How does FB calculate average steps?

[nasacpa]

Right now, my 7 day total is 93,376.  Dividing that figure by 7 gets me 13,339 steps/day.

On my dashboard, my 7 day average is 12,850 steps/day.  Multiplying that figure gets me 89,950 total steps.  Is my dashboard average composed of a number of weeks' results?  It doesn't seem to be based on my current 7 days' results.

[JohnnyRow]

Would have to know precisely where your numbers are coming from.

First, for your 7-day total of 93,376, where are you seeing that?  Specifically is that for last 7 complete days, or is including so far today?

7 day average on your dashboard, are we talking phone dashboard or web-based fitbit.com dashboard?  And exactly where on that dashboard?

I'm not trying to be overly picky, but sometimes it seems calculations are made differently different places.

[nasacpa]

All numbers are from the dashboard, after syncing with my FB.  They appear on my PC, which also agrees with my phone app.

The 93K steps appear under "This Week's Activity", and "Steps".  "Steps" is where the average is posted.

[JohnnyRow]

I'm still not quite clear when you say all numbers are from the dashboard, because for some people who sync through PC, the fitbit.com dashboard is the dashboard.

That 93K under this week's activity on the fitbit.com dashboard shows which days it includes, for me it is starting Monday, including so far today, and 0 for Sunday.  I don't know if that range is affected by what you set as week starting day.  So it is inappropriate for 7 day average since that total does not include 7 days.  Even if your week starts Sunday, it would be incomplete for today's totals (depending on where you are located).

I'm also not clear on "Steps is where the average is posted."

But in any case, if you look at which days are included and check if it is including a partial today, I think the numbers will make sense.

To do, the gold standard is to click the "Steps" icon on phone app main screen to see steps count listed for each day; then you can check your average and see if it does include a partial today.

[nasacpa]

I sync thru BOTH phone and PC; never have any trouble with the numbers disagreeing.  The PHONE app does NOT calculate an average (as far as I can see), that average only appears on the PC dashboard.  The PC dashboard is where the tiles for "Steps" and "This Week's Activity" show up.  

I just synced with my phone and my PC, BOTH show a TOTAL steps this week (Sunday thru Saturday), of 96,443.

Even though I'm now roughly 3000 steps MORE than when I first posted, the 7 Day average on the PC is still at 12,850, which leads me to believe that that number is not based solely on my latest 7 day step total.

[JohnnyRow · Accepted solution]

If you are looking at the same place I am, that "7-day average" is for the previous complete 7 days; i.e. not including today.  So it will change at  midnight, but not through the day.

Note, I am not defending Fitbit's seemingly different versions of "total" and "average", just trying to explain them.

[nasacpa]

Danke schon.