Here is how I fixed inaccurate step counting!!

[cenetti]

Hopefully it'll help others having the same problem. 

Mine was off by about 2 miles. First thing is that you need to enter your stride lenght under settings.

Here is the guide I used to measure mine, first one :

https://www.walkingwithattitude.com/articles/features/how-to-measure-stride-or-step-length-for-your-...

Secondly, if you're using it on your non dominant hand, switch it to dominant under settings. That'll lower the sensitivity. No more inaccurate steps when I scratch my .. head 

Now blaze is right on the dot. I walk 4 miles everyday, to work to gym to home. It counts as it should, perfectly. 

Hope it helps... 

[YT300800]

I got rid of my Fitbit and bought an Apple Watch

Sent from my iPad

[Chancecube42]

Your suppose to upgrade not downgrade

[PNH0]

So MarkWesley, I did this little experiment over the last two weeks and here's what I found....

If you recall from one of my earlier posts, I stated that that the device seemed to lose accuracy when I moved faster, therefore the faster I swung my arms (assuming you move your arms in sync with your legs when walking or running, i.e. natural movement).  It also seemed to be more accurate if I held my arm a certain way like pinned to my body as opposed to freely swinging...   All  the evidence I had seemed to back this up; that the faster I moved the less accurate the device was, whereas for regular walking or slow jogging it was fine.

Anyway I put my fitbit into a small lighter pouch with a clip and clipped it to my waistband.  I did this for a week straight.  Sure enough, the accuracy went way up.  It was within 95% of actual steps taken regardless of my speed.   My step count was as close to actual as can be for every walk, run, hike, jumping rope, dance that I did, whether slow or fast or erratic, just like my fitbit ONE used to be.

Then I put it back in the wristband and back on my wrist for the next week and sure enough once I started moving faster, the accuracy of the step count dropped.  This was consistent with all the previous results I encountered.  Don't know why it doesn't work as advertised when worn on the wrist, but seems to work when strapped to the body or if you hold your arm in a locked position.  It seems that if the device is held in a certain position it counts steps accurately.  So there...

Anyway, that is my experience with my device.  I do miss my fitbit ONE,  It simply worked...  If I have to use this one in the pouch clipped to my belt or pocket during the day, fine.  But then I paid too much for it and lose the benefits of the heart rate monitoring (however suspect it might be) , which is what convinced me to get it in the first place.

Good luck with yours...

[MarkWesley]

Your findings are identical to mine. The faster you walk or run, not only the less accurate, but the lower the count, over the same distance. I'll try testing it around my belt or in a tiny sack, but I do like the heart rate monitor, which is accurate. I have a Blood Pressure Monitor at home, & I believe it is accurate, & I get identical readings on it for the heart rate, so I think it's accurate there. It's just this extreme inaccuracy of the counting of steps at higher speeds. As I mentioned above I have noticed this odd looking arm movement on a very few joggers, & one told me its to get more accurate readings - I'm still to test that. A friend suggested getting small wrist weights & using them & seeing if that leads to an improvement. So I bought the weights, & will test this week. 

[meresydotes]

When I'm planning on walking/ running fast, I just keep my fitbit hand on my body. It's very accurate that way. What has me worried though, is that I recently got a Motiv ring. Their FAQ implies that people complain about undercounting. It counts 50% more steps for me than my fitbit. And I'm suspicious that it's correct, because it actually counts the same as the fitbit, or close, during workouts, when I keep my fitbit hand on my body. I'm trying to wrap my head around missing 1/3 of my steps for YEARS.

[MarkWesley]

Your experience is similar to mine, but. I have tried walking the length of a soccer field & kept my hands securely on my hips on the walk, & it counts no steps !!! As you'll see above in my previous posts, I find it counts between a third & half the correct count, at speed. So it only counts a third approximately, & it can be tricked into not counting at all. I don't think it can be tricked into over-counting. I tried an experiment on Tuesday of wearing 1.5 kgs wrist weights, with a brisk walk, & on both tests it counted 88 steps for an actual 100 steps taken. I'm not familiar with a Motiv Ring, but I find compared with others I walk with, I always get a much lower count, so I'd suggest the Motiv is closer to the truth. I'd suggest you've missed out on a lot more than a third of your steps, I was unaware of the magnitude of my under-counting, till I compared it with people walking alongside of me. I always wondered why everyone can crack 30,000 with apparent ease, & I can never do that. I'd strongly suggest I have cracked 30,000 on many occasions, but it'll NEVER show on my Fitbit. I'll have to crack 70,000 in reality to see 30,000 !!! 

