Surge vs. Charge 2, steps & calories

[Dominique]

I’ve been wearing my Surge (left wrist) and my Charge 2 (right wrist) ever since early September. I’ve collected step and calorie stats from Sep. 5th, 2016 to Jan. 1st, 2017 (17 weeks).

Here are the step stats:

And calories burned for the same period:

While my Charge 2 inflates both steps and calories compared to my Surge, the difference is reasonable for calories (about 100 calories per day in average),  but quite significant for steps (more than 2000 steps per day in average).

Counting steps and estimating energy expenditure definitely isn’t an exact science!

[GershonSurge]

@Dominique.

I've noticed the same difference between my Zip and Surge. The Surge is especially bad at counting steps around the house when they are taken slowly. They are both almost perfect when I go for a walk or jog. I know this because I usually use a metronome and can see the step count display for each five minutes.

[Ton]

I only have the charge 2 so no comparison, but I could suggest the old trick (if you haven't tried it yet) to wear your device on your non dominant arm and still set it as dominant. This way it should be less sensitive.

@GershonSurge: nice idea to use a metronome. I will check it out myself. 

[Dominique]

@Ton: yes, I’m aware of this trick. However, it’s not practical for me, because I’m already wearing the Surge on my non-dominant arm, and it’s quite big: it would be clumsy to add the Charge 2 on the same wrist. Besides, the step count discrepancy isn’t really a problem for me. For one thing, I don’t care that much about steps (= I have moved away from the view a Fitbit is a pedometer, it’s much more than that); secondly, they (Surge and Charge 2) more or less agree on calories, which matter a lot more than steps to me.

[Ton]

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@Dominique wrote:

@Ton. Besides, the step count discrepancy isn’t really a problem for me. For one thing, I don’t care that much about steps (= I have moved away from the view a Fitbit is a pedometer, it’s much more than that); secondly, they (Surge and Charge 2) more or less agree on calories, which matter a lot more than steps to me.

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I completely agree with that. The sooner people understand that the better for their own well being.

My first device was a Charge and I used to discard the calories count because it looked unreal to me. Only after getting my Charge 2 I took the time to study how the count works and now it makes a lot of sense to me beside being very helpful.