Active Zone Minutes – Using Fitness Data for Smarter Results
- Written by: Thryve
- 8 minutes
As wearables become central to preventive health strategies, understanding not just how long people move—but how intensely—is crucial. One of the most valuable metrics to emerge from this evolution is the Active Zone Minute (AZM)—a more intelligent way to measure the intensity of movement rather than just the duration.
Unlike traditional step counts or time-based goals, Active Zone Minutes focus on heart rate zones, providing a more meaningful understanding of the cardiovascular effort and its impact on overall health. For digital health solutions, wellness apps, and insurers focused on engagement and prevention, AZMs offer a way to deliver more personalized, impactful insights.
What Are Active Zone Minutes?
Active Zone Minutes is a fitness metric that tracks a user’s time in elevated heart rate zones during exercises. The goal is to encourage users to engage in activities that provide real cardiovascular benefits and visible results.
How do Active Zone Minutes work
AZMs are earned based on the heart rate zone a user has during their physical activity:
- Fat Burn Zone (50–69% of max heart rate):
→ 1 Active Zone Minute per minute - Cardio & Peak Zones (70%+ of max heart rate):
→ 2 Active Zone Minutes per minute
This system encourages users to increase intensity for maximum impact, helping to prioritize quality over quantity when it comes to physical movement. This approach rewards higher-intensity effort, aligning with the World Health Organization’s recommendations. It is proven that 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week can reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes—metrics that Active Zone Minutes help directly measure.
Understanding Heart Rate Zones
To understand how AZMs are calculated, it is necessary to know how heart rate zones work:
- Fat Burn Zone:
Low-to-moderate intensity. Helps build endurance and metabolize fat. - Cardio Zone:
Moderate-to-high intensity. Boosts aerobic capacity and heart health. - Peak Zone:
High intensity. Maximizes performance, calorie burn, and stamina.
These zones are personalized based on age and fitness level of each user, which makes AZMs a more personalized metric than step counts or distance alone.
Comparing Active Zone Minutes, Active Minutes, and Intensity Minutes
As wearable fitness trackers evolve, so do the metrics used to assess physical activity. Among the most widely referenced are Active Zone Minutes (AZMs), Active Minutes, and Intensity Minutes. Although they may sound similar, each metric captures a different dimension of activity—and understanding these differences is essential for accurately evaluating workout effectiveness and long-term health impact.
Active Zone Minutes are based on heart rate zones and are earned when a person’s heart rate reaches levels that indicate moderate to vigorous intensity, such as during a brisk walk, run, or cycling session. The higher the intensity, the more AZMs are earned, making this a reliable reflection of cardiovascular effort and exercise quality.
Active Minutes, by comparison, track only the duration of continuous movement, with activity counted after 10 uninterrupted minutes—regardless of heart rate or intensity. Activities like light walking or household chores may qualify as Active Minutes but don’t necessarily translate into Active Zone Minutes unless they elevate the heart rate into a target zone.
This difference makes Active Zone Minutes a more accurate and personalized metric for measuring health-improving physical activity. The benefits of Active Zone Minutes align with WHO and CDC guidelines, which emphasize intensity as a core factor in exercise effectiveness—something step counts and general movement can’t fully capture.
Intensity Minutes, Garmin’s metric, takes a similar heart rate–based approach but applies its own logic. It measures activity by distinguishing between moderate and vigorous intensity, awarding double credit for more strenuous movement. To begin earning Intensity Minutes, users must sustain activity for at least ten consecutive minutes. Depending on the type of workout, Garmin uses either heart rate data or pace thresholds to determine effort. This makes Intensity Minutes a valuable metric for users engaged in structured training and for platforms that prioritize exercise quality over quantity.
Setting the Active Minutes Goal
Platforms incorporating AZMs, such as Fitbit, often establish a default goal of 30 active minutes per day, which adds up to 150 Active Zone Minutes per week—though users can adjust this based on their personal fitness goals. This target is aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, which recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity each week to support long-term health.
These minutes should ideally be spread across the week rather than condensed into a single workout. Research shows that increasing your activity to 300 minutes of moderate exercise or 150 minutes of vigorous exercise per week can offer even more significant health benefits.
