Treadmill vs walking outside

[SmithC]

I am confused.  I have walked both outside and inside on a treadmill while wearing my Flex.  What I am confused about is that I can walk the same amount of time and if outside walk at least twice as far.  Example I walked outside for an hour and according to my FitBit walked over 6 miles.  Yet on the treadmill walking the same time I am lucky to reach 3 miles.  I know I am NOT walking twice as fast outside as I am inside.  What is the reason for this?  A step is a step should not matter if on a belt going in circles or not.....  Thanks for the help. 🙂

[Jodi6682]

I've found the same problem and mine stemmed from holding on to the hand rails on the treadmill. It dosen't always track a step if you're holding on to something on the treadmill. Now that I let my arms swing freely, I've gotten much more accurate results in measurements.

You may also want to look at your stride length and see if it's accurate.

Good luck!

[intotherain]

Hello.

From my experience, walking on a treadmill and outside, like running on a treadmill and outside is really different story for some people.

With my treadmill, running outside at 6 mile is like 5 mile on treadmill.

You can detect that by yourself by checking your heart rate (treadmill & outside).

[SmithC]

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@Jodi6682 wrote:

I've found the same problem and mine stemmed from holding on to the hand rails on the treadmill. It dosen't always track a step if you're holding on to something on the treadmill. Now that I let my arms swing freely, I've gotten much more accurate results in measurements.

You may also want to look at your stride length and see if it's accurate.

Good luck!

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Jodi, thank you for your input.  I guess I am fortunate in that I CANNOT hold onto the bars on the treadmill.... arms always free 😞

[SmithC]

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@intotherain wrote:

Hello.

From my experience, walking on a treadmill and outside, like running on a treadmill and outside is really different story for some people.

With my treadmill, running outside at 6 mile is like 5 mile on treadmill.

You can detect that by yourself by checking your heart rate (treadmill & outside).

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Thank you,
I feel that I go "faster" while on the treadmill as I can actually regular speed where as if I am just outside walking I have no idea MPH..... Can't imagine it being any faster than on the treadmill because I push the envelope with speed on treadmill.
Thank you for your input!

[_daniel_]

Most treadmills have a mph setting. If you have the treadmill set at 3 mph, and you walk 3 miles in an hour, that would make sense. 

It's a pretty safe bet you are not walking outside at 6 mph unless you are an accomplished race walker. 3-4 mph is a typical, brisk walk pace for most of us. 

Have you tested the accuracy of the step count on your fitbit? For example, while standing still, note the current step count on your device. Take 100 steps, counting them off in your head. Does the fitbit accurately count 100 steps? (My fitbit one does.)

[Heybales]

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@SmithC wrote:

I am confused.  I have walked both outside and inside on a treadmill while wearing my Flex.  What I am confused about is that I can walk the same amount of time and if outside walk at least twice as far.  Example I walked outside for an hour and according to my FitBit walked over 6 miles.  Yet on the treadmill walking the same time I am lucky to reach 3 miles.  I know I am NOT walking twice as fast outside as I am inside.  What is the reason for this?  A step is a step should not matter if on a belt going in circles or not.....  Thanks for the help. 🙂

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Few things.

Studies have shown that based on percevied effort, most people will go faster over ground than on treadmill despite it feeling the same, and despite fact HR will be higher actually burning more calories outside. It feels easier because more senses involved.

So treadmill could be hampering your speed, you could go faster perhaps, and you do indeed when outside. Doubtful it's 2x as fast though. But could be part of difference.

Is it treadmill reporting 3 miles, or Fitbit, couldn't discern exactly which it might be? That would be another reason for some difference.

Besides the fact treadmill may not have been calibrated recently. The belt stretches, springs take care of that, but it means per rotation the distance is off. All treadmills should be and have the ability to be calibrated.

Also, are you wearing more clothes outside? Heavier weight, bigger impact, to Fitbit would appear you are going farther with each step to cause that bigger impact with the only weight it knows about - logged weight. Still, not going to be a 2 x error, but could be part of several causing the difference.

[ssathya]

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@SmithC wrote:

I am confused.  I have walked both outside and inside on a treadmill while wearing my Flex.  What I am confused about is that I can walk the same amount of time and if outside walk at least twice as far.  Example I walked outside for an hour and according to my FitBit walked over 6 miles.  Yet on the treadmill walking the same time I am lucky to reach 3 miles.  I know I am NOT walking twice as fast outside as I am inside.  What is the reason for this?  A step is a step should not matter if on a belt going in circles or not.....  Thanks for the help. 🙂

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6mph is not walking. Most of us start to run around 4.25MPH and to best of my knowledge all of us run at 5mph. As someone suggested your stride length makes a difference.

[Dominique]

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@ssathya wrote:

6mph is not walking. Most of us start to run around 4.25MPH and to best of my knowledge all of us run at 5mph. As someone suggested your stride length makes a difference.

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The current world record in the men's 50 km walk is 3 hours 32 minutes 33 seconds, which translates into an average speed of 14.1 km/h, ie. 8.8 mph. That is some serious walking (and the way they walk is not what you and me would call walking), so I agree with you: 6 mph is not walking (for the rest of us).

[Gershon]

Try walking for ten minutes on the treadmill while listening to a metronome. You can find an app for a smartphone or other device. See if it is tracking your steps accurately. The problem probably comes from holding on to the bars on the treadmill. I have no problems with the Zip. I can see where wrist pedometers could be inaccurate even with your hands in your pockets.

[josephz2va]

I would do the elliptical machine versus the treadmill if you have access to a gym. The elliptical has more burn and