Fitbit flex overcounting steps?
October 28, 2014 4:26 AM Subscribe
Does anyone else's fitbit show what appears to be a wildly inflated number of steps per day?
I am a very lazy person who does a few short walks a day (e.g. from home to the bus stop, from subway station to office, from office to the shop at lunchtime, style of thing - never longer than 15 minutes!) and my fitbit flex keeps showing me as reaching nearly 10,000 steps a day. Can this be possible?! (And if it were, wouldn't I be a lean mean walking machine, instead of a tubby coach potato?)
A cursory Google showed that this is a common issue for users of the flex. I googled 'how to decrease flex sensitivity' and followed the instructions to change the wrist setting to 'dominant' while still keeping the flex worn on my non-dominant wrist but this just threw the numbers even more wildly off. So now, I wear the flex on my non-dominant wrist and keep the setting as 'non-dominant' also.
I do still want to use the fitbit. Does anyone have any ideas about how to fix these readings, or how to read the numbers in a more useful way? E.g. if I knew the fitbit was counting 2 steps for every 1 step taken I could halve the total count and thereby have a more realistic idea of how much I was talking.
I am a very lazy person who does a few short walks a day (e.g. from home to the bus stop, from subway station to office, from office to the shop at lunchtime, style of thing - never longer than 15 minutes!) and my fitbit flex keeps showing me as reaching nearly 10,000 steps a day. Can this be possible?! (And if it were, wouldn't I be a lean mean walking machine, instead of a tubby coach potato?)
A cursory Google showed that this is a common issue for users of the flex. I googled 'how to decrease flex sensitivity' and followed the instructions to change the wrist setting to 'dominant' while still keeping the flex worn on my non-dominant wrist but this just threw the numbers even more wildly off. So now, I wear the flex on my non-dominant wrist and keep the setting as 'non-dominant' also.
I do still want to use the fitbit. Does anyone have any ideas about how to fix these readings, or how to read the numbers in a more useful way? E.g. if I knew the fitbit was counting 2 steps for every 1 step taken I could halve the total count and thereby have a more realistic idea of how much I was talking.
Wear another cheap digital pedometer for a day and see how the numbers compare?
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:37 AM on October 28, 2014
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:37 AM on October 28, 2014
Is there an option to wear the unit on your belt? The movement rhythm of the hips is much less susceptible to abberations than the wrist.
posted by fairmettle at 4:54 AM on October 28, 2014
posted by fairmettle at 4:54 AM on October 28, 2014
Best answer: There's a setting --- I think you have to log into your account on the web to change it --- but you can specify a stride length, which should help. What you need to do is find a track (or some other straight stretch of path whose exact length you know) walk up and down a few times counting your steps, and then figure out the average.
You may also want to check your profile settings --- for a while I was getting super- weird readings from mine, and it turned out I had stuck my phone in my pocket with the settings screen on and accidentally changed my height to something ridiculous, like 3'7", and that was affecting it.
Though actually, if you're taking several brief walks during the day, you may be taking more steps than you think --- I usually hit 8,000 to 10,000 steps, and that's by walking part of the way back and forth to work plus whatever waking around I do normally --- maybe a hour a day of total time spent walking.
posted by Diablevert at 5:18 AM on October 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
You may also want to check your profile settings --- for a while I was getting super- weird readings from mine, and it turned out I had stuck my phone in my pocket with the settings screen on and accidentally changed my height to something ridiculous, like 3'7", and that was affecting it.
Though actually, if you're taking several brief walks during the day, you may be taking more steps than you think --- I usually hit 8,000 to 10,000 steps, and that's by walking part of the way back and forth to work plus whatever waking around I do normally --- maybe a hour a day of total time spent walking.
posted by Diablevert at 5:18 AM on October 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
I wear a fitbit flex and have experienced over counts too. Usually I can trace it back to an unusual repetitive movement. For example, I recently inflated about 200 balloons for a party and the flex counted that activity as a couple thousand steps. The repetitive movement of inflating and tying is similar to the arm movements of briskly walking.
I find that the flex is more accurate if I take it off for things like dishwashing, hand washing clothes and (now) inflating balloons.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 5:20 AM on October 28, 2014
I find that the flex is more accurate if I take it off for things like dishwashing, hand washing clothes and (now) inflating balloons.
posted by PorcineWithMe at 5:20 AM on October 28, 2014
I had a friend whose fitbit flex did this. She was pretty proud of hitting such high numbers but she really didn't walk much at all. 10k steps is five miles.
