Get Activity TCX

The Training Center XML (TCX) is a data exchange format that contains GPS, heart rate, and lap data. This endpoint retrieves the details of a user's location using GPS and heart rate data during a logged exercise.

Scope: activity and location

Request

GET	/1/user/[user-id]/activities/[log-id].tcx

URI Arguments

user-id	required	The encoded ID of the user. Use "-" (dash) for current logged-in user.
log-id	required	The activity's log ID.

Query Parameters

includePartialTCX

optional

Includes the TCX points when the GPS data is not available.

boolean

Request Headers

authorization	required	Specify the token type and Fitbit user’s access token. Token type: `Bearer`
accept	optional	The media type of the response content the client is expecting. Supported: `application/vnd.garmin.tcx+xml`
accept-language	optional	The measurement unit system to use for response values. See Localization.
accept-locale	optional	The locale to use for response values. See Localization.

Examples

URL
CURL

GET https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/-/activities/20510012273.tcx?includePartialTCX=true
GET https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/GGNJL9/activities/20510012273.tcx?includePartialTCX=true

curl -X GET "https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/-/activities/20510012273.tcx?includePartialTCX=true \"
-H "accept: application/json" \
-H "authorization: Bearer <access_token>"

Element Name	Description
Activity : Sport
Activity : Id	The identifier or timestamp of the associated exercise.
Lap : StartTime	Timestamp representing each lap's start time.
Lap : TotalTimeSeconds	Length of the exercise lap in seconds.
Lap : DistanceMeters	Number of meters traveled during the exercise lap. See Distance
Lap : Calories	Number of calories burned during the exercise lap.
Lap : Intensity	Specifies when the user is in an "active" or "resting" state during an interval activity. Currently, "active" is returned for all activities, and "resting" is not supported. Supported: `Active`
Lap : TriggerMethod	Value associated with the recorded exercise's logType.
Track : Trackpoint : Time	The time metrics were recorded during the exercise.
Track : Trackpoint : Position : LatitudeDegrees	The GPS latitude recorded at the specified time.
Track : Trackpoint : pPosition : LongitudeDegrees	The GPS longitude recorded at the specified time.
Track : Trackpoint : AltitudeMeters	The altitude in meters recorded at the specified time.
Track : Trackpoint : DistanceMeters	The distance in meters recorded at the specified time.
Track : Trackpoint : HeartRateBpm : Value	The heart rate recorded at the specified time. Heart Rate scope is required to see this value.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
  <trainingcenterdatabase xmlns="http://www.garmin.com/xmlschemas/TrainingCenterDatabase/v2">
    <activities>
      <activity sport="Other">
        <id>2020-01-01T14:59:42.000-07:00</id>
        <lap starttime="2020-04-01T14:59:42.000-07:00">
          <totaltimeseconds>1077.0</totaltimeseconds>
          <distancemeters>1585.9</distancemeters>
          <calories>221</calories>
          <intensity>Active</intensity>
          <triggermethod>Manual</triggermethod>
          <track>
            <trackpoint>
              <time>2020-04-01T14:59:42.000-07:00</time>
              <position>
                <latitudedegrees>37.906381487846375</latitudedegrees>
                <longitudedegrees>-122.06224000453949</longitudedegrees>
              </position>
              <altitudemeters>44.959400001389895</altitudemeters>
              <distancemeters>0.0</distancemeters>
              <heartratebpm>
                <value>105</value>
              </heartratebpm>
            </trackpoint>
.
.
.
          
        </lap>
        <creator xsi:type="Device_t" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
          <unitid>0</unitid>
          <productid>0</productid>
        </creator>
      </activity>
    </activities>
  </trainingcenterdatabase>

Response Headers

content-type	The media type of the response content being sent to the client. Supported: `application/json`
fitbit-rate-limit-limit	The quota number of calls.
fitbit-rate-limit-remaining	The number of calls remaining before hitting the rate limit.
fitbit-rate-limit-reset	The number of seconds until the rate limit resets.

Note: The rate limit headers are approximate and asynchronously updated. This means that there may be a minor delay in the decrementing of remaining requests. This could result in your application receiving an unexpected 429 response if you don't track the total number of requests you make yourself.

Response Type

HTTP Status Code	HTTP response code. List of codes are found in the Troubleshooting Guide.
Status Message	Description of the status code.
Response Body	Contains the JSON response to the API call. When errors are returned by the API call, the errorType, fieldName and message text will provide more information to the cause of the failure.

Response Codes

200	A successful request.
400	The request had bad syntax or was inherently impossible to be satisfied.
401	The request requires user authentication.

Note: For a complete list of response codes, please refer to the Troubleshooting Guide.

Additional Information

TCX returns GPS and heart rate data which are tied to the GPS data points. If you only want heart rate, see Heart Rate Intraday Time Series.

To retrieve the TCX data without GPS data, use the endpoint's query parameter includePartialTCX=true. If the exercise does not contain GPS data, the lowest heart rate granularity available is 1 minute.

Finding an activity's "log id"

The activity's log-id can be found 2 ways:

Programmatically, execute the Get Activity Log List endpoint. Get the value of the logId element for each exercise returned.
Non-programmatically, find the list of activity logs in the Fitbit web application. Click on the "View Details" button next to each activity. The activity log ID will be displayed in the URL, e.g. 213560689 in https://www.fitbit.com/activities/exercise/213560689.

Distance, pace and speed

The Fitbit devices use the following formulas to calculate distance, pace and speed. Please note, stride length is approximated by the person's height and gender.

distance = steps * stride length
pace = time(sec) / distance
speed = distance / time(hour)

Daily activity summary and auto-detected exercises' (recorded using Smart Track) distance are estimated values based on steps and stride length. Devices that support on-device or connected GPS will record distance, pace and speed from the GPS data when the exercise is initiated using the on-device Exercise application. If the person begins moving before receiving a GPS signal, steps and stride length are used to calculate distance until the GPS connects. Intraday distance values, returned by the Intraday endpoints or Activity TCX endpoint, can be more accurate since they use the GPS data. To determine how the exercise was recorded, see "logType" values.

Some people have noticed that the standard formula for calculating pace and speed doesn't always provide accurate results. That's because pace and speed are calculated from the GPS data, while the total distance is an approximate value based on how the tracker calculates distance (GPS vs steps & stride length). The mobile application duplicates the tracker distance value by displaying the exercise summary view. This is done to provide a better user experience for the consumer. When the user drills down into the exercise details, like data charts or maps, they should see the more accurate data coming from the GPS or Intraday data.

Developers who need to display the most accurate distance values, we suggest using only the intraday distance data points instead of the activity summary.

See How does my Fitbit device calcuate my daily activity? for more information.

Webhook notifications

The Fitbit Web API can send notifications when a Fitbit user has new data to download. This is possible by implementing the Subscription API and subscribing to one or more data collections. See Using Subscriptions. Whenever the activity service recognizes a change to the user’s data, a notification is sent to your application’s subscriber.

The activity collection recognizes changes to a user’s recorded activities, step count, calories burned, distance traveled, etc. Keep in mind that even when a person is not in motion, their body is burning calories. It’s possible to receive activity notifications representing calorie burn even when the user is sleeping or stationary. Today, you cannot subscribe to a subset of the user’s activity data. So, it is the responsibility of your application to query the necessary activity endpoint(s) to reconcile the data in your system.

Get Activity Log List

Get Activity Type