What are Active Zone Minutes or active minutes on my Fitbit device?

Earn Active Zone Minutes for time spent in the fat burn, cardio, or peak heart-rate zones. To help you maximize your time, you earn 2 Active Zone Minutes for each minute you’re in the cardio or peak zones. Heart-rate zones are personalized based on your fitness level and age.

Heart-Rate Zone	Active Zone Minutes
1 minute in the fat burn zone	1 Active Zone Minute
1 minute in the cardio or peak zone	2 Active Zone Minutes*

For more information about heart-rate zones, see How do I track heart rate with my Fitbit device?

*Your Fitbit device doesn't track your heart rate during a swim workout. You earn 1 Active Zone Minute for each minute of swimming.

To start, your goal is to earn 150 Active Zone Minutes each week. The American Heart Association recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, or a combination of both, each week. If you earn an average of 22 Active Zone Minutes daily, you meet this recommendation, but you can change your goal based on your needs.

Update your goal in the Fitbit app. For more information, see How do I track my health and fitness goals with the Fitbit app?

For more intense workouts, such as spinning, interval training, or running, the number of Active Zone Minutes you earn might exceed the length of your workout. For example, if you run for a total of 20 minutes and spend 10 minutes in the fat burn zone and 10 minutes in the cardio or peak zones, you earn 30 Active Zone Minutes.

Workout	Heart-Rate Zone	Active Zone Minutes
5-minute warmup	Fat burn zone (1x)	5
10-minute run	Cardio and peak zones (2x)	20
5-minute cool down	Fat burn zone (1x)	5
20-minute workout	TOTAL	30

Your active minutes data is below your Active Zone Minutes data in the Fitbit app:

1. On the Today tab , tap Zone Mins.
2. At the top, tap Week.
3. Scroll down to see your active minutes data.

Earn active minutes through 10 minutes or more of continuous moderate-to-intense activity.

Fitbit devices calculate active minutes through metabolic equivalents (METs). This metric, which factors in your body mass, is used to estimate exercise intensity. METs are calculated through a ratio (source):

Rate of energy expended during an activity : rate of energy expended during rest

1 MET is the rate of energy you expend during rest or sitting quietly, while you typically expend 3 METs or more during a moderately-intense activity such as walking. You earn active minutes for activities at or above about 3 METs.

If your Fitbit device tracks heart rate, your heart-rate data is used to calculate active minutes for non-step-based activities, such as weight lifting, yoga, and rowing. If your device doesn’t track heart rate, your active minutes for these activities will be lower.

To start, your active minutes goal is based on the Center for Disease Control’s recommendation of daily moderate-to-intense activity: 30 minutes for adults and 60 minutes for children. You can change this goal to meet your needs.

Update your goal in the Fitbit app. For more information, see How do I track my health and fitness goals with the Fitbit app?

Level of intensity helps to determine the number of active minutes you earn for an activity. If you receive a different number of active minutes for the same activity (for example, your daily walk), there is likely a difference in the intensity levels between the 2 workouts.