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

[mandynicole]

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?

[Odyssey13]

Hello and welcome to the forums @Denni25

Actually, in her case, I might just call it cheating. Is she able to walk or just wants to win so badly that she does this? Were she unable to walk, I might think it was her way of staying active.

There will always be people who outstep us and there will be people we can, on occasion, outstep.

All that matters is that we keep on stepping. The challenge is just a way to help motivate.

There are those of us who enjoy the challenge, but we keep it friendly. We cheer as each of us reaches a step goal, gets a new badge or just adds a few steps. Those are the best challenges for me, since I don't always meet my daily goal. No one makes anyone feel bad for not getting super mega steps in a day.

Try talking to your friend and she what she says. She might just see it your way and start walking and not kicking.

[shipo]

---

@Denni25 wrote:
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?

---

I call it cheating; others may be more charitable.  🙂

[suekitty]

I am relatively new to Fitbit and my personal goal is 15K per day (which I usually meet and exceed.)  I have never been as exhausted as I've been in the 3 months since I got it.  I was able to get my 30K badge and don't know if I'll ever get higher because I just don't have the energy level.  I join in challenges when invited and I do pretty well.  One of the people in mutual friends' challenges is ridiculously impossible to compete against.  Most of us will have 10K-25K daily in a workweek challenge, but this one will have more than double that.  I don't know if it's legit or not, but I now ignore that person and compete against the rest.  I like the competition but I can't mentally or physically compete against someone who may be a marathon runner or a gym addict; it's too discouraging.  I enjoy the competitions where several of us are fighting regularly for the top spot and keep bumping each other!  That's real to me.

As tired as I am, I do enjoy it!

[Denni25]

I guess movement in any shape or form is ok from most of the responses I've gotten....but sitting down moving your foot shouldn't be considered steps. I'm with you...it's cheating!

[shipo]

---

@suekitty wrote:

I am relatively new to Fitbit and my personal goal is 15K per day (which I usually meet and exceed.)  I have never been as exhausted as I've been in the 3 months since I got it.  I was able to get my 30K badge and don't know if I'll ever get higher because I just don't have the energy level.  I join in challenges when invited and I do pretty well.  One of the people in mutual friends' challenges is ridiculously impossible to compete against.  Most of us will have 10K-25K daily in a workweek challenge, but this one will have more than double that.  I don't know if it's legit or not, but I now ignore that person and compete against the rest.  I like the competition but I can't mentally or physically compete against someone who may be a marathon runner or a gym addict; it's too discouraging.  I enjoy the competitions where several of us are fighting regularly for the top spot and keep bumping each other!  That's real to me.

As tired as I am, I do enjoy it!

---

I train like a marathon runner and could easily compete in one should I so choose.  So, what's my point?  My point is, even though I typically run somewhere between nine and fifteen miles per day (with a few shorter and a few longer days sprinkled in), I too could not compete with someone reporting 50,000+ steps per day (heck, I've never even logged 40,000 steps in any one calendar day).

Here's the thing, with very few exceptions (like maybe no more than a half-dozen on this board), folks reporting 50,000 or more steps per day are in fact cheating.  As the old saying goes, "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence", if this individual you speak of doesn't explain how the steps are acheived, he or she should be kicked out of the challenge.

[suekitty]

I agree.  If someone is legitimately making big numbers by working hard, then by all means they deserve cheering!  I still can't come close, though; I just do the best I can.

[Odyssey13]

@suekitty the only real competition is with ourselves. Others in a challenge just add a bit of fun, hopefully, to it.

[Duckbeater]

YES THERE ARE CHEATERS...and it's sad. People just don't take being healthy serious these days.

[Jeff7871]

I'm going through the same thing. In like 10 min the guy will have 10,000 steps and I know for a fact he is not pushing himself. Before this challenge he was getting 7,000 steps a day no he is gettting 30,000 or more? I'm just not going to invite him to challenges anymore.

[Odyssey13]

Hello and welcome to the forums @Jeff7871

Unfortunately there will always be people who cheat in life, but this guy is really only hurting himself. You'd think people would understand that the whole purpose of stepping is to take real steps and not somehow manipulate them.

As long as you're doing your best and not playing his game, you are the winner!

[Nessibear999]

I also stopped inviting her to challenges. I'll tell you though it's definitely got me in good shape trying to catch up to her fake steps LOL


Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[Nessibear999]

I 100% agree


Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[SunsetRunner]

The problem is that some people think because they can not do it, then those that do are cheating

if 100k in a day was impossible then why the badge?

when i got mine, I jogged on the spot watching tv with regular breaks and or slowing it down to walking on the spot, toilet breaks, eating etc, took me just under 14 hours, looking at their stats, their amount of steps would equal to around 1.5-2 hours walking everyday

worse is that I do around 30-40k a day, if they looked at the chart, then they would see that it is over the whole day and not in a few hours, even if they work, just get off your backside when watching tv, if they jogged on the spot whilst watching 3 hrs of tv everynight, they would do around 100k for that workweek instead of 25k

[Nessibear999]

That wasn't the point, some people can absolutely do it but when that
person works with me and hangs out with me after work I know she can't in
no way possible get 100,000 or more steps in 3 hours before midnight hits
because your steps are set back to zero!

[SunsetRunner]

That I can understand and agree

but if that is what they are doing, just ignore them

Like others have said fitbit and mfp are here to help you lose weight etc, if they want to cheat then they are only wasting their money and making a fool of themselves

[skylineg35]

Haha, may be they put their hand that has fitbit on, on to a vibrator some sort lolol  :).  Just joking.   Now i have to stop laughing some how :).

[Odyssey13]

@skylineg35  it's been a while, but I saw an episode of Pawn Stars where Cory didn't want to play fair with his step tracker. He went to the paint store and had the guy put it on the shaker, which added an incredible number of steps. In his case, the others called him out on his cheating.

Keep on stepping is all any of us can do.

[skylineg35]

I just find out that, my joke is not joke it is reality ! :).  I tried today by jerking-vibrating my hand that fitbit charge 2 on while seating.  I got 98 steps in very short time :).  So people who does hand movement without exercise should get many steps without exercising looks like :).

Ok fitbit designers, i believe steps (this can be call exercise steps, keep it separate section from normal steps) program should tide with heart beats with reference to resting heart rate.  In others word, no steps counting should happen until heart rate increase in to exercise mode.

[Esya]

@skylineg35

The FitBit is a fitness tracker, not a pedometer (and not all of them have a HR monitor). It will pick up some false steps and miss out some steps you did take. All fitness trackers do. It might be off by a few 100 steps, but that will be the same every day and has very little impact on the total number of steps per day. And with any system people will find ways to cheat.

[skylineg35]

You right, but i believe cheating can be minimize further.  Basically, improving programming by making it difficult to cheat without raising the price of the device.   imo :).