Inaccurate treadmill distance reading

[jirose]

Hi gang, just got finished running a 5k on the treadmill. I selected the exercise treadmill option before I started, and hit the stop button just after I finished. The treadmill itself recorded three miles run in 24 minutes, but the Blaze only recorded 1.7 miles. Anyone know why? This isn't a deal-breaker or anything...I really like the watch, but that's a pretty big disparity.

[04Dbacks]

So...my Blaze is useless on treadmill?

i have vertigo and must hold side rails...

[Rich_Laue]

It is stil tracking time, heart rate, and calories. 

[04Dbacks]

So, Blaze is useless on treadmill?  I use rails because I have vertigo. 

Blaze also misreads distance by about 1 mile when I walk or jog outside. 

The main reason I got it was tracking distance/calories...

VERY DISAPPOINTING!

May have to return and get AppleWatch.

As far as I know, heart rate is ok.
Distance, steps, calories, inaccurate.

Sent from my iPhone

Moderator edit: merged reply

[Rich_Laue]

Your going to have the same problem with any arm based step tracker @04Dbacks.. The key is the tracker is mounted on the arm where it is only able to monitor arm motions.. It is looking for arm motions that say the feet are moving.. Holding onto the rails keeps this from happening. 

Yes calories will be calculated by the heart rate. 

[Sco3]

If the fit bit can’t adjust to how a treadmill works why offer that setting, why not just make us use Run or Walk?

if Apple can sort it, why can’t fitbit, it’s super frustrating when you do a long run on a machine, reach a goal or exceed a target yet the one thing we all get obsessed by and live our daily routine to - the fitbit - let’s us down, deflates our sense of achievement.

cond on #fitbit catch up - literally

[Rich_Laue]

Run and walk use gps which is useless when doing a virtual walk 

I actually find, now that I set my stride up, the treadmill distance is fairly close 

[Debshod49]

Hi there I have a question? 

I have had the same thing happen when I use the treadmill my charge 2 or blaze, stats on both are majorlly different to the treadmill stats as in distance pace & cals! Now I have tried to log this manually to what the treadmill states but I can't!  as the pace is already set on my tracker/app. As soon as i submit it, it changes everything i entered. The closest I've got to the pace and distance I ran at on the treadmill was I had to change KM to MILES in the fitbit app which is really dissapointing and even then there is a significant difference. The option to enter all the stats after a treadmill run/walk manually should be a made easier to log an save as you entered them. I would rather trust the treadmill I use then the blaze or charge2 I'm using. Using Gps for walking or running hasnt really come up with any problems for me, The only thing is my Blaze is great at connecting to GPS without getting my phone out and map tracks my routes  easily unlike the when I use my Charge 2 although they are both set up the same way? 

The treadmill is more of any issue an really frustrating me as I took up running again earlier this yr, especially as I'm trying to keep to or improve on a goal i have set, for over the colder mths. Fitbit should make it so you can set all your treadmill run sats in the app manually and save them to what you have entered and not save them automatucally as your GPS stride steps! 

As someone said run/walk on a treadmill is different to run/walk outside. 

Oh by the way I don't hold the bars and I don't over work the arm swing either so that bit isn't accurate as a solution.

[Rich_Laue]

As mentioned above @Debshod49, I'll rephrase. 

- First you don't say if steps where counted correctly, your tracker can not measure distance in a treadmill. 

- A person does not physically move while on a treadmill. GPS will not work

- The ground moves under you and the treadmill measures this movement. 

- The tracker on the arm can not measure the ground movement. 

- The tracker will count steps taken. 

- The tracker than multiplies the steps by the persons stride

To get better accuracy

- Hands must be off the support rails and swing naturally. 

- The user has to calculate their stride setting while on a treadmill, this most likely will not match a free run outside. 

- The stride setting in the app or web must be setup, then a sync needs to b done 

[Dom42]

You need to go for a run with GPS enabled (outdoors) and it will automatically adjust your stride length. After that it will be more accurate. 

Fitbit Ionic

[Debshod49]

Hi @Rich_Laue 

The stride setting is already set up in the app going off my age an height, also it's calculated by the GPS that has already been used since April In runs an walks. The treadmill will say 4.5km an pace a

6.somat my watch will say 2.3km an pace 3.somat. from what I can understand of what you are saying I now have to alter my stride length manually. My question is why shoukd i have to do this as it seems so much messing about just before I'm about to get on the treadmill, when it is already pretty much accurate to what I have already been doing outside for the past 7mths with run/walk outside and so is the GPS distance. Not perfect but accurate enough.

[Sco3]

Thanks

I don’t hold on

If you choose treadmill it should work as though you’re on a treadmill - the floor moving under you and obviously not GPS, as opposed to if you choose Run which works fine. Why have two activities to select if they don’t differentiate between them?

I’ve just given up . It’s a shame as I too have targets I am aiming for and have to ignore the fitbit taking note of the treadmill only.

It sounds like the Blaze works better???

[Rich_Laue]

That is true @Debshod49 but Fitbit assumes your an average person. Which most likely you are not.also the stride is based on a free walk and will most likely be different on the treadmill. 

The one activity defaults with gps on the other defaults with gps off @Sco3 most problems on a treadmill are from a bad step count caused by holding on to the rails. 

[Sco3]

Thanks - I don’t hold the rails at all, and run at a similar pace to street running with a natural relaxed arm swing.

[Debshod49]

Hi there @Rich_Laue  out of curiosity i did go through all my settings in the app again "just incase" as well as personal settings, it turned out that my height setting was wrong! (How i dont know)? After altering it to the right height setting I went and did another treadmill test run well walk/jog just to see if it made a difference. First 10min walk at a pace 4.0...watch kept same pace, turned treadmill Upto 5.6 for another 10mins and still the watch kept at same pace, even the distance was same at 1.5 km..which was a good start or so I thought ..stopped and switched all off within seconds of each other, then when i synced watch up to the app the app came up with an average overall pace of 5kmph which I can accept as there was 2 different pace settings within 20min period but the distance changed to 1.66km in the fitbit app, So now its stating I run further than the treadmill states at 1.5km....so how do it rectify that?  as it is still a bit of a difference. I don't hold the rails and I don't over swing my arm! In fact i tried to keep my hand on my body as someone else had suggest do. 

[meresydotes]

@Debshod49 You know, I've realized that the treadmill setting can't really tell the difference in pace, and I feel lucky to be able to get an accurate step count by keeping my hand on my body. I do a morning run/ walk and an afternoon walk and it's clear that the fitbit isn't able to tell the difference between running and walking, because the distance is always much closer than it would be if it could tell the difference. I've never really worried about distance so much, I've concentrated on the steps more.

[Debshod49]

Thanks @meresydotes makes sense may be I should just stick with time an pace on the treadmill to build on stamina rather than try an add in pace an distance on my blaze or charge 2 as well. 

Although i still do believe if i could log a treadmill run in manually and save what i entered without the fitbit changing it to what they think i did it would be better! That way I would have more of a visual progress to look back on. 

[Pipsquack]

I have been using the treadmill for roughly 4 weeks now.  Without doing anything different I've noticed that 2 of my 3 sessions this week have recorded wrong (ex. doing 5 miles today and getting credit for the time but only 3.12 miles.)  Wednesday recorded fine.  I noticed that it will be going along fine and then the Blaze will lose the HR for a long period. After that begins the distance starts getting off.  Anyone else notice this behavior?

[Jkec95]

So basically it best to input manually like I did with the Ulta which I loved so I upgraded for no reason but heart rate feature?

[RWwarwick]

I've actually been able to adjust my walking/running on a treadmill that
seems to give me a much better counting of my steps.

The key seems to be to keep your arm bent 90 degrees at the elbow and try
not to swing it too much. I tend to grab on to my t-shirt while in that
position to help me hold the position.

Its not ideal. I think I should be able to run naturally. This take a
little getting used to, but it seems to work pretty good.

[Pipsquack]

I don't know, I have not figured it out yet.  The other day I did 3 min/7 min run/walk intervals (ok I'm out of shape) and it went fine but if I do the long continuous walk it loses the HR and precision.  This watch is 1.5 years old.  Do those accelerometers/shock sensors wear out that quick?  I've got 1,212,196 steps for about 568 miles.  I wouldn't think my walking vs. running motion would be that different except for the impact jar.  If the watch can count steps walking around in open space I would think it could handle a treadmill.

I've never tried the manual entry because I link my Fitbit workout to LoseIt.