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Biking steps vs walking steps

I know I won't get as many steps per miles, nor burn quite as many calories per miles riding my bike as I would walking, whether I'm stepping in place or actually out walking. I'm just wondering how much more biking I'd probably have to do to equal each other. I step anywhere between 31,000 and 40,000 steps a day.

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34 REPLIES 34

Since biking is an activity where your hands are mostly stationary, it's a given you won't get as many steps. Calorie burn is more dependent on your intensity (heart rate if you have a tracker with HR) as I understand it.

While I'm nowhere near your steps and probably won't ever be, I burn more calories at a comfortable, steady pace on my stationary bike compared to walking (on a flat-ish surface) if the time is the same because my pulse will be higher for the biking as it allows me to push myself (and my pulse) more..

 

If you're wondering about the biking vs walking, you can play around with the numbers in your exercise log. Since it's entered manually there, it will often override any activity you did in the time frame you enter. Your actual activity will be back if you delete the log entry.

 

Hope that helps a bitSmiley Happy

Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
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I am a little frustrated with Fitbit.  I've ridden a bike trail when the weather is nice, starting and finishing at the same place for the past few years with my fitbit.  I had always gotten around 10,000 steps for 1.45 hour ride.  But this year I'm only getting around 5,000 steps.  My friend who rides with me is experiencing the same results.  Our pace is fast and I feel more tired after these rides than walking the same amount of time.  I'm not sure why this frustrating change has occurred.

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Did you switch to a different Fitbit? I noticed a change for the biking step count when I replaced my CHarge HR with a new one. I also noticed it counted fewer "steps" when I switched to a bike with a front suspension. Sometimes it seems the biking "steps" are actually bumps in the road/trail. Your trail might have been upgraded? ... No offense, this is just coming from a biking Fitbitter who is just as frustrated as you. Last week I went up a long hill on a newly paved bike trail and it only counted one floor, where I should have gotten 10. Beats me.

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I did switch to a new Alta HR fitbit, but I don't think my riding partner
did. I think it's something that has changed on the support end. If I
walk for as long as I ride, I will get 12-13,000 steps and this is giving
me 5,000 steps. Wah!
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I don't understand how you get steps counted at all while biking since steps rely on movement of the hand.

Wouldn't you have to use a GPS to track distance when riding bike?

I use a stationary bike with an upper body exercise and i get steps because my arms are moving . 

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When I bike I start the work out from my Charge 2, but would otherwise use the app to start tracking it, and I don't get any steps because it knows I am biking. Biking and walking are apples and oranges, completely different and you cannot compare the two. You cannot say how many steps go into biking, as biking simply is not a step based activity. I understand that FitBit has a focus on steps, but you might want to shift your focus to calories burned.

Karolien | The Netherlands

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Dang, last time I went on my bike I did 10 miles and got zero steps accounted for it.Woman Frustrated

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@Mercurialmom wrote:
I did switch to a new Alta HR fitbit, but I don't think my riding partner
did. I think it's something that has changed on the support end. If I
walk for as long as I ride, I will get 12-13,000 steps and this is giving
me 5,000 steps. Wah!

Walking requires your feet to move the entire time while biking does not.

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Because I bike on flat surfaces at 15 mph, my feet are moving the whole time.  Fitbit registers outdoor biking when I bike. It should give me step credit. I like to reach my daily step goal, but a bike ride wears me out so I won't get there.

 

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I just don't get why you should get step credit when you are biking? You are not taking steps at all. When I start tracking a bike ride (I do this twice per work day for my commute) it gives me 0 step credit as it knows I am biking. This is also what I would expect.

Karolien | The Netherlands

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Riding my bike at home I get O steps.  I've just returned from holidays.  We cycled from Prague to Berlin.  The paths were of variable quality but the up side was I never failed to meet my target steps.  So much for rough tracks!

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I have a Fitbit Zip. I attach it to my shoe and then bike. I get step credits.

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I suggest using Strava to log bike rides and connect it with Fitbit.  My sense is that HR monitor of Fitbit makes for more accurate calorie burn estimates.

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CRSunrise:  I once read in runner's world that 4 miles of biking equals 1 mile of running, but that was before fitbit and the obsession with steps.

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strap your fit bit on your ankle.  When I ride my stationary bike that is the only way I get an accurate HR and calories burned, I don't care about steps, but at 70 RPM's for 45 minutes I never get an accurate step count, but like I said I don't care about steps.  I also never get an accurate step count while rowing or while on my elliptical.

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I'm sorry - you get zero steps while cycling/spinning. If you wear your tracker on your ankle you can get accelerometer triggers that correspond to crank rotations, not steps. To say that crank rotations are steps makes nonsense of any subsequent calculations such as distance or calorie burn.

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BruceBu; Distance is unimportant, yet calories burned are calculated by
using my weight and HR. As I've stated repeatedly I don't care about steps! What I look at is HR and calories burned as it relates to work done.

 

 

Moderator edit: format

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@Corney I agree, steps (and distance) are not important for someone who does not practice ambulatory exercise. Calories are not terribly important to me - I burn plenty. Parameters, in order of importance to me are:

 

(A) For instantaneous feedback while performing ambulatory exercise: heart rate, cadence, speed, time so far,  distance so far, elevation gained so far.


(B) For overall description of a completed exercise session: distance, elevation gained, time, average heart rate, average cadence, average stride length, estimated calories burned, estimated % of calories burned as fat. Distances and elevation gains determined by (accurate) GPS.

 

I don't give absolute calorie values much importance because they can't be calculated accurately using the parameters available from trackers (you really need to measure oxygen consumption); however, for a given individual, relative values should be a pretty good estimate of relative energy expenditure. Steps can be calculated from (time x average cadence), but for me steps are largely a social parameter and not a particularly useful exercise descriptor (simply too variable). Unfortunately, Fitbit does not offer some of my more important parameters, so for dedicated exercise sessions I use a Polar M400 wrist unit (excellent integrated GPS ~ 5 ft accuracy) with OH-1 optical heart rate sensor (it works reliably, or the usual Polar EKG-like chest strap) and a  'Stride' shoe-pod sensor that measures cadence and stride length (cross calibrated to GPS) stride-by-stride. For my social parameter(s), I use a Fitbit Charge 2 with the HR function turned off (and often with band removed and dropped in a key pocket). HR  inaccuracies and unreliability (for me), because of frequent drop-outs and locking onto other repetitive noise signals (e.g., cadence), make it less than useful for serious exercise evaluation.

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We are having a walking challenge in work, some people are biking 26 miles and recording 50,000.00 steps taken.  What should we record for a 26 mile bike ride?

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