Charge 6 counts false steps

[Gundam07]

I have been using a charge 6 for a week, this is my first wearable or smartwatch. I'm finding that it counts a lot of my movement as false steps.      

Last night while I was sitting at my computer, it didn't count any steps. And I've watched it while I'm walking from one place to another at work and it seems fairly accurate.     

But it seems to log a lot of my stationary activity as steps. At work where I wouldn't have walked more than 3km in a day, it logged over 9km on one day and over 11km on two days. I work standing up so I don't know if this throws it off.     

Has anyone had this problem and if so did you find a solution?

[DavidFitbit]

Hi @Gundam07, welcome to  the Fitbit Community! It's great to have you here!

Let me explain to you how your Charge 6 measures your activity.

Your Charge 6 has an algorithm for step counting designed to look for intensity and motion patterns that are most indicative of people walking and running.

However, while working at a desk, cooking, or performing other activities with arm movements, your Charge 6 may add some steps. When you’re doing activities that involve arm movement, you often walk a few steps in-between stationary periods as well, so the device tries to give you credit for those steps.

For most users, the number of extra steps added by arm-based movement isn’t significant when compared to your overall stats.

For a more in depth breakdown about this topic i invite you to check our help article How does my Fitbit device calculate my daily activity? 

This being said, do you feel this explain your device's behavior? Do you still believe the extra steps don't reflect the reality?

[Gundam07]

Thanks for the prompt response.

No I don't feel it does. My standing activity registers as at least 3 times more distance travelled than reality. My wife has an older model Fitbit that I may try wearing next week to try comparing the two.

Is there a setting that can be used to use my phone's GPS to register when I'm actually moving? Or is the wearable just going to be inherently inaccurate with my kind of work?

[LZeeW]

@Gundam07   If you wear your Fitbit on your non-dominant wrist, you can change a setting that will reduce, but not eliminate, these extra steps.  Tap on your device/battery icon, then your Charge 6 tile.  Tap on the Device preferences option and change the wrist preference to dominant (but keep wearing it on your non-dominant wrist).  This changes the accelerometer’s sensitivity.

There really isn’t a way to make the step count perfect.