Is it cheating to wear your FitBit on your ankle and ride an exercise bike?

[ShirinShirinak]

So the weather can get bad etc and I have a FitBit challenge with friends which is great. When the weather is bad, I find it difficult to take more steps outside (my friends live overseas so they get a different weather). I have an exercise bike at home. Is it cheating if I wear the FitBit on my ankle and ride the bike for the remainder of my steps? My partner says it's cheating, but I actually find the exercise bike physically a bit more challenging for me than walking around, especially if I increase the difficulty level and put it on the highest. 
What do you guys think? can I do it and not feel guilty? haha

[t.parker]

It depends on what you see as cheating, what is there to cheat about and whether your friends are ok with that. On a bike, you can get your steps in insanely fast (just boost the cadence to some insane values on the low resistance). Here's an example of one of my indoor cycling sessions:

It's short interval training (1-minute intervals after low-aerobic warmup). Look at the cadence (in RPMs- Revolutions Per Minute). It says there, the average cadence is 68RPM. It translates to SPM (Steps Per Minute) as RPMx2. So we have to step cadence 136. It's more than a brisk walk but since this workout includes HIIT then obviously the average isn't very.. well.. "average". The highest cadence is 109RPM which translates to 218SPM. I do run intervals with running cadence 200-220SPM. So when I have high-intensity interval and increase cycling cadence it is actually aligned with similar effort and my running cadence (I must admit, it surprised me now, I never analyzed any possibility of converting one into another). This is, however, a kind of extreme case.

Let's look at something steadier, where we can actually rely on the averages:

This is a steady-state indoor ride. The average cadence is 63RPM (not far from max) and it would translate into 126SPM when walking. Is 128SPM a walking cadence? Now, I looked into one of my lunch walks (which was a little more energetic but not too "brisky"):

Now, here's an interesting thing. My walking cadence is 129SPM (and the graph shows that it's pretty much steady) so it's slightly higher than the cadence of a steady-state indoor bike ride (bike = 126SPM, walk = 129SPM) but look at the overall effort level. The average HR for a bike ride is 141BPM while for the walk is only 109BPM. The level of effort is very different and it's true - the bike ride was harder than the lunch walk.

I think the second example is much better when it comes to judging whether you are cheating or not. My conclusion is that if you don't use an indoor bike to artificially increase your cadence and get your steps in quicker (hence easier to win challenges) then I see no issue here. Moreover, you will probably use a lot more energy doing "steps" at the same rate as if you'd be really walking on any (probably flat) surface. If the challenges are about distance - that cannot be converted but with steps based challenges probably you could get away with it. Just stick with your walking cadence when you're pedalling (you may in fact keep the watch on your arm and wave your arm the same as if you'd be walking synchronizing it with pedalling, you're not gonna fall off the stationary bike after all 🙂 ).

Basically, if doing the same number of steps costs you more energy and you're not doing it any faster - then that's hardly cheating. I totally understand why people look for alternatives as Fitbit doesn't provide any other sport-based metrics and the whole system is heavily step-based.

[Heybales]

Yes - do it and not feel guilty.

What is steps supposed to represent anyway - being active.

People aren't comparing calorie burns, or distance walked - purely steps.

Were you active on the bike - sounds like more than even walking.

So yes the steps as a means of showing you were active count.

Now - if you were getting into other metrics that mattered like distance - that's not correct.

Besides, I wouldn't be shocked if some of the friends in challenges were sitting there watching video banging their arm on the chair rest racking up bogus steps merely to win a challenge.

[chrisl1628]

I think it is better on the ankle, after all, it is suppose to be counting steps, not how much you are waving your wrist

i.e. I could be stood still cooking and it would be counting steps

[t.parker]

@chrisl1628 this isn't exactly true. The device and algorithms were probably designed with assumption the watch is worn on the wrist. The difference in motion when device is worn on the ankle may affect the step detection as this isn't kind of motion the algorthms were adjusted for. It will work but there's no telling whether it's going to be better or worse.

[ShirinShirinak]

True! I actually was testing it the other day. So when I’m walking around in a small space, Fitbit doesn’t count my steps properly unfortunately. So I thought to wear it on my ankle and see how it does. It was counting the steps but I felt it was counting more steps than I actually was walking! Maybe twice as much. So I took it off and wore it on the wrist again. 

I hope fitbit makes one for ankles too one day (and give it a good design too haha)

[MarciM]

Try putting it in your pocket, I've found can work for some people. 

[emili]

I think if those in the challenge with you don't care then you have nothing to feel guilty about. I also don't understand the mindset of steps only being a metric of "winning" but that's literally my hang up and against the whole brand of step challenges. At the end of the day, do what makes you happy, makes you feel active and worry less about the rest.