[meresydotes]

What's weird is that the Motiv more or less agrees with the Fitbit when I have my Fitbit hand on my body. I'm pretty sure the Fitbit is correct at those times. So, really the Motiv counts double steps, because usually 2/3 to 1/2 my daily steps are on my treadmill. I know Fitbit looks for a pattern before it starts counting. And I know it doesn't count when I take the 3 steps across my kitchen because of that. But it seemed to be fairly accurate in general. I guess I was wrong.

[Kellierettig]

Thank you !

[Jigsaw2888]

So, this is fairly irritating, but I found that wearing my blaze on my ankle caused it to count steps accurately. But it’s really annoying to wear it on my ankle🤗

[MarkWesley]

I cannot imagine how irritating, wearing it around one's ankle would be. But, I'm going to try it. I'd love to just one day get a similar reading to the people walking alongside of me. I just live with the fact it's counting about a third if I'm travelling fast. 

[Rich_Laue]

Your Fitbit will also count some atm motions when the hands are moving and the feet are not. Compared to my Fitbit One, over tyetcourse of tge month the total steps counted are very close. Two months within 100 steps. it was only 2 six month tests, 2 years apart. but I never saw the monthly totals differ by more than 2000. i feel that is close enough for a 30 day period. 

I'm amazed that anybody could think that an accurate count of the steps can be accomplished by looking at the movement of the hand, and even more amazed that it actually does work and relatively close to the true step count 

[Jigsaw2888]

You can also just take the tracker out of its band and stick it in your shoe if your band is too tight. 

[MarkWesley]

I haven't tested mine over a month, not sure how that can be done. I've done my tests by literally counting 100 steps and seeing what it registers. Also compared it to many people walking alongside of me. I get a consistent under-counting, which varies with my speed. 

There are quite a few of these type of items on the market, all claiming that they can measure both distance and count your steps. If, as you suggest it just cannot be done, all these manufacturers should not be saying that their watch, can do it, nor should they have the counter on the watch. I think it can be done, some do better than others, my Charge HR is not one of them. 

I did some stepping exercise last night on an Aerobic Step, and on that I got a pretty reasonable count. I counted 100 steps twice and got a count of 93 and 96. I'd be very happy if I got that sort of accuracy when walking briskly, very happy. My beef with it, is that over the same distance, a slow deliberate walk gets a higher count than walking briskly - that is unacceptable. It is meant to motivate us to do more exercise, and brisk walking is better for us, but I get a higher count if I do a very slow walk. 

[MarkWesley]

Jigsaw - Funny 🙂 Do you enjoy jamming your fingers in the car door ??? 

That like your ankle suggestion, has got to be uncomfortable - I'll try the ankle, but maybe not inserting it into my shoe !!!

[SunsetRunner]

Mine over counts when I run and undercounts when I walk!!

[SunsetRunner]

Thats about the same error spread I get when I walk on the treadmill.  When I run its about that much over counting

[Runner345]

Yeah looks like some sort of GPS monitoring ankle bracelet! But that also enables it to work for cycling which is cool. My dad uses it like that and it always looks so odd 🙂

[MarkWesley]

Mine continues to undercount, I was hoping I'd get another brand for Chrissie, but looks like I'll have to buy it myself. We went to Caloundra for summer holidays, & I walked with my wife and child to the headland just before Shelley Beach, according to Google that's 3.1 kms each way. My wife and son said they were too tired to push on, so said they'd turn around, meaning their trip was 6.2 kms. I said I'd walk till the next beach, & turn there, & meet back at our Unit. I got to Dickys Beach, which according to Google is 7.7 kms each way. When I got back, my wife's Garmin reads 8,600 steps, my son's 8,900, and mine shows 8,200 - and I've done 15.4 kms compared to their 6.2 !!!!

Moderator edit: removed caps

[Bobbi514]

One of my friends who has a sitting job is coming up with 24,000 steps a day plus 139 floors and made the comment to her something is wrong as I think her steps are inaccurate giving her twice as many steps and floors she does ~ 

[Rich_Laue]

@MarkWesley don't confuse things by adding distance. Let's compare steps to steps, your Fitbit, unless using GPS is unable to measure distance and only takes an educated guess. And GPS for distance is only used for running.