How/why would anyone "cheat" in a challenge??

mandynicole · ‎07-01-2015

I've had my fitbit since Christmas. It has really helped me stay active and push myself. I've found so many awesome people to do daily, weekly and weekend challenges. I've never once questioned anyone's amount of steps. I have a very active job and there are days I push myself at the gym more than usual in order to get more steps. I usually get about 15k-25k a day.

However, I started a workweek challenge and added someone that I know and is new to fitbit and wanted motivation to start working out.. The steps seemed unrealistic for this person especially since they sync every few minutes, but I wasn't going to question it at first. Yesterday I was busy at work and was ahead by almost 8,000 steps. Within the hour this person ended up pulling ahead of me.

I spent 2 hours on the treadmill and pushed myself to get my 45k badge before midnight. I was almost 15k ahead of the person and after 5-6 hours when I woke up the person ended up 10k ahead of me.. Which means they'd have to do 3k-4k per hour.

The numbers simply didn't add up. I know you can't manually log activity/steps and have them show up in the challenge. I hate to call anyone a cheater when it comes to fitbit, but it just doesn't seem humanly possible.

Has anyone else had an issue similar to this? Or am I completely wrong for thinking that the steps aren't realistic?

SunsetRunner · ‎04-18-2016

take into account how long it was the last time they synced

if they synced at say 12 noon, then you synced for the first time that day at 10pm, then they synced not long after you then it is possible

Ccasper · ‎04-24-2016

It is very possible that the person is just competitive! I know if I am loosing by 6-8 K then I try to get that at 11:00 PM right before midnight! They most likely just walk a lot!

Jjdaughters · ‎04-25-2016

It takes me around 10 minutes to do 1,000 steps, so that is possible. Like some have said, maybe just really competitive too. My daughter, sisters, and fiancé are very competitive in nature. I wouldn't let it bother you.

SunsetRunner · ‎04-25-2016

Someone mentioned if the Fitbit fits too loose it doubles one's stepping counts. If that's the case that explains the astromical steps that some have in a day. But they most likely don't have the body to show for it.

robguitar · ‎04-25-2016

Agreed. They won't have the body to show for it.

"Why are we here? Because we're here." - Neil Peart

AAPanini · ‎06-22-2016

Greetings,

I have a co-worker who shakes her fitbit all day at her desk, I asked her why and she literally said "So my friends think that I exercise". We will not be doing any challenges on fit bit ever!

I am experiancing a similar situtation currently in a week long challenge with another friend. My friend got a fitbit a few months ago and averages 3-5K steps a day while I average 15K to 20K+ depending on what day it is (I play volleyball in a league 3days a week). My friend rarely hits 10K step goal (aybe 3x a month max) and has never won a challenge with me-yet. All of a sudden this week she is getting ~30K steps a day!!!! She has in this week alone received the 20K, 25K and 30K badge- a new badge every day! I have been friends with her many years so I asked her to check and see if her fitbit was working properly because it appeared that there was a glitch (based upon her past history) and she proceeded to "lie" and say that she did in fact get 8K steps in 2 hours (all before 7am). I asked her what she was doing because that is about 66steps a minute for 2 hours straight. She relied that she walked to the gym (in her building) and walked on a treadmill, walked home (in her building), cooked, studied, took a shower and got ready for work- I said "wow, all in two hours"! and she said "YEAH"... CLEARLY this is a lie & I will never do a challenge with her again as this is simply impossible (for her) and is beyond realistic& makes no sense.

If you think they are cheating odds are they are and you should stop doing challenges with them- they are cheating themselves. You can also quit a challenge.

Best Wishes & Happy Stepping!

Mukluk4 · ‎06-22-2016

I do 7000+ steps in an hour between 4 and 5 a.m. most days of the week, your logic that this is cheating is false.

Maybe said "friend" has gotten motivated in the last week and tired of you assuming that they are lazy and decided to get up and move.

shipo · ‎06-22-2016

@AAPanini, there is a reasonable level of doubt either way on your friend/coworker, and as such, I'd be inclined to ask of you could join her for a morning workout. That gives her the benefit of the doubt, and will expose her if she is in fact racking up a bunch of fake steps.

As @Mukluk4 says, lots of folks get in a pretty fair number of steps before heading off to work in the morning. In my case, I live as a "caretaker" on a horse farm and on mornings when I have horse duty I typically log 10,000 steps by roughly 7:15 in the morning; on my non-horse days I head into the office with *maybe* 1,500 steps (if even that much).

AAPanini · ‎06-22-2016

I wish you would have read my entire post and taken all parts into consideration before posting such a negative/defensive comment.

First off I will say I am not talking about you, I am talking about someone I have known for over 12 years, your accomplishments have nothing to do with this post in any way shape or form. I was offering this story as support to another person who asked for feedback about why others would cheat- not to say it is not possible for someone to get X amount of steps in a certain time frame.

Second of all I never assumed my friend was “lazy”, she is out there getting steps every day to better herself and I would NEVER call someone lazy for exerting any amount of effort no matter how many steps or how long it may or may not take.

With that being said, given the fact I confronted her about her 2 hour 8K steps achievement she said in her own words that she spent many of them sedentary and or walking. People often say one thing and do another- it is called a lie, and people lie for MANY unknown reasons, that was the POINT of my initial post.

Best Wishes & Happy Stepping!

Nessibear999 · ‎06-22-2016

You don't have to explain yourself to anyone, some people assume they know
the people you know better than you do although they don't even know them.
Don't let arrogance get you down. At least we know we are truly doing
things to better ourselves and putting in the work and not sitting in an
office shaking out arm every chance we get.

