Eliptical issues

[Apdrjrd]

My Blaze seems to be pretty accurate while walking, but is woefully bad at tracking activity on my elliptical. My old Charge HR would maybe be short about 5-10% on step count, but so far the Blaze is anywhere from 40-50% short if I move my arms at all on the elliptical. Oddly enough, the only time the Blaze seems to register my strides accurately is if I hold it as still as possible in relation to the rest of my body. If I swing my arm naturally, or actually use the pols on the elliptical, the Blaze misses almost half the steps. It doesn't matter if I start an exercise activity manually, or leave it to auto-detect either. I'm fine with it being a little short, motivation to move more anyway, but missing nearly half of what I do is absurd. Anyone have any success with it tracking on an elliptical?

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @Apdrjrd. Welcome to the Fitbit Community! 🙂

I think I have the answer for this. Whenever you're on the elliptical, the movement -even when you're standing and moving one foot infront of the other constantly- resembles more the pattern of cycling more than walking since you're not really taking steps but moving your feet in circles as you would while cycling.

Please take a look at this post from @peppergal explaining this.

Hope this makes sense and if you need any more help, let me know!

[TechJunkie]

I am new to the FitBit coming from a Jawbone UP.  The UP tracked steps fine on my Eliptical as long as my arms were moving.  Does the FitBit require forward motion to detect steps along with arm movement?  I tested my Blaze while sitting in a chair and swinging my arm and it registered steps.  I am curious how, if the arm is moving, the Blaze would distinguish between walking in place on an eliptical vs acutually walking across the floor. I would think a treadmill, where you are walking in place, would be similar to an eliptical. 

I just had surgery so I cannot test my Blaze with my eliptical, however, once recovered, the eliptical is one of my primary devices for recovery and I bought the Blaze to track my progress.  I hope the Blaze is able to register steps on an eliptical or this will be a major dissapointment.  

[Rich_Laue]

When comparing the count of the Fitbit to the elliptical, are you counting your feet movement I with your mind. My first thought is that a person is not stepping on an elliptical.

For distance to be the same the imaginary stride of the elliptical will need to be entered into the Blaze. Also don't let the wheel turn if the feet al or not moving.

[Apdrjrd]

Its not just a mental count. My elliptical counts strides that I've compared against the Blaze results while in progress and after the fact. I've also physically watched the step count increase live on the blaze display while using the elliptical as well as watched the count increment on the app while synced. I've even noted the step count on the Blaze, counted out 250 strides on the elliptical and looked at the count again, doing the same when walking. When walking, the count is dead on no matter what I do with my arms. With the elliptical, however, if my hands were on the poles of the elliptical while moving, or if I let my arm swing at my side while I stride, the Blaze step count is half of what it should be. If I then take my hand off the elliptical and hold the Blaze steady in front of me the step count starts to register every stride like it should. If I do a similar 250 step count verbally, or based on the display of the elliptical with my arm steady, the blaze shows what it should. Watching the difference in the count happen in real time is especially strange. I've left the app open on my phone in front of me and watched as the step count falls behind the longer I actually move my arm, only to watch the count start to increment correctly as soon as I stop moving my arm. And I've ruled out lag. If I stop moving, the count stops as it should, and it never catches up any steps its behind. I'd understand if it was only off in the 5-10% range, but being off by 50% is a bit tough to swallow, especially when the Charge HR was in that 5-10% error range.

[Apdrjrd]

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@FerdinandFitbit wrote:

Hi there @Apdrjrd. Welcome to the Fitbit Community! 🙂

I think I have the answer for this. Whenever you're on the elliptical, the movement -even when you're standing and moving one foot infront of the other constantly- resembles more the pattern of cycling more than walking since you're not really taking steps but moving your feet in circles as you would while cycling.

Please take a look at this post from @peppergal explaining this.

Hope this makes sense and if you need any more help, let me know!

---

This would make sense if it wasn't for the fact that the Blaze registers steps fine when my arm isn't moving.  If it was purely the smooth stride of the elliptical, you'd expect the lack of arm movement to make it less accurate, not more.  Its almost as if the combination of the smooth movement of the elliptical combined with my arm actually moving "confuses" it.

[Cybdiver]

The pendulum movement of the arms is what causes it to record steps.  I can get a step count without taking any steps just by swinging my arms. 

On the eliptical it's a push pull motion (back and forth) which does nothing to record steps.  If you can swing your arms while on the eliptical then you would show a step count. Defeats the purpose of the arm resistance on the eliptical.

This is the same problem when on a treadmill if you hold on while walking again no addition to the count unless you have that pendulum motion of the arms going.

My suggestion for FitBit would be a transmitter cliped to the shoe to transmitt the rocking motion of a walker or runner.  Depending on the level of the programing a short walk should be sufficent to calibrate the device for the persons stride.  No it will not be perfect, it will never be perfect because your stride will vary that's just how life is.  Oh and FitBit you can send me one as a thank you.

[Rich_Laue]

But then i would not be able to tap my foot, or ride a bike without getting steps.
The Blaze mounted to the arm is only able to monitor arm motions.
Holding on to the rqilings of a treadmill can do more damage to the body then good. Slow down on the treadmill m if you need to.

[Cybdiver]

Imagine the problems if you took up tap dancing or salsa worse yet would be ballroom dancing with all that gliding.
I'm sure there are plenty of activities that would be a problem.

[SunsetRunner]

I've noticed the exact same thing.  My Charge HR counted a lot more steps compared to my new Blaze on the elliptical.  On the Charge HR I would go for 45 minutes and get probably 3 - 4K steps counted.  On the Blaze if I go for 45 minutes on the same machine doing the same intensity, it gives me 1500 - 1700.  That is a big drop.  

[AlejandraFitbit]

A warm welcome to the Community @SunsetRunner. Regarding to your elliptical inconvenience, keep in mind that every tracker have their own algorithms to track your exercise. I recommend checking the previous post of our friend @FerdinandFitbit, where he's providing an explanation about this.

Catch you later.