Overstating steps

[ShellM]

My Fitbit Alta HR is telling me that i have walked 5000 steps today - i know i have not - how do i fix? Thanks

[MarciM]

Have you been moving the arm that has your tracker on it? If you have engaged in activities like clapping, you will get steps as it sense the movement and records it as steps.

[DanielleinDC]

As Marci points out, some arm movements will cause your Fitbit to record steps. I know I record them when I'm clapping (which happens a lot in the winter when I go to hockey games). The other day I was riding a bus and all of a sudden my Fitbit buzzed that I hit 10,000 steps. It was an especially jarring, jerky ride, so that could have been it. I just try to compensate by getting extra steps in when I can.

[MarciM]

Excellent point about being on a moving vehicle and also moving around. I have to limit my car dancing or it throws off my steps and my number of stairs.

[emili]

if the steps were part of an activity you can edit or delete the activity. if they are through out the day, you are stuck with them. you can as Danielle suggested move more to catch up to what is being reported, maybe take your tracker off so it won't keep adding...

[Dominique]

There are two kinds of step counters: 1) those that you clip on your waist (e.g. Fitbit One, Zip), 2) those that you wear around your wrists (e.g. Fitbit Charge 2, Alta HR, Blaze etc.). If you are strictly interested in getting the most accurate step count in absolute terms, you can’t beat the former type. Wrist-mounted models are inherently going to be less accurate with steps, even with their clever algorithm designed to tell steps from other moves of your arm. OTOH, they can do way more besides counting steps: monitoring your heart rate, your sleep etc. Which is why they are marketed as activity or fitness trackers, rather than pedometers.

Knowing your exact step count isn’t the most important thing from the point of view of your health and fitness. Just wear your Alta HR for a while, which will establish a baseline for your current activity level. You will then be able to improve from that. Let’s say your goal is to reach 10k steps a day, and you found out (or think) your Fitbit is overestimating your steps by 15%: then shoot for 11.5k steps (as reported by your Fitbit) and you will have reached 10k "real" steps.

So the answer to your question is you can’t "fix" the problem, but you don’t really have to. Your Fitbit will still provide plenty of tools and metrics to enhance your health, fitness and well-being. 

[GiggleGirl]

@MarciMCar dancing. 

[ShellM]

Do you think it is defective if it is doubling the steps? This has me concerned. It has been working great since I purchased it in July - it just started messing up on the counting this week.