Difference between walking and running exercise type?

[TraceSPN]

I’ve finally been able to slow jog 5.4km, rather than walking, and my hr stays in cardio the entire time.  It’s not a flat course, it has hills and stairs involved.

My question is what’s the difference between walking and running in the exercise type?  My jog is slightly faster than my walking, but not by much.  Does it matter if I use the walking mode?  

Many thanks in advance. 

[MarciM · Accepted solution]

Hi @TraceSPN 

All the exercise modes are specifically designed to track the most out of each type of activity. The algorithms have been fine tuned to get more accurate data for each different exercise so that's the reason why there is a category for each. Your stride is different when running instead of walking, but if you are a slow runner or a fast walker, I'd suggest letting your Fitbit auto detect the correct exercise mode (you can always edit it later is you want). 

It automatically recognizes and records select exercises to ensure you get credit for your most active moments of the day.

It will recognizes continuous, high-movement activities such as walking, running, outdoor biking and elliptical. This means that if your tracker records your activity automatically, it should recognize the difference between when you're running and when you're walking but in case you want to track those exercises yourself, I'd recommend recording the run and end it and then start recording your walk separately.

Now, for the treadmill mode. As I mentioned above, algorithms that detect exercises have been fine tuned to give you more accurate stats. When you're on a treadmill, you're running but you remain in on place and when you're going on a run, you do move across the ground. That's maybe the main difference.

Hope this answers your question and if you need more help, let me know!