Altitude

[dunlace40]

I’m training for a big trek in Patagonia and I need to measure altitude gain and loss in my daily routine. Can my new Charge 5 show my progress? I can’t find it. Thanks for any help. 

[Heather-S]

@dunlace40 The Charge 5 does not have an altimeter so it doesn’t register any changes in altitude. The altimeter in the Versa 3 and the Sense really only tells you how many floors you’ve climbed during the day and doesn’t give an altitude or climb break down in the activity itself. 

[t.parker]

Agree with @Heather-S with small correction on the Sense and Versa 3. They do track elevation gain when tracking with Exercise app. At least, I can see it for Run and Bike activities ("Elevation" tab in the exercise detail). There is a small issue with that though. Fitbit devices don't calibrate reference altitude so you won't have any clue on what altitude you are (important when building altitude acclimation). There is also no elevation correction with GPS data so bad weather will wreck readings. Last but not least, elevation gain cannot be viewed real-time during activity.

[Heather-S]

@t.parker Interesting, I'm on iOS and there is no elevation tab for me. I can only see the elevation when I end the exercise on my Sense and I'm looking at the summary. Once the summary is gone, I can't find my elevation for the walk anywhere in the app. Maybe you can screenshot where you see your elevation in the app?

[alexthecat]

@Heather-S this is what I got for one of my hikes last week. That was using on-board GPS with my Sense. Android mobile app, BTW. 

 

 

[Heather-S]

@alexthecat Thanks for showing me! I don’t have anything like that on iOS. Here is my screen shot. There’s no option for elevation. I blocked out my map because it was an out and back to my house. 

 

[t.parker]

@Heather-S that looks totally different from what we have on the Android app 😮 The tabs we have to take you to the data you have below the map. The "Splits" tab shows "Distance Exercise Laps" from your screenshots "Heart Rate" tab shows "Time in heart rate zone" from your screen etc. It's just between "Splits" and "Heart Rate" we also have "Elevation" that seems to be missing on iOS. It makes it really difficult to discuss some issues when two apps are so different 🙄

Elevation gain and elevation chart appears also on the web dashboard. That should be the same for all users.

[Heather-S]

@t.parker The differences in iOS vs Android app are sometimes amazing! Definitely no elevation in the iOS app, but you are correct that the info is present on the web dashboard. Thanks for the tip!

[dunlace40]

Looks like there is no way to measure altitude on the Fitbit. What a shame. I’ll have to use the compass/altimeter on my phone and collate the data.