Get a cheapie pedometer and compare. I wear a pedometer and it's a lot more accurate than what I hear of those fitbits. I can hit 10k steps if I walk either to or from work and if I also go on at least two short walks every day. It definitely requires a concerted effort for me and did even when I worked in a 10 story library paging books (aka being a book waiter and getting titles from the stacks for people who didn't want to mess with our overstuffed stacks) all day.
posted by sockermom at 5:56 AM on October 28, 2014
Get a cheapie pedometer and compare. I wear a pedometer and it's a lot more accurate than what I hear of those fitbits. I can hit 10k steps if I walk either to or from work and if I also go on at least two short walks every day. It definitely requires a concerted effort for me and did even when I worked in a 10 story library paging books (aka being a book waiter and getting titles from the stacks for people who didn't want to mess with our overstuffed stacks) all day.
posted by sockermom at 5:56 AM on October 28, 2014
I got short little legs, so for me it's about 4.5 miles for 10K steps. So that's about an hour of dedicated walking plus a couple thousand steps from incidental back-and-forth to my desk stuff, I should clarify. But I've found the fitbit reasonably accurate once I put in my stride length.
posted by Diablevert at 7:04 AM on October 28, 2014
posted by Diablevert at 7:04 AM on October 28, 2014
I have both a fitbit and a Galaxy S4 that tracks steps. When I am purely walking, say on the bike path, they both are very consistent. The phone is in my front left pants pocket and the fitbit I wear on my dominant hand using the dominant hand setting.
The two vary when I am doing something like washing my car, or other work around the house. The car is worth about a 1,200 extra steps, but I am ok with it because I am burning calories. Also, when I walk up my street which has a big hill, I get like 10 flights of stairs credited. That is ok too as I did rise and fight gravity for at least 5 stories worth of height.
I have come to accept the fact that the Fitbit, and probably all of these tracker things, are not exact. They are meant as a guide. I think that they are within about 10-15% of actual. I started wearing mine in February and the goal is to get one year's worth of data and then take another look. I also think it is worth its price and inconvenience just for the sleep tracker.
posted by 724A at 7:04 AM on October 28, 2014
The two vary when I am doing something like washing my car, or other work around the house. The car is worth about a 1,200 extra steps, but I am ok with it because I am burning calories. Also, when I walk up my street which has a big hill, I get like 10 flights of stairs credited. That is ok too as I did rise and fight gravity for at least 5 stories worth of height.
I have come to accept the fact that the Fitbit, and probably all of these tracker things, are not exact. They are meant as a guide. I think that they are within about 10-15% of actual. I started wearing mine in February and the goal is to get one year's worth of data and then take another look. I also think it is worth its price and inconvenience just for the sleep tracker.
posted by 724A at 7:04 AM on October 28, 2014
I have a FitBit One and for a week or so it claimed I was climbing 200+ flights of stairs per day. It may have been the humidity.
We were at Disney World, and walking in the heat all day every day, so I wasn't certain that it was counting wrong -- but my wife's matching One showed a more rational count. When I asked FitBit for help, they suggested I was wearing it wrong, or maybe there was excessive humidity. (In Florida in August? Really?!) So I re-charged the thing and was verrrry careful to keep it clipped upright on my belt, and away from my sweaty flesh. The counts dropped to more believable levels after that.
(You probably have a pace length-related issue here, but I wanted to throw it in for the record.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:20 AM on October 28, 2014
We were at Disney World, and walking in the heat all day every day, so I wasn't certain that it was counting wrong -- but my wife's matching One showed a more rational count. When I asked FitBit for help, they suggested I was wearing it wrong, or maybe there was excessive humidity. (In Florida in August? Really?!) So I re-charged the thing and was verrrry careful to keep it clipped upright on my belt, and away from my sweaty flesh. The counts dropped to more believable levels after that.
(You probably have a pace length-related issue here, but I wanted to throw it in for the record.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:20 AM on October 28, 2014
wenestvedt, that's helpful! Mine reported 90+ flights of stairs on a day that I was at home in my single-story house, but I never followed up with FitBit. It definitely could have been humidity. Thanks for solving the mystery!
posted by librarina at 8:21 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by librarina at 8:21 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
Wear another cheap digital pedometer for a day and see how the numbers compare?
"A man with a pedometer knows how many steps they've taken. A man with two pedometers is never sure."
posted by pharm at 9:21 AM on October 28, 2014 [5 favorites]
"A man with a pedometer knows how many steps they've taken. A man with two pedometers is never sure."
posted by pharm at 9:21 AM on October 28, 2014 [5 favorites]
I bought a FitBit One and when I walked normal or slow pace, it was accurate. When I jogged or ran, it way over-counted. People said there was a way to calibrate it, but from what I read, I got the sense that it was pretty typical for it to be more accurate for either walking or running, and less accurate for the other activity.
