How does Fitbit calculate duration minutes for tracker activites?

[n0tkat]

Hi all,

I am trying to figure out how Fitbit calculates the duration of activity minutes for minutes logged with a tracker. Here is the API output for 

https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/-/activities/date/2014-11-19.json

{
  "activities": [

  ],
  "summary": {
    "activeScore": -1,
    "activityCalories": 819,
    "caloriesBMR": 1759,
    "caloriesOut": 2371,
    "distances": [
      {
        "activity": "total",
        "distance": 5.09
      },
      {
        "activity": "tracker",
        "distance": 5.09
      },
      {
        "activity": "loggedActivities",
        "distance": 0
      },
      {
        "activity": "veryActive",
        "distance": 0.8
      },
      {
        "activity": "moderatelyActive",
        "distance": 1.85
      },
      {
        "activity": "lightlyActive",
        "distance": 2.44
      },
      {
        "activity": "sedentaryActive",
        "distance": 0
      }
    ],
    "elevation": 45.72,
    "fairlyActiveMinutes": 24,
    "floors": 15,
    "lightlyActiveMinutes": 135,
    "marginalCalories": 480,
    "sedentaryMinutes": 825,
    "steps": 6899,
    "veryActiveMinutes": 11
  }
}

And here is what I see on the dashboard for that day:

I read this discussion on the same subject, which gives this answer: "Active minutes is a sum of veryActiveMinutes and fairlyActiveMinutes values in that endpoint."

But if you add what I'm getting for veryActiveMinutes (11) and fairlyActiveMinutes (24), you do not get 55:00. There are no other activity log entries on that day. On the left side of the dashboard it says 2:05 pm to 3:00 pm, but the API does not return any start or end time data.

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance!

[AndrewFitbit]

@n0tkat The second screenshot is an 'Activity record' that's showing calorie burn for that time frame. Activity record is a legacy feature and is not returned via the Web API.

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@n0tkat wrote:

But if you add what I'm getting for veryActiveMinutes (11) and fairlyActiveMinutes (24), you do not get 55:00. There are no other activity log entries on that day. On the left side of the dashboard it says 2:05 pm to 3:00 pm, but the API does not return any start or end time data.

---

Those active minute are for the entire day, it's not related to just the Activity record.

You can learn more about Active Minutes on our help site.