Cardio fitness score suddenly dropped

[Notfrench]

I am a religious user of my fitbit charge 2, and I noticed recently that my cardio fitness score had dropped like 6-8 points. 

I have been frustrated with my score because it has not changed in the several months since I first set it. Now, it's even telling me you go on a 10 minute run to set my score like it did when  first bought my device. 

My theory is that the app has trouble calculating my score because my workouts are typically playing pick-up basketball or taking fitness classes - I rarely go on runs that I track with GPS.  Improving my cardio score has been a goal, but not seeing any changes, then seeing it abruptly drop, has been frustrating. Has anyone else experienced this issue?

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @GaryRydz, @medex and @Janeyjazz123, have a warm welcome to the Fitbit Community. It's nice to see you too @Nomadicrunner. 

I sincerely apologize for the delay in the response and I appreciate you have taken the time to report this situation. As mentioned earlier, we have forwarded the information regarding this situation to our team. We have not updated this thread yet as we currently don't have any updates regarding it. However, once we do, we'll make sure to post it here in the Official Froums. 

Thanks again for your patience and understanding, have a great day. 

[mandypie06]

Hi Marco-

Wondering if the Fitbit team figured out what was causing this?

Within the last two or so months, my score went from very good/excellent to 25 poor. I'm training for a marathon. There's nothing that has changed. It also hasn't budged. It changed overnight and I'm working out constantly. Can you provide some insight or suggestion as to what to do to fix this problem with the device?

[medex]

I found that I had to delete all of my logged runs on the treadmill (I selected the Run option in Fitbit vs Treadmill option).  I then reenterec the data as Treadmill and my score went back to what it was.  But it was a real pain to do that.

i ran tiday andcsgsin accidentally logged it as a Run vs Treadmill and my score went from Very Good to barely Average.  I’ve now deleted and readded so expect it will reflect again correctly tomorrow.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @mandypie06 thanks for joining the conversation, it's great to welcome new members to the Fitbit Community. It's nice to see you too @medex, thanks for replying. 

I appreciate you have taken the time to share your experience. At this moment, I'll make sure to forward the information you have provided to our team. @medex I appreciate you have let us know the troubleshooting steps you've tried, I'll make sure to forward them as well. 

At this moment we haven't received an update about this situation, but once we do, we'll make sure to post it here in the official Forums. 

Thanks again for your patience, if there's anything else you want to add, please feel free to reply. 

[brobronn]

I, too, accidentally marked Treadmill as a Run and ruined my score, so I deleted the run and the score fixed itself within an hour. Thanks!

[mandypie06]

So I actually went back to the last few months and there were a few random runs that my Fitbit went haywire on that weren’t actually runs and I deleted them. BAM. Back to normal. Thanks everyone!! 

[Luroc]

Same here. I noticed that my Fitbit likes to auto recognize a "run." This often was happening when I was walking. One day I went for a walk and it thought I was running, it auto-recognized the run... I stopped by neighbor's house to chat for a bit. Well, it was the slowest run of all time so it downgraded my fitness score. I later found this, deleted it, and back to normal. And I've since turned off the auto-recognize mode since it tends to see my walks as runs. 

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @brobronn, @mandypie06, and @Luroc I appreciate your participation in the Community. 

Thanks for sharing with us your experience and for letting us know the troubleshooting steps you've performed in order to resolve this situation affecting Cardio Fitness on your side, I'm really glad everything's back to normal. 

In case you have some spare time, I would like to invite you to visit our Discussions board where you will find great tips and encouragement from other members and if there's anything else I can do for you, please keep me posted!

[kellyg7]

I've been using a Charge 3 now for a about a month. I too was surprised to see that my cardio fitness score had suddenly gone from 44 to 36! reading this I remembered that while out taking my lunch break walk the other day, my fitbit prompted me to auto track a run. I was interested in seeing how far I walk during these walks so I tracked it. I just deleted that exercise and my score has gone back up to 44 immediately. So as other users have mentioned, you should probably only calculate this as advised by fitbit, whilst actually running for 10 mins or more! 

