43% increase in steps?

[tzl]

The fitbit front page states that fitbit users take 43% more steps than they did before using fitbit.

How is that calculated?

[MikeBuck]

They could only guess on that.  Unless someone was tracking their steps some other way prior to fitbit.  So why would they get a fitbit if they were already tracking their distance?  It would have to be individuals surveyed.  But that would not be that accurate.

[tzl]

Yes, you can't measure steps before a fitbit, that's why I asked.

Bit how do they get to 43%? The way it's stated it can't just be a number they pulled out from some dark place. That would be false marketing.

Is that fitbit vs the average distance a person walk per year, and what would that number be?

Is the calculation made per country, city etc as the amount of steps vary a lot with geography?

Are they taking into account the possible skewness of the data: that people getting a fitbit might already walk more than the average person?

There's a lot of cool data questions here, so I'd be curious to hear from the fitbit data team.

[Collin1000]

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@tzl wrote:

The fitbit front page states that fitbit users take 43% more steps than they did before using fitbit.

How is that calculated?

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Just a hunch, I assume that it's based on studies which have shown the average number of steps a normal person takes in a day, vs the average number of steps the average fitbitter takes. 

Americans, on average, take about 5,100 steps per day. Fitbit's default goal for users is 10,000 steps per day, so it's reasonable to believe that fitbit users do take about 50% more steps than non-users. 

[Marcy]

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@MikeBuck wrote:

So why would they get a fitbit if they were already tracking their distance?  

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Perhaps they decided to upgrade to Fitbit for more features or they lost their original pedometer.  I knew my step counts before Fitbit because I was using "dumb" pedometers and manually entering my activity in My Fitness Pal.  

[Heybales]

That would actually be almost 100% more if they reached the 10K steps goal.

5K average, 10K goal.

[SunsetRunner]

pedmeters and mobile phones

[lonerchick]

Maybe there are studies out there. Maybe they looked at people during the their 1st week.

When I first got my fitbit I did not change my lifestyle. I think it's great to get a baseline of how active you are and go from there.

Where on the website did you see the stat? I'm interested.

[yldthng]

Maybe there's some survey somewhere we're not privy to where they asked people what their first day steps were and then what their steps are at some pre-determined amount of time?

[gibberish]

I assume there have been studies on the past that state the average number of steps that people do

And likewise fitbit track what their users average step is so from there is where they get that calculation I propose