FitBit Blaze and Rowing

Psychopasta
Psychopasta Posts: 37 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Hello Pals,

I've been using MFP for two weeks now and love it. I have a FitBit Blaze which does step counting and workout calorie counting.

Now when I row (using a Concept2 machine) I tell my Blaze that I'm exercising and for want of a better description I tell it I'm doing a workout. It does not seem to have a Rowing setting. It seems to count my exercise as Steps, at least the step counter increments even though I'm not actually carrying my body weight: I'm doing resistance training. I can't see how it computes calories correctly

So I have two related questions:

1. Is there a better way to track rowing on the Blaze?
2. Am I just polishing the firewood and shouldn't worry about it?

Thanks for your help,

- Mark

Replies

  • Psychopasta
    Psychopasta Posts: 37 Member
    Maybe I should give some more info:

    I just took my dogs for a walk, it was one hour, 5000 steps and Fitbit computes 449 calories.
    Yesterday I did a warmup for 3 mins, then two 2k rows on the Concept 2 with 5 mins rest between. Fitbit says I did 3000 steps for 461 calories. So it's definitely accounting for my increased heart rate when rowing versus walking.

    Given that it gives me the same (roughly) calories, the dogs would seem to have it...I'm much less knackered after the walk than I was after the row
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    Level of fatigue doesn’t necessarily indicate calorie burn. I can do a total of 12 minutes of intervals on an airbike and be completely spent and burn like 17 calories - or run for 2 hours and still have gas in the tank and burn 1000 calories.

    As for calories burned when rowing, the C2 can give you that info on the display (cycle through the display options or connect your smartphone and use ErgData app to record your session). You may need to do some adjustment for your weight (there’s a calculator on the C2 website).

    If that all sounds way too complicated, I’ll tell you that I row on a C2 while wearing a Fitbit and a Garmin which does measure rowing (and stroke rate and what not). All of them spit out numbers that are close enough for me to consider them the same (within 10%).

    I don’t row much over 1k at a time though (more often 500m) but usually do a total of 5k for a workout.

    YMMV, and idk if 2k would make a bigger difference though. I would check on the C2 to see what it says. That will be the most accurate (with the weight adjustment) because it knows exactly how much “work” you’re doing.

  • Psychopasta
    Psychopasta Posts: 37 Member
    edited January 2018
    Hey Duck_Puddle, thanks for the reply. If it's within 10% I'll just stick with it :)

    But if, as you say, I can do a total of 12 minutes of intervals on an airbike and be completely spent and burn like 17 calories - or run for 2 hours and still have gas in the tank and burn 1000 calories then shouldn't we just do whatever gives us the best calories? Killing myself for a lousy 17 calories doesn't sound worthwhile. I do kind of expect level of fatigue and calorie burn to be somewhat related, is that wrong?
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    edited January 2018
    markgnicholson wrote: »
    Hey Duck_Puddle, thanks for the reply. If it's within 10% I'll just stick with it :)

    But if, as you say, I can do a total of 12 minutes of intervals on an airbike and be completely spent and burn like 17 calories - or run for 2 hours and still have gas in the tank and burn 1000 calories then shouldn't we just do whatever gives us the best calories? Killing myself for a lousy 17 calories doesn't sound worthwhile. I do kind of expect level of fatigue and calorie burn to be somewhat related, is that wrong?

    Unfortunately, it's wrong. Higher intensity is more physically taxing in a variety of ways, so leaves one more spent. Moderate intensity for a somewhat longer time period (and not that much longer) for the same calorie burn is much less exhausting.

    I'm not a Blaze user, but the weight-adjusted Concept2 calorie burn estimate is not crazy far off from my Polar HRM calorie estimate over a range of rowing pieces (different lengths/intensities) - maybe not within 10%, but close enough for me given how estimated all this stuff is.

    Why not record the C2 calorie number for a couple of workouts, weight adjust it on the web site, and compare to what your Blaze says? You may find some exercise setting the Blaze has that's close enough for you.

    IIRC, the C2 unadjusted estimate is for 175 lbs, so if you're close to that, the weight adjustment won't make a huge difference. If you use the C2 website logbook, logging time/distance there will give you a calorie estimate, too - it's on the workout detail page. From memory, I think it's unadjusted, but don't quote me.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    markgnicholson wrote: »
    Hey Duck_Puddle, thanks for the reply. If it's within 10% I'll just stick with it :)

    But if, as you say, I can do a total of 12 minutes of intervals on an airbike and be completely spent and burn like 17 calories - or run for 2 hours and still have gas in the tank and burn 1000 calories then shouldn't we just do whatever gives us the best calories? Killing myself for a lousy 17 calories doesn't sound worthwhile. I do kind of expect level of fatigue and calorie burn to be somewhat related, is that wrong?

    The 17 calories might have been the tiniest of exaggerations ;). But the high intensity workouts I do tend to be pretty short and don’t burn a lot of calories. I don’t workout to burn calories though. Obviously they do burn calories. And I do keep track of as close to an estimate/approximation as I can because there is a balance to how much one can eat while still losing weight and still managing to perform and grow in their workouts. And maintaining that balance is very important to me so.

    My workouts serve a variety of purposes. I don’t do short high intensity stuff every day. Thank goodness because I really stink at it. I don’t do long runs every day. Kind of too bad because I really like those. Each helps me become more fit in a different way. But my goals are all about better running race times and generally being strong and fit enough to function in life. Some of the workouts that help with that don’t burn very many calories.
  • Psychopasta
    Psychopasta Posts: 37 Member
    Hi Ann,

    Thanks for that. I guess the Concept 2 should know exactly how many calories you spend, if it knows the damping factor and it definitely knows how hard you're pulling on the cable. You're own weight should not matter, should it, as you're just sliding and your weight isn't doing the work?

    - Mark
  • BecMarty14
    BecMarty14 Posts: 351 Member
    edited January 2018
    According to my step counter, I walked on water when I kayaked a couple hours every weekend (in the summer). :)
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,204 Member
    markgnicholson wrote: »
    Hi Ann,

    Thanks for that. I guess the Concept 2 should know exactly how many calories you spend, if it knows the damping factor and it definitely knows how hard you're pulling on the cable. You're own weight should not matter, should it, as you're just sliding and your weight isn't doing the work?

    - Mark

    Dunno. I'm an IT person, not an engineer. But I trust C2: The Dreissigacker brothers, who founded the outfit and still run it, are engineers and former US national team rowers. If they say it should be weight adjusted, I guess I believe them. ;)
  • Psychopasta
    Psychopasta Posts: 37 Member
    I thought about this some more and your legs are definitely pushing your weight plus whatever the resistance of the machine is, so of course it should be weight adjusted. Silly me!

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