Get Daily Activity Summary

Retrieves a summary and list of a user’s activities and activity log entries for a given day.

Scope: activity

Request

• URL
• CURL

Response

• Description
• Example Response

{
  "activities": [],
  "goals": {
    "activeMinutes": 30,
    "caloriesOut": 1950,
    "distance": 8.05,
    "floors": 10,
    "steps": 6800
  },
  "summary": {
    "activeScore": -1,
    "activityCalories": 525,
    "calorieEstimationMu": 2241,
    "caloriesBMR": 1973,
    "caloriesOut": 2628,
    "caloriesOutUnestimated": 2628,
    "customHeartRateZones": [
      {
        "caloriesOut": 2616.7788,
        "max": 140,
        "min": 30,
        "minutes": 1432,
        "name": "Below"
      },
      {
        "caloriesOut": 0,
        "max": 165,
        "min": 140,
        "minutes": 0,
        "name": "Custom Zone"
      },
      {
        "caloriesOut": 0,
        "max": 220,
        "min": 165,
        "minutes": 0,
        "name": "Above"
      }
    ],
    "distances": [
      {
        "activity": "total",
        "distance": 1.26
      },
      {
        "activity": "tracker",
        "distance": 1.26
      },
      {
        "activity": "loggedActivities",
        "distance": 0
      },
      {
        "activity": "veryActive",
        "distance": 0
      },
      {
        "activity": "moderatelyActive",
        "distance": 0
      },
      {
        "activity": "lightlyActive",
        "distance": 1.25
      },
      {
        "activity": "sedentaryActive",
        "distance": 0
      }
    ],
    "elevation": 0,
    "fairlyActiveMinutes": 0,
    "floors": 0,
    "heartRateZones": [
      {
        "caloriesOut": 1200.33336,
        "max": 86,
        "min": 30,
        "minutes": 812,
        "name": "Out of Range"
      },
      {
        "caloriesOut": 1409.4564,
        "max": 121,
        "min": 86,
        "minutes": 619,
        "name": "Fat Burn"
      },
      {
        "caloriesOut": 6.98904,
        "max": 147,
        "min": 121,
        "minutes": 1,
        "name": "Cardio"
      },
      {
        "caloriesOut": 0,
        "max": 220,
        "min": 147,
        "minutes": 0,
        "name": "Peak"
      }
    ],
    "lightlyActiveMinutes": 110,
    "marginalCalories": 281,
    "restingHeartRate": 77,
    "sedentaryMinutes": 802,
    "steps": 1698,
    "useEstimation": true,
    "veryActiveMinutes": 0
  }
}
      

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

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

Additional Information

The activity log entries for a given day are displayed in the format requested using units in the unit system corresponding to the Accept-Language header provided.

Privacy Setting

The Fitbit privacy setting Activities (“Friends Only” and “Public”) grants access to a user's resource with the exception that the response DOES NOT include a detailed list of activity log entries.

Considerations

1. Daily summary data and daily goals for elevation (elevation, floors) only included for users with a device with an altimeter.
2. The steps field in activity log entries included only for activities that have steps (e.g. "Walking", "Running"); distance only included when it is relevant.
3. Calorie burn goal (caloriesOut) represents either dynamic daily target from the premium trainer plan or manual calorie burn goal. Goals are included in the response only for today and 21 days in the past.

Retrieving heart rate data within the activity response

The Heart Rate Zones data array can be displayed within this endpoint's response. For this to occur, the following are required. If any of the items are missing, the data array will not be displayed.

1. The heartrate scope enabled by the user.
2. A heart rate enabled device paired to the user's account.
3. Heart rate data recorded by the device.

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.

Resting Heart Rate

Resting heart rate is a measurement of how many times the person’s heart beats per minute when completely at rest. Typically, resting heart rate ranges from 60-100 bpm, but the rate can vary based on age and fitness level. The best time to get an accurate resting heart rate reading is while the person is asleep. To calculate resting heart rate, the device takes the heart rate measurements throughout the day and focuses on periods when the person is still and well-rested, with a priority for during sleep measurements. If there isn't enough data, a resting heart rate value won't be available for that day.

Get All Activity Types

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