Does the Zip count steps on a treadmill?

[mdorsey529]

I want to find out if steps are counted while using a treadmill or eliptical machine

[Dominique]

Treadmill: yes. Elliptical: no (or at least not as you would perceive them).

Also note any incline used on your treadmill won't be taken into consideration when counting calories.

[Mary]

I think they're saying many ellipticals it counts just fine. 

[smhermione]

The Zip and the One should work just fine on treadmills and ellipticals.  I don't know about the wristband devices on the elliptical.

[sahd]

I just walked on my treadmill for 60 minutes.  I counted my steps at least a dozen times through out my workout and I walk 20-22 steps per 10 seconds.  so that is 120 steps per minute for a total step count of roughly 7200.  My band recorded less than 5000.  I then did a quick walk around the house to check it out and took 200 steps.  It did not count a single one.  I am loosing faith on how accurate it is.

[Pat_M]

Hi, thats great to know about the treadmill as I regularly use one at my local Cardiac Rehabilitation Program. What I tend to do is make a note in my little black book the details of the session eg time distance calories and speed and the add it as a logged activity.I find that this works well for me

[Heybales]

You can have a bad unit where they 3-axis accelerometer isn't working correctly.

It should see your step impacts - unless you are practicing walking like a ninja!

[sahd]

I just received an email from fitbit help center, they said that the fitbit does not do a good job recording steps on the treadmill for it monitors foward movement.  They suggested that I/you enter in the workout manually.  But of course when you do that you do not get the badges for the day.  Not that, that is a big deal.  I had 3 days of over 20k steps and the only day that I received the 20k badge was the day I walked all steps and not entered my work out manually.

thanks all

[Heybales]

I've had 100% accuracy for steps on treadmill.

That's exactly how I adjusted my stride length.

That's crazy, I think you got a support person that was willing to say something that sounded good instead of really taking care of the issue.

Wouldn't be the first time a support person thought that some how convincing you there was no issue because it merely didn't work right doing whatever, thought that sounded better than admitting perhaps something isn't working right.

Because of course with their explanation, you call in to question the whole premise of the device, rather than thinking perhaps a bad device.

I'd love for others to pipe in regarding accuracy of steps on treadmill.

[sahd]

i will call them, thanks

[UVcat]

Here's my $0.02:

All fitbit products use an accelerometer to measure steps. It is not possible for an accelerometer to detect a constant velocity. So, steps on a treadmill should be exactly the same as steps on level ground (assuming your stride doesn't change a lot when you walk on a treadmill; I think I shorten my stride because I'm not used to using treadmills and I don't trust that my foot won't hit the front).

Unfortunately, this support response is very similar to other responses I've gotten: seems like it might be a good guess, but the person didn't do any amount of checking to see if it could possibly be the right answer. In this case, it is not physically possible for the constant speed of the treadmill to throw off fitbit's step counts.

-c