Activity tracker (Fitbit) and Sports??

jessimacd

Hi all,

I have a Fitbit One and LOVE it for tracking my daily steps, sleep, etc. What I'm wondering is, how does one go about making sure their activity is accurately logged after playing a sport? For example, I play basketball, and I wear my Fitbit while playing. The problem is, the Fitbit really just measures steps, but playing basketball is much more strenuous because of all the jumping, pivoting,etc. So I like to log it on MFP as "basketball, game", but the thing is that I don't necessarily play for the entire game - depending on how many subs we have, I might play anywhere from 35-60mins total, with stops for time-outs, halftime, etc. MFP requires that you put how many minutes and what time you started playing, so say the game started at 7pm and I played for 40mins, then it would assume I was active until 7:40, however, the game actually goes until about 8:40, with me playing intermittently. Whew, that's hard to explain!

I guess what I'm asking is - what do you guys do to log this accurately?? Do you just let Fitbit do it's thing and not log it on MFP? Or do you do as I'm doing and still log it on MFP and just hope the calories burned average out properly between Fitbit and MFP? I guess I like being able to log that I'm playing basketball, since I like to have it in my exercise diary, but my concern is that it's going to overestimate my calories burned, thinking I played the 35 or so minutes of bball continuously, and then adding more calories burned from the steps my Fitbit is picking up for the remainder of the game.

Thanks for taking the time to read! Hoping to hear from others who use an activity tracker for sports. :-)

ShannonMpls

I get what you're saying, but I don't see how you'll be able to log that accurately given the nature of your participation in the game (in/out/etc). A heart rate monitor might be the best option, because then it will capture the higher burn of active play with the lower burn of the downtime.

Another option would be to estimate.

Say you guess that you actually actively play 45 minutes. What does MFP say for 45 minutes of basketball for you? Remember that number. Then let's say 45 minutes of that is the downtime. I'd estimate that calorie burn as maybe the walking 3.0mph activity. What does MFP give you for that? Add it to the 45 minutes of basketball.

So log 90 minutes of basketball, but customize the calorie burn so that it's your new estimated number.

Better than nothing

Eric_DeCastro

I get what you're saying, but I don't see how you'll be able to log that accurately given the nature of your participation in the game (in/out/etc). A heart rate monitor might be the best option, because then it will capture the higher burn of active play with the lower burn of the downtime.

Another option would be to estimate.

Say you guess that you actually actively play 45 minutes. What does MFP say for 45 minutes of basketball for you? Remember that number. Then let's say 45 minutes of that is the downtime. I'd estimate that calorie burn as maybe the walking 3.0mph activity. What does MFP give you for that? Add it to the 45 minutes of basketball.

So log 90 minutes of basketball, but customize the calorie burn so that it's your new estimated number.

Better than nothing

I agree, i have a polar loop which is the same as your fitbit, but I also use a polar FT7 heart rate monitor. it's how I calculate my calories burned during workouts. it is priceless. the fitbit (polar loop) is nice to see but really don't have much use for it it's just a cool gadget.

jessimacd

Thanks for your advice! What will help me do this is that my fitbit tells me how many minutes I'm very active and when, so I can use that as my minutes of play. Is your suggestion of using 3.0mph walking as the downtime because I'm still burning calories while I'm at rest, due to the preceding vigorous exercise?