Hitting your Active Zone Minutes goal isn’t just about checking a box—it’s tied to real health outcomes. According to the CDC, regular physical activity helps reduce the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers while also improving sleep, mood, joint health, and overall longevity.
Why are Active Zone Minutes important
Active Zone Minutes offer a more refined vision that facilitates health organisations with measuring and monitoring fitness activity and engagement. With AZMs, companies benefit from:
- Better alignment with heart health goals
- Encouragement of intentional, higher-quality movement
- Stronger motivation through personalized progress tracking
- Support for behavior change in preventive health programs
AZMs help shift the focus from arbitrary step goals to exercise that meaningfully improves endurance, cardiovascular health, and overall well-being.
How to Earn More Active Zone Minutes
Adding AZMs to your day doesn’t require a total workout overload. We have found some easy ways users can earn Active Zone Minutes while maintaining their comfort in the lifestyle. Here are easy steps users can take:
- Add intervals of fast-paced walking or jogging
- Try cycling, boxing, or dance cardio
- Include HIIT or resistance training sessions
- Take the stairs or hike at an incline
- Use a tracker to monitor real-time heart rate and adjust intensity
These strategies help both users and health platforms reach evidence-based activity goals more efficiently and timely.
Tracking Active Zone Minutes with Wearables
Health platforms that track AZMs can deliver far more than passive activity summaries. Several wearable devices and fitness apps support AZM tracking; some of the most popular include:
- Fitbit: Pioneered the Active Zone Minutes concept and integrated it across its app and devices
- Apple Watch / Garmin / WHOOP: Track heart rate zones with similar metrics and offer rich insights into workout intensity
- Google Fit: Supports Heart Points, which are similar to AZMs and aim to encourage heart-healthy movement
Learn more about Thryve’s Apple HealthKit and Google’s Health Connect API Integrations.
By integrating this data into user journeys, health platforms can:
- Personalized health goals and fitness programs
- Trigger smart nudges and coaching when AZM targets aren’t met
- Offer incentives based on real health-impacting behavior
- Tailor communication and education based on fitness intensity patterns
This not only improves user satisfaction but also enhances the effectiveness of wellness and prevention programs. Learn more about how to use wearables for heart health.
How Thryve Makes Active Zone Minutes Actionable
At Thryve, we make it easy to collect, standardize, and act on fitness data from wearables—including Active Zone Minutes. Our platform powers digital health apps, insurers, and wellness solutions with seamless access to real-time activity and heart rate insights from a wide range of connected devices.
Here’s how Thryve supports smarter AZM integration:
Thryve plays a vital role in making AZMs actionable—transforming scattered wearable data into structured insights that power personalized coaching, preventive care, and intelligent reward systems.
- Unified Wearable Data Integration
We connect to devices like Fitbit, Garmin, and Apple Watch, aggregating AZMs, heart rate zones, and workout data into a standardized, GDPR-compliant format. - 24/7 Fitness Insights
Our data APIs provide continuous access to up-to-date activity levels, enabling tailored programs and timely interventions. - Personalized Coaching & Prevention Programs
With AZM-based engagement metrics, providers can deploy more effective prevention strategies, digital therapeutics, and incentive-driven wellness campaigns. - Privacy-First Infrastructure
Thryve ensures data is handled securely and in line with European compliance standards like GDPR and ISO 27001.
From personalized fitness journeys to large-scale preventive care initiatives, Thryve empowers organizations to go beyond step tracking and build truly meaningful health and fitness experiences around real activity intensity.
Moving Forward with Meaningful Metrics
As health engagement moves beyond basic tracking, Active Zone Minutes represent a smarter, more health-aligned way to measure physical activity. By focusing on exercise quality through heart rate zones, they enable more effective training, improved outcomes, and deeper motivation.
With Thryve’s infrastructure, organizations can integrate this powerful metric into their digital experiences, delivering more personalized, impactful, and preventive health solutions at scale.
Want to enhance your platform with Active Zone Minutes and real-time wearable insights?
Book a demo today to see how Thryve can elevate your health data strategy.
