If a person is using a walker, how does that affect steps being counted

[the4as]

Hi

I am currently, and probably permanently, needing to use a walker to walk.  I have noticed that my steps taken don't seem accurate at all.  How does using a walker affect the Sense's ability to accurately read my steps.  I have been using it as a way to hold myself accountable and an incentive to hit my goals, but I am beginning to loose faith in it.  Thank you in advance for your help.

[alexthecat]

The Sense uses the motion of your arm to count your steps. Since the walker prevents your arms swinging as you walk, you won't be able to get an accurate step count. I've seen other people mention wearing their Fitbit on their ankle, rather than their wrist. I don't know if that would be an option for you. 

[Heybales]

Even if you could get accurate count of steps, and impact for Fitbit to get accurate calculation of distance for that step - the formula that turns distance and mass into fairly accurate calorie burn is not from studies where people had support while walking. Same issue for folks doing a treadmill and holding on to the supports.

Your daily calorie burn is going to be inflated.

But I'm betting your daily distance moved isn't that huge yet anyway - so the % of extra calories isn't that bad.

Just to be aware though.

Fitbit is designed for average person - the farther you are away from that, the worse the estimate it'll be - some tweaking may be needed.

Like some people are on meds that cause a high HR reading all the time, if there are enough steps Fitbit can think a workout is going on and start estimating calorie burn based on HR - and that means it's inflated from reality.

Just not a good use case.

Great job on being active. Keep it up - hope it gets easier.

It could be your reduced step count seen and therefore distance and calorie burn - actually match the fact you'd burn less doing the real distance with support. Maybe it's close anyway.

If the device was on body it might see the impacts of each step better - and you may not find HR that interesting all the time - maybe just while sleeping.

[shipo · Accepted solution]

@the4as, up until four weeks ago today, I was rather active and getting in quite a few steps per day; then I managed to get seriously injured and spend time in our friendly neighborhood ICU, half of it in a coma.  When I regained consciousness my wife brought me my tracker and I strapped it back to my wrist prior to my first PT session to relearn how to walk.  Yeah, I was using a walker, and I agree with your observations, I think I was lucky to have a single step recorded for every three or four.

I was fortunate enough to graduate to using a cane a while later and once I got rid of the walker, my recorded step count aligned pretty closely with reality.  I don't know if you can try a cane, two canes, or even two arm crutches, but if you can, it might be worth a try.

Good luck, keep us posted on your progress.

[the4as]

@shipo , wow, sounds like you have and are overcoming a lot.  I am happy to hear that you are progressing and getting better.  I wish that I could say the same for me.  I won't likely be able to go back to using a cane, other than from our vehicle to the store and then use their scooters.  I have a incomplete spinal cord injury and diagnosed with Failed Back Surgery Syndrome.  I have had one cervical fusion (with another sometime in the next year) and three lumbar surgeries, the most recent was this past April to correct Cauda Equina and a compressed Conus Medularis (I was so close to never walking again).  So for right now, I have dodged being in a wheelchair and doing my best to postpone that as long as I can, I still have times where my legs won't cooperate (they don't and can't always get the message from my brain right away to move so I can walk), still praying that I will continue to heal and that will disappear (Neurosurgeon says that complete healing can take six months to a year).

[the4as]

@Heybales I am not so much concerned with calories burned at this point as much as I am in keeping moving (see my reply to @shipo.  Prior to my surgery in April, I was steadily declining to wear I was at times unable to walk and very close to not walking at all.  That along with some of the medications that I am on have made me gain weight, which I didn't need to do and it seemed no matter what or how I ate I just couldn't loose the weight.  However, since my surgery I have lost 25+ pounds and want to keep them coming off and stay as active as I can for as long as I can.  So I have been using my Sense to hold myself accountable.  

[Hope-S]

;@the4as I also use a walker. I have found that if I carry my phone, in my pocket, with me the gps usually helps to keep the steps more accurate. Because its linked.

I don't know if you are able; but have you tried walking in a pool?  After my spinal cord surgery I had pool therapy. It helped a lot. Its actually the reason I still am walking in the pool and swimming a little. 

I hope this helps.

[shipo]

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@Hope-S wrote:

;@the4as I also use a walker. I have found that if I carry my phone, in my pocket, with me the gps usually helps to keep the steps more accurate. Because its linked.

I don't know if you are able; but have you tried walking in a pool?  After my spinal cord surgery I had pool therapy. It helped a lot. Its actually the reason I still am walking in the pool and swimming a little. 

I hope this helps.

---

Great call Hope, I've used pool therapy a couple of times now after serious injuries and it is amazing how much it helps.

[the4as]

Yes, I had pool therapy too and it was wonderful.  The worst part about it was getting out of the pool and back to reality.

[BeckieSueDalton]

I use arm crutches to be able to walk more than a few steps, and even with the forward-and-back arm motion that's required to advance the crutches with each step, it still fails to accurately record the numbers from walking activities.

I tried it in my pocket, but it can't get the numbers right because my gait is so screwed up from 'C' & 'S' curve "Bone-iosis" (my family's in-joke word for my Scoliosis w\ kyphosis, lordosis, and reverse lordosis + disintegrating fusions) + damage from previous domestic abuse + a degenerative musculoskeletal disease.

I tried it on my ankle - as several people on various websites suggested - and it still won't get correct readings for steps/distance, and because I have to wear 20-30 mmHg compression socks due to the risk of blood clots), the device can't get numbers for heart-related effects like fat-burn, cardio, etc.

My husband reached out to Customer Support to ask for suggestions or if there are settings for disabled users.  The short version of their response is that it works just fine for most people, so The Devs aren't interested in improving functionality for the '1-in-7' of the US adult population with documented mobility problems.*

Essentially, they're making good money already from "active & healthy" users, so there's no impetus to do the work that would make the product accurately useful for the potential ~36.9-million** additional customers that would truly benefit from a product of Fitbit's (otherwise) exceptional quality.

I'd give the device up entirely, but the other information it tracks is genuinely useful to several of my other doctors (allergist, cardiologist, neurologist, pain specialist, pulmonologist, rheumatologist, etc.).

*   CDC Report, https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2018/p0816-disability.html

**  US Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/united-states-adult-population-grew-faster-than-natio....)

[JohnnyRow]

A few thoughts in response to @BeckieSueDalton :

1)  Calorie burn is based on heart rate, not step count, so that should not be affected.

2)  I have no idea how a device on wrist would be adapted for mobility problems to detect step count more accurately.  Do you?

3)  Even if there is a way to improve step count for mobility problems, you seem to be grouping these "1-in-7" population as a homogeneous group so the solution would have a 36.9 million potential usage base.  I would rather expect mobility problems are far from homogeneous and what might work for you would not necessarily for the other 36+ million people.  How many thousands or millions of different products would it take from Fitbit to work for everyone?

[BeckieSueDalton]

Hi @JohnnyRow,

1.  @the4as mentioned step counts in the original post.  My response to her original post also discusses step counts, not calories.  The calorie counts from my device are just fine; it's the wildly inconsistent step counts that provide the issue at hand.

2.  Thanks to my background, I do hold informed ideas on this matter, yes.

3.  "A journey of one thousand miles begins with a single step."  "Rome wasn't built in a day."  These concepts should sound familiar.  Simply put, initial steps in a beneficial direction on any given project do not have to fulfill every single last need that might ever possibly be needed right out of the front gate.  It's a false dichotomy to think that way about anything - poverty injustice, world hunger, the climate crisis ... and even wearable health tech.