AAPanini · ‎06-22-2016

I agree that there is a reasonable level of doubt floating around- but as I stated previously I have known her for many years and although I don't doubt she has been motivated lately (she has) I have also worked out with her in the past (within the last 2 weeks) and know her well enough to know that her accomplishments within the time frame I confronted her about were simply not possible for her BASED upon her own words- her response to me was she spent most of the 2 hours sedentary and walking.

The point of my two examples were to display that people lie and cheat for frivolous reasons and often times reasons that do not seem to make any sense. The post was not to insinuate what is or is not possible to achieve in any amount of time for other people- the sky is the limit.

This forum and my posts are not intended to make people feel negative or to rain on parades or anything of that nature. I simply wanted to help support another member try to gather reasons why someone would lie/cheat, that is all.

Best Wishes & Happy Steps!

Best Wishes & Happy Stepping!

GershonSurge · ‎06-22-2016

You can buy Fitbit shakers on Amazon.

My Trendweight

Incognito · ‎06-23-2016

@AAPanini wrote:
I agree that there is a reasonable level of doubt floating around- but as I stated previously I have known her for many years and although I don't doubt she has been motivated lately (she has) I have also worked out with her in the past (within the last 2 weeks) and know her well enough to know that her accomplishments within the time frame I confronted her about were simply not possible for her BASED upon her own words- her response to me was she spent most of the 2 hours sedentary and walking.

The point of my two examples were to display that people lie and cheat for frivolous reasons and often times reasons that do not seem to make any sense. The post was not to insinuate what is or is not possible to achieve in any amount of time for other people- the sky is the limit.

This forum and my posts are not intended to make people feel negative or to rain on parades or anything of that nature. I simply wanted to help support another member try to gather reasons why someone would lie/cheat, that is all.

Best Wishes & Happy Steps!

For the record, you did not say how long she walked on the treadmill or how far of a walk she had to go to the gym in her building. From that post, it did not say she was sedentary, but it could be assumed so based on the studying and cooking and showering. But like you said.. you know your friend best and maybe she is cheating.

Mukluk4 · ‎06-23-2016

@AAPanini wrote:
Greetings,

I have a co-worker who shakes her fitbit all day at her desk, I asked her why and she literally said "So my friends think that I exercise". We will not be doing any challenges on fit bit ever!

I am experiancing a similar situtation currently in a week long challenge with another friend. My friend got a fitbit a few months ago and averages 3-5K steps a day while I average 15K to 20K+ depending on what day it is (I play volleyball in a league 3days a week). My friend rarely hits 10K step goal (aybe 3x a month max) and has never won a challenge with me-yet. All of a sudden this week she is getting ~30K steps a day!!!! She has in this week alone received the 20K, 25K and 30K badge- a new badge every day! I have been friends with her many years so I asked her to check and see if her fitbit was working properly because it appeared that there was a glitch (based upon her past history) and she proceeded to "lie" and say that she did in fact get 8K steps in 2 hours (all before 7am). I asked her what she was doing because that is about 66steps a minute for 2 hours straight. She relied that she walked to the gym (in her building) and walked on a treadmill, walked home (in her building), cooked, studied, took a shower and got ready for work- I said "wow, all in two hours"! and she said "YEAH"... CLEARLY this is a lie & I will never do a challenge with her again as this is simply impossible (for her) and is beyond realistic& makes no sense.

My problem is that instead of congratulating your "friend" on the extra work (that could of easily been accomplished), you call them out on it without any hard proof and THEN complain about them on a random internet board.

If that's how you treat a friend, I would hate to see how you treat a random person on the street.

PortgasDAlex · ‎06-26-2016

It's possible if that person was super competitive and has a lot of free time that they could have kept catching up. It's really hard to say for sure. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Running777 · ‎06-26-2016

I don't think people cheat on purpose I think that an accomplishment is every step you take is a step that should count! There might be people who have some physical difficulties don't they also deserve to be in challange s? These are suppose to be welcoming and a fun experience for all if people want to join in why not?

Nessibear999 · ‎06-26-2016

OMG are you kidding lol. People are desperate to win lol.

Running777 · ‎06-26-2016

If that is what they do than so he it as long as you are straight up than no worries lol you no you don't cheat so you are not cheating your personal accomplishments it us like the fisherman catches the big one that in reality is less than one pound😂😀😁

heatherdpear · ‎06-27-2016

A letter of caution to those who are thinking of cheating. My sister set up a fitness challenge for her company. It had rules for reporting your activity (this was before fitness trackers). one participant always reported excessive hours of exercise, more than there were non-working hours in the day. He had no sleeping nor family time left. He was spoken to about this 'error'. He said he would be more careful the next report. Again he reported far too many hours. No time for sleeping, he would report 15 hours a day of exercise. The president of the company intervened. no change. Well, they started questioning what he did on the job and found a huge pack of lies from his resume on down. End of story he was fired for lying and cheating on his job. Integrity and honesty were part of the company mission statement. Message of the story, if someone is willing to cheat on something as simple as a fitness challenge with friends, where else are they cheating. this is a true story.

Denni25 · ‎07-31-2016

I have a friend who always invites me to all the challenges. She is fairly new to the fitbit thing. I've had a fitbit for quite a while and am very active so I naturally get lots of steps. I've noticed she will pass me in a challenge in a very short period of time, almost looking impossible to get that many steps. I noticed she wears hers on her ankle, also noticed she will just stand and kick the one leg. I tried it and it does register as steps. I think that's cheating don't you?

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mandynicole

SunsetRunner

Ccasper

Jjdaughters

SunsetRunner

robguitar

AAPanini

Mukluk4

shipo

AAPanini

Nessibear999

AAPanini

GershonSurge

Incognito

Mukluk4

PortgasDAlex

Running777

Nessibear999

Running777

heatherdpear

Denni25