Counting way too many steps!

[soozymagoozy]

So I've had my fitbit Alta for 4 days now....

It counted 50 steps yesterday morning before I had even got out of bed! Then I reached my 10k goal yesterday whilst sat at my desk, picking up approx 400 steps when I wasnt even walking. 

I do a 10 minute walk to work, researching online this should be around 1,000 steps. My alta is picking up at between 1300 and 1600 steps. Its midday and I have been working from a desk all morning (with a trip to the ladies and to get a coffee... but this is a very short trip) and its racked up to over3.5k steps now! Yesterday I did do a little more walking but it was definatly not over 15k!! 

I have the wrist and dominance settings set correctly too! I am only short at 5ft2! so i have short little legs... I've read you can change the stride settings, will this solve the problem as I'm close to returning it!

Moderator edit: Updated title for clarity. 

[Julia_G · Accepted solution]

@soozymagoozy , if your issue is counting too many steps, changing your stride setting will have absolutely no effect on that -- it will only change your distance settings.

If you find you are getting a lot of false "hand" steps -- a possibility for any wrist worn tracker -- the best advice is to wear it on your non dominant hand, but make sure in your setting you tell it is worn on the DOMINANT hand.  Setting it to dominant will make it LESS sensitive to hand movements, so less likely to count false steps.

I will also add that although you will probably still get some extra false steps, there will also be times when you don't get steps you have earned -- walking indoors on carpet, for example, or walking pushing a cart.  When I was first a Fitbit user I worried a lot about getting credit for steps I didn't take -- so much so that I bought a Fitbit One (which is rated one of the most accurate trackers on the market), set up a separate account for it, and wore it at the same time as my wrist tracker.  The results surprised me.  I exepcted my wrist tracker would have way higher steps -- especially as I noticed I got "steps" just from speaking expressively and moving my hands...  But in fact, although there was some variation day to day, over a week or so they ended up remarkabley close.  So I stopped worrying.

[leahCG]

Does anybody know how to change the dominant hand on your fitbit settings? am new to a fitbit alta and not sure where to find the settings for it.

[fit_jay]

to change handedness ,go to- account -clcik on the connected device - you shall see handedness and wrist option -choose according to your requirement 

[Pionov]

changing setting non-dominant to dominant doesn't work much, still too many steps, when i get up in the morning I have alredy 500 steps://

[Lenabeana]

I have the same issue, I don't want to have to try doing the math when I paid $300 for the Iconic!

[Julia_G]

@Pionov, you are correct that changing handedness makes only a small difference. If you  are sleeping and accumulate 500 extra steps, that can indicate you are doing a fair bit of thrashing about in your sleep -- which is useful information!  I guess I am quite a quiet sleeper -- I always wake up with some steps, but usually well under 100...

@Lenabeana, it really is a tradeoff -- you will get more exact step counts if you use a pedometer that you wear on your body.  However you lose the advantages of HR readings and the smartwatch features.  You will find that every brand of smartwatch / wrist tracker counts hand "steps" to some extent. 

My experience is that over time, and especially as you get more active, it evens out.  I have learned this from wearing a very accurate body worn pedometer and my Fitbit at the same time.

Also the error percentage at the end of the day is really quite small.  If you walk 10,000 steps, 500 extra steps is only 5%.  That would make your Fitbit 95% accurate (which is, after all, what they claim).  

The happiest users of wrist trackers focus on trends (am I getting more active?), rather than exact numbers.  But it is, of course up to you what you find acceptable.

[Lenabeana]

Thank you, great information that helps Me!

Lena

[luaprelkniw]

I think the cause of my tracker's trouble must be different. I haven't been able to identify exactly what situations give me too many steps, but overall I estimate I am credited around 3 times as many steps as I should in any given day.  Setting the tracker to non-dominant hand has made no noticeable difference.  I have also reset the tracker, but again no difference is apparent.  I guess next is a factory reset.  I don't know if that cancels all my data from the past, but I don't use the gadget anymore since it's no longer reliable (and it makes my friends angry when I wear it!)