In the end, what drove me nuts was that there was no way to pause or turn off step counting while I was driving, and it was counting a lot of steps while I drove. The only way to remove those steps was to login everyday and record my driving time, which I wasn't interested in doing. So I returned mine after a week. I figured, it would be better if I engaged in deliberate exercise everyday and sweat rather than hope to incidentally reach enough steps. I decided that taking the stairs at work, pedometer or no pedometer, was something I should start doing too.
posted by AppleTurnover at 10:33 AM on October 28, 2014
In the end, what drove me nuts was that there was no way to pause or turn off step counting while I was driving, and it was counting a lot of steps while I drove. The only way to remove those steps was to login everyday and record my driving time, which I wasn't interested in doing. So I returned mine after a week. I figured, it would be better if I engaged in deliberate exercise everyday and sweat rather than hope to incidentally reach enough steps. I decided that taking the stairs at work, pedometer or no pedometer, was something I should start doing too.
posted by AppleTurnover at 10:33 AM on October 28, 2014
I think mine interprets movements from driving as steps, because the count always seems strangely high for the amount of walking I actually do. I know that if I'm walking around a grocery store with my hands on the shopping cart handle, it undercounts my steps as I'm not moving my wrist.
posted by telophase at 12:59 PM on October 28, 2014
posted by telophase at 12:59 PM on October 28, 2014
Well, what an interesting question, especially given the responses, because I've been wearing a Fitbit Flex for four months, and I think it's dead accurate.
Before I started wearing my Fitbit, I had several different dog-walk routes that I had measured with my car's odometer. (It mattered to me, because my cardiologist wants me walking a lot, so I have daily goals.)
Let's take Route A. It was 3.8 miles out and back. While I don't remember the number of steps Route A entailed, my Fitbit registered the distance as... are you ready?... 3.8 miles.
Initially, I worried about wrist action. If my Fitbit wrist is holding the dogs' leashes and not swinging, as with normal walking, will it register? The answer is, yes, it does. You can test this yourself: while walking, hold your iPhone in the same hand and open the app. You will see that it doesn't merely "update," it shows you as being "connected." After a few initial moments of no activity, you'll see that, without moving your wrist at all, (again, while walking), your steps are registered as you take them.
I haven't tried to test for false positives, as mention above, but I have no reason to do so.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 6:19 PM on October 28, 2014
Before I started wearing my Fitbit, I had several different dog-walk routes that I had measured with my car's odometer. (It mattered to me, because my cardiologist wants me walking a lot, so I have daily goals.)
Let's take Route A. It was 3.8 miles out and back. While I don't remember the number of steps Route A entailed, my Fitbit registered the distance as... are you ready?... 3.8 miles.
Initially, I worried about wrist action. If my Fitbit wrist is holding the dogs' leashes and not swinging, as with normal walking, will it register? The answer is, yes, it does. You can test this yourself: while walking, hold your iPhone in the same hand and open the app. You will see that it doesn't merely "update," it shows you as being "connected." After a few initial moments of no activity, you'll see that, without moving your wrist at all, (again, while walking), your steps are registered as you take them.
I haven't tried to test for false positives, as mention above, but I have no reason to do so.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 6:19 PM on October 28, 2014
So, mine definitely counts the bumps and jiggles from the bus/subway/driving as steps. I used to go to my dashboard and report the time as driving and it would subtract those steps from my total but I don't bother anymore. (I have a fitbit one that I wear on my bra strap)
posted by ApathyGirl at 6:29 PM on October 28, 2014
posted by ApathyGirl at 6:29 PM on October 28, 2014
If I leave mine on top of the washing machine, it registers a ton of steps. I appreciate that's probably not what's happening here, but just in case...
posted by pyjammy at 7:53 PM on October 28, 2014
posted by pyjammy at 7:53 PM on October 28, 2014
Response by poster: Thanks everyone! It has been really interesting to hear other people's experiences with the flex.
I took Diablevert's advice and calculated my stride length (turns out I have a really short stride - 19 inches) and inputted that into my Fitbit account. Let's see if that has any impact on the step count. I probably walk an average of an hour a day, if I add up all my little walks to and from stations and bus stops and shops and things, and the Fitbit tells me I walk an average of 5 miles a day.
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:38 AM on October 29, 2014
I took Diablevert's advice and calculated my stride length (turns out I have a really short stride - 19 inches) and inputted that into my Fitbit account. Let's see if that has any impact on the step count. I probably walk an average of an hour a day, if I add up all my little walks to and from stations and bus stops and shops and things, and the Fitbit tells me I walk an average of 5 miles a day.
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:38 AM on October 29, 2014
Response by poster: Just another follow-up. After inputting my stride length, the Fitbit is giving me much more realistic counts. I walked for ages yesterday to hit my 10,000 step target and the device only counted 3 point something miles, which made sense according to the map and given my teeny tiny stride. Thanks Diablevert!
posted by Ziggy500 at 5:45 AM on October 30, 2014
posted by Ziggy500 at 5:45 AM on October 30, 2014
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