn't change ANYTHING about my exercise routine.  I have a consistent routine that I've followed for years.  Roughly the same amount of steps each day, same exercise and my score was continually dropping.  The vague information says a lower number means "you may want to check your activity level to see if you're excising too much or too little".  So one day I exercised a little more and my score went down another 7 points.  The next day I took it easy, pretty much a rest day and my score went down 7 points.

N8teGee nailed it.  What's there right now is useless.  There's no point in telling us a rating without telling us specifically how we're impacting that rating.  Saying we're doing too much or too little would work if it had a clearer impact on our scores.  It seems like most of the users here are mentioning working out daily (myself included) so it seems probable that Fitbit is calculating we're doing too much as opposed to too little, but there's absolutely no guidance or recommendation on how to adjust so we can decide if we want to make any changes to our routine.

@AlvaroFitbit How can we pass along this feedback to the developers?

[JKetch625]

YES!!! Mine plummeted the same amount over the course of 5-7 days!
Miraculously, after changing absolutely nothing, it went up the same amount
over the last few days! I don’t understand any of it. Not sure why I paid
so much for a device that doesn’t provide useful insight.

[DaughterofMaat]

Here's the thing. Mine says 0 today too. But yest I had the whole breakdown like I usually get with premium. 

And I have a score because it shows up on the front page: 

 

The app is having issues because when I try to get to my device settings, like clock faces, etc. All I get is this:

 

Since the last app update, I've been having all sorts of issues with the app. My sense is fine though!

[JKetch625]

Yes!! Mine says 0 today too! I’m glad to know it’s not just me.

[JKetch625]

I’m still having issues. Today it has nothing on the front page, and no score when I go in. Sometimes it has nothing on the front page but then a score when I go in. Then, they said the scores and explanations were updated with the last update but I see that absolutely nothing changed. It still makes no sense as to why the scores are what they are. 

[Lord_Zod]

I believe the exertion balance may be related to the readiness score, or even HRV (heart rate variability). If you exercise a lot and don't allow sufficient recovery, you'll see you HRV drop. I think this is how Fitbit calculate over exertion. By following the Readiness score, not necessarily to the letter, then you'll allow yourself to recover better. Whoop follow this same principle but much more accurately because it's aimed at athletes.