[Redspelly]

I have the same issue, been on 50-54 for a while now and it automatically tracked a walk I did this afternoon, I have also just updated the software and my cardio score is down to 42 - any ideas on how I can reverse this?

[kellyg7]

Hi,

if you delete the walk that was tracked as a run then that should solve it for you. it worked for me!

[Janeyjazz123]

I have deleted everything except for my runs and nothing has worked for me, I refuse to loose all my run data as they are not little 2/3 miles I do 8/10 mile run. I was at 42 and dropped to 33 when I started with my Versa, I’m still only on 35 now and that is shocking as I run 3/4 times a week, thank you for your help.. 

[Redspelly]

Hi, I deleted the run that I did last night as it wasn’t even a run, I’ve also turned off the gps and it eventually returned to some kind of normality after a couple of hours - it’s now sitting at between 51-55 which is where it was before this glitch - hopefully Fitbit will come up with a fix though 

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @kellyg7, @Redspelly and @Janeyjazz123, thanks for joining the conversation, it's always great to welcome new members to the Fitbit Community. 

I appreciate your participation in the Forums and for sharing your experience with us. @kellyg7 and @Redspelly thanks for letting us know that after deleting the walks recorded as runs your Cardio Fitness Score improved. 

@Janeyjazz123, If your Fitbit device connects to GPS, it's possible to provide a more precise estimate of your score using the relationship between pace and heart rate during your runs. This is because individuals with higher VO2 Max have a lower heart rate while running at the same pace compared to individuals with lower VO2 Max. If you're able to run at a comfortable pace for at least 10 minutes, track a run with GPS. You will need to go on several runs that are at least 10 minutes in length to affect your score. 

For instructions on how to start in the Exercise app, see How do I track my workouts with my Fitbit device? Remember to keep your app open when starting a GPS exercise so your phone don't lose connection with your device. 

I hope this can be helpful, give it a try and let us know the outcome. 

[Stepqueen11]

Hello, I don’t run but do take my huskies for walks we hike ect... However I have upped my workouts up to 4-5 times a week.  They include cardio, cardio with weights, and up to heavy four limb - can be anywhere from 40 minutes and up in length to just over an hour. Of course this does not include the fact that I work as an assistant chef,  I’m also a hairstylist so I have a very active life so I’m not quite sure why my cardio fitness level has dropped anywhere from 5 to 8 points please help

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Stepqueen11, I hope you're having a great day, welcome to the Fitbit Community. 

First of all, I would like to apologize for the delay in the response. I appreciate you have shared your experience with us. Tell me, which device are you wearing? Are your exercises getting tracked with connected GPS or are they getting auto-detected by your device? Have you restarted your device at some point? 

This information will be very helpful for us to check this further. We'll be waiting to hear from you. 

[Stepqueen11]

Sent from my iPhone

[Stepqueen11]

Good morning, 

 I have a Fitbit versa, auto detect by device, and no I don’t use the gps.  I haven’t restarted it. No apologies i appreciate the follow up. Thank you!!! I look forward to hearing from you soon 

[DonnaLomax]

Hi,

I am no longer a Fitbit wearer, the watch in question at the time of this post was the ionic, and after having had the surge for 3 years with no issues I was very disappointed in this watch, needless to say I haven't had any issue with the Garmin fenix 5s I am now wearing, thanks for taking so long on responding to my post! Appreciated

Get Outlook for Android

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Stepqueen11, I hope you're doing well, thanks for taking the time to reply. It's nice to see you too @DonnaLomax. 

@Stepqueen11, first of all, I would like to apologize for the delay in the response. At this moment, I would like to suggest you to first, restart your Fitbit device; then, when you're about to perform a run or a walk that's going to last more than 10 minutes, please start it through the device itself using connected GPS. Remember that in order for the device to connect and stay connected to your phone's GPS, you will need to keep the app open. This will help improve your cardio fitness score.

I hope this can be helpful, give it a try and let us know the outcome.