---

@Julia_G wrote:

@Pionov, you are correct that changing handedness makes only a small difference. If you  are sleeping and accumulate 500 extra steps, that can indicate you are doing a fair bit of thrashing about in your sleep -- which is useful information!  I guess I am quite a quiet sleeper -- I always wake up with some steps, but usually well under 100...

@Lenabeana, it really is a tradeoff -- you will get more exact step counts if you use a pedometer that you wear on your body.  However you lose the advantages of HR readings and the smartwatch features.  You will find that every brand of smartwatch / wrist tracker counts hand "steps" to some extent. 

My experience is that over time, and especially as you get more active, it evens out.  I have learned this from wearing a very accurate body worn pedometer and my Fitbit at the same time.

Also the error percentage at the end of the day is really quite small.  If you walk 10,000 steps, 500 extra steps is only 5%.  That would make your Fitbit 95% accurate (which is, after all, what they claim).  

The happiest users of wrist trackers focus on trends (am I getting more active?), rather than exact numbers.  But it is, of course up to you what you find acceptable.

---

Going by percentages, my Alta is accurate -100% of the time.

[bowman555]

Hi. I have had my Fitbit 3 for a week now and am experiencing really conflicting results with the step ratio. It is 5 steps to the bathroom. It records 75.  I have read that a lot of people are having troubles with the same issue. I think it's about time to admit that there is a problem and fix the issue before someone takes it further 

[turtle3791]

Today is my first use of the fitbit charge 3 and I have 6,200 steps from sitting in my chair and using the computer!  I may have 1000 steps in my tiny apartment this am, however, 6000+ is WAY off and it is on my non-dominant hand!  If anyone has any ideas I would really appreciate the information.

[bowman555]

Yes i am still having trouble with it. There is obviously a problem but the powers that be seem reluctant to fix it .Really thinking about returning mine as that what i got it for in the first place.

[Hostile]

Try tightening on your wrist, I had it on too loose one day and it counted way too many steps

[turtle3791]

Thank you for the suggestion!

[PDXSeth]

So, I figured it out. Turn GPS off on the Fitbit. From the front screen:

1) Swipe left..

2) Select exercise.

3) Swipe down.

4) Turn GPS off. Now, it should count accurately.

This won't work for everyone, since some of you use ONLY your Fitbit when you go for a run. I use my phone and a running app, so this works perfectly. I use the GPS on my phone, so I don't need Fitbit's GPS. 

As far as I can tell, my steps have been very accurate since I turned GPS off on the Fitbit.

[Ritad130]

I had 30,000 steps yesterday and 26 flights of stairs and only did 3 flights and 6,000 steps. 

[troyboy01]

I have purchased the ionic and tried changing hands and also the settings. 

Steps are so badly out its it’s a complete waste of time. I should take it back as it’s onky a couple of months old. I like the sleep accuracy though. 

[troyboy01]

I also just turned off the gps for all exercises to see if that works!! Pointless solution based on the watch using it all the time for running. 

[HunnyLeeBunny]

I've had my Alta for 5 months. 

No problem until today when I woke up with 2000 steps over night.

Within a couple of hours when I'm usually at about 4000 steps I'm at 9000.

I've always worn it on my nondominant hand.

Any ideas?

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi everyone! Good to see you all in the Fitbit Community Forums! 🙂

I'm very sorry to hear that some of you are having problems with your Fitbit Altas counting too many steps. Thanks a lot for all that you've tried to get it fixed. I'd like to help you out.

I'd like to share some suggestions in the case you've not tried them:

-Make sure that in your personal settings, your height has been correctly entered. This will affect your step count if the number there is wrong.

-Give your Alta a quick restart. You can easily do this by clipping your tracker to the charger and plugging the charger to a USB port on your computer or a wall charger. Then, Press the button on your charging cable three times within four seconds and your tracker should vibrate and show the Fitbit logo. This will make your tracker to reboot.

-Set up your Alta as a new device. For this, go to the Account section at the top right corner on the Fitbit app and select the option that says "Set up a new device". Follow the on-screen instructions and once you're done, your tracker should be syncing without a problem.

Hope that this helps and if you need further assistance, feel free to let me know. I'll be happy to help you out!