Algorithm for blaze and bike riding

[Cbernad]

Can someone please explain why the Fitbit can not develop an algorithm to convert a bike ride to steps?? I rode 33 miles with my wife Saturday. She has a Altra. I have a Blaze. She gets 5000 steps. I get 2000! It can't be that hard to take miles, time, and heart rate and make an algorithm that more accurately represents steps! It is maddening.

[Rich_Laue]

i'm sure they could, what would the formula be for an exercise where the user is not stepping be, or knows what gear the bike is in? Will fitbit know when your coSting downhill?
We have a large of people that don't want any steps recorded dieting a bike ride and feel the few steps recorded from bumps are to much and should be removed.
Just pointing out that this is not a simple answer, would it be fair to let each user decide for themselves.

[Cbernad]

My point is that Alta records over twice as many steps as Blaze, so obviously the algorithms are different. And with the data available to the Blaze, there is plenty of data to make a reasonable correlation between HR, distance, and time.

And if someone doesn't want their steps recorded they wouldn't select it as an activity to be monitored. I'm not saying the algorithm should always be in effect, but if you select "biking" as an exercise and beginning monitoring it, it should be more accurate than it is.

[bbarrera]

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@Cbernad wrote:
It can't be that hard to take miles, time, and heart rate and make an algorithm that more accurately represents steps! It is maddening.

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@Cbernad it is difficult, lets start with "steps" - why doesn't Fitbit distinguish between small steps while pacing around the office, and the steps while running 7 minute miles on a 10k run? Do you think those steps are equivalent? Why does Fitbit treat those steps as equivalent in Challenges? How is walking around all-day without raising your HR and getting 40,000 steps the equivalent of going out and running a marathon and getting 40,000 steps?

Ok, since we can't really compare your steps to my steps, except for absolute number of steps which is meaningless without assigning difficulty, what can we compare? There is an algorithm "training suffer score" (TSS) that is used by TrainingPeaks and Strava has something similar. TSS uses duration and intensity to assign a score based on each individuals fitness level - a score of 100 by an olympic runner is relatively the same as a beginner earning a score of 100. TSS basically works as follows - a score of 100 is used for an all out effort of 1 hour. So if you cycle for 3 hours at 50% intensity, then you would get a score of 150 (3 hours * 0.5 * 100). 

[bbarrera · Accepted solution]

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@Cbernad wrote:
My point is that Alta records over twice as many steps as Blaze, so obviously the algorithms are different. And with the data available to the Blaze, there is plenty of data to make a reasonable correlation between HR, distance, and time.

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@Cbernad I bet you put Blaze into biking mode. Blaze and Surge have a biking mode that tries to filter out "false steps" because when you ride a bike you aren't stepping.

When I'm in a challenge, I use my iPhone 5s as my Fitbit step tracker. It goes in my rear jersey pocket. I generally get 400-600 steps per mile, actually I've found a better estimate of step count is 1.5-2.0 x cadence x duration in minutes. So a 180 minute bike ride with average cadence of 75rpm would give me:

- low-end = 1.5 x 75 x 180 = 20,250 steps

- high-end = 2.0 x 75 x 180 = 27,000 steps

Hope that helps.

[Cbernad]

Yes. I do select biking. So you are saying don't do that? Just let the Blaze notice that it is activity and it will assign more steps as it isn't filtering some out? That actually makes sense as I had a surge and it was equally bad, but I was selecting biking there also.

[Cbernad]

Sorry. You meant use the iPhone as the Fitbit tracker. I didn't realize you could do that. I just set up my phone on my app and will try that next ride. Thank you @bbarrera. I still think my original question is valid, but this is a great workaround.

[bbarrera]

@Cbernad honestly I don't think its a valid question, as its not possible to convert anything to steps. Are you going to convert cycling/swimming/weight-lifting/crossfit to:

- walking around the house steps

or

- fast walking steps

or

- running steps

?????

I don't know of any sport that uses steps to measure anything. Running? Measured in terms of pace in minutes per mile. Cycling? Measured in terms of miles per hour (mph) and watts if you have a power meter. Swimming? Measured in terms of pace in minutes per 100 yards.

[Rich_Laue]

Your Alta is counting twice as many bumps in the road than the Blaze does. Why do i say this? Because your arms are on the handlebars. These are connected to the wheel, bumps on the road will make your arm jump and give some false steps.