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Measuring the distance of your steps

How does the fitbit flex measure the length of your step when running or walking?  How does it measure floors walked?

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8 REPLIES 8

It doesn't measure the length of your steps.  It either uses a default value or you input your stride length data under Settings.  

 

It detects 10' elevation changes while stepping with an altimeter and counts that as a 'floor'.  Going up an elevator shouldn't count because you're not stepping.  

Mary | USA

Fitbit One

Still seeking answers? The Fitbit help articles are a great place to look.

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Your Fitbit doesn't measure your step stride: it just makes two assumptions about it (based on your height), one for walking and one for running. You can override these assumptions under Settings in your Fitbit account.

 

My main problem with this is Fitbit and I don't agree about what still constitutes walking: when I power walk at 7 km/h (4.35 mph), Fitbit thinks I'm running, so I need to enter my walking stride into the field for the running stride in order to get accurate distances (and calories) when power walking. But then, I'm short-changed when running, since my stride is even longer then, but there's no field for it. Bottom line: if you want to know the exact distances you walk/run, get a GPS watch.

Dominique | Finland

Ionic, Aria, Flyer, TrendWeight | Windows 7, OS X 10.13.5 | Motorola Moto G6 (Android 9), iPad Air (iOS 12.4.4)

Take a look at the Fitbit help site for further assistance and information.

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Did you set your walking stride length and running stride lengths under Settings?  

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I skipped over that during setup. Do you measure from toe to toe?

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go to fitbit.com, log in, click your picture. on the right will be a button that says "View account settings"...scroll down the Personal Info page. Under Body Info, you can enter your stride length.

 

How to measure stride length is here:

https://help.fitbit.com/customer/portal/articles/176045-how-do-i-measure-and-adjust-my-stride-length...

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Thank you but I have been walking up several flights of steps a day and it does not show up on my dashboard.

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@MikeC wrote:
I have been walking up several flights of steps a day and it does not show up on my dashboard.

Which Fitbit tracker do you have? Not all of them support floor counting. Only those that have an altimeter (eg. One, Force) can do it.

Dominique | Finland

Ionic, Aria, Flyer, TrendWeight | Windows 7, OS X 10.13.5 | Motorola Moto G6 (Android 9), iPad Air (iOS 12.4.4)

Take a look at the Fitbit help site for further assistance and information.

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That explains it.  I have the Flex.  Confusing as my tracker shows Floors as an option for the Dashboard but doesn't explain that it doesn't apply to the Flex.

 

Thanks,

 

MikeC

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