Waving hands counting as steps

[JustinGerrity]

Ok, we all want to cheat a little bit just to get our steps in. But to change this log you will obey the steps and get fit. Isn't that what a Fitbit is for yes it is. IM DONE LOLOLOLOLOLOLOOLOL

[DonnaR57]

My daughter and I both direct choirs and play piano, and both of us gets "steps" recorded by the FitBit for this.  It's kinda comical, to be in the middle of a song and your wrist buzzes (because you've reached 10,000).  However, we don't, because doing either of those is VERY physical!

Donna 

[ed_mo]

Yes!!!

Plying guitar is auto recognized as an elliptical exercise!  Pushing a lawn mower is auto recognized as riding a bike!
Still very funny.

The 250 steps per hour is a joke if people are just waving their arms around with ten minutes left in the hour just to make that hour light up!

After just a week with my flex, we know what sets it off.... and we know how it works.  We can't take the challenges and all of the "step sharing" in the community so serious.  Focus on the goals we set and try to hold true to it.

But in the first week I was waving my arms, marching around the house, and playing guitar to get my lights to go off.  It was fun... and that's how we learn how things work... Now it is time to focus on the progress we make over time.... [teasing] I'm going to be waving my arms around every second of the day to maintain this pace!!! I don't know how long I can keep this up.  Wish me luck!!!

[Colinm39]

I have been using Fitbit too long now to worry about these issues. 

I find the extra steps from hand waving or moving.. like clearing the table of dishes and loading  and unloading a dishwasher offsets the loss of steps when walking at domestic speed.....and..... using shopping trolleys..I do all of the shopping and not interested in wearing my Blaze in my sock or pocket. I find for step accuracy with the Blaze I need to walk at exercise speed otherwise I can have over 10% loss in steps.

My trusty Fitbit One is always in my jeans pocket and that makes me feel happy about the difference in steps between the wrist models and the waist type clipons.. 

It's also the dilemma with the stairs/floors.. I walk in area where there are some long 12' gradients as measured by Google Earth, some days I get them others I don't.. Next day I maybe walking into a wind and I pick up the extra floors because the air pressure around the Fitbit.  Over a year it has averaged out at 4 floors/day.. especially when you live in a relative flat area. The tallest building in our area is the hospital and I'm not interested in walking their stairs..

Recently I walked up and down the steps at our Athletic track to commemorate the 9/11 disaster and did my 110 floors..

So we all endeavor to be active in many ways..

[LanuzaFitbit]

Welcome to the Forums @JustinGerrity! Hello @Colinm39, @ed_mo and @DonnaR57!

Given the way the Fitbits are designed, this can absolutely happen. Hand and arm motions can be recognized as steps depending on several factors. My suggestion to reduce this from happening would be to tighten the wristband. It is possible that because of the moving around of the Fitbit while it is not as tight could be the one causing the incorrect recognition of steps.

Having said that, it does seem like everyone is enjoying their trackers, which is great! I hope that all of you can continue to have a fun experience.

Let me know if you have any questions!