Step counting

[Speedbird]

I did not believe after carrying out various experiments with my Blaze that my steps were being counted correctly. This was supported by Fitbit Customer Services and they sent me a new Blaze.

I connected the new one to my account but before disposing of the old one as instructed I put the old one into a spare strap, put it on the same wrist and went for a nice walk of about 3000 steps, then difference between them was negligible about 95 steps only different. And that I can accept.

This evening I have just done another walk wearing the new one on my wrist and the old one inside my sock against my ankle, this time I took the added precaution of carrying a mechanical manual clicker that i clicked every time my left foot hit the floor (2 steps) now this is the interesting bit, the one on my wrist showed 3300 steps, the one in my sock showed 5200 and low and behold my clicker showed 2580 multiply that by 2 and we have 5160. A grand difference of a mere 40 steps over the journey with the ankle set up but a massive 1900 steps different to the wrist worn one.

My wife uses a charge 2 and always has loads more steps than me when we are walking together and it was that, that made me question the Blaze's accuracy.

I would like your views as to where i go with this issue. I appreciate that no fitness band can be 100% correct but the amount of incorrect-ness seems so wrong.

Is the Ionic more accurate, is Garmin, is Tom-tom? all I want is an accurate piece of kit. Is that too much to ask for?

Your views please.

[mhaider]

I have the same issue and have been trying to tame down my arm swing after reading many forum posts here. When I walk at a brisk pace I pretty much pump my arms and my Blaze would consistently record only about 2/3 of my steps. When I walk at a leisurely pace and my arms dangle and swing the step count is what I'd expect. One of the things I tried when walking on my treadmill was to hold on to my shorts leg with the hand/arm that my Blaze is on, step count went way up, now I'm trying to train myself to tame the arm swing and the results are very close to what I consider acceptable. I kind of wish Fitbit had this info or a video that demonstrated the proper form, but I imagine it might be different for everyone. Anyway, give that a try and see if it works for you. I'm anxious for the weather to get nicer for walking outside and see how it goes with that, and if the GPS tracking has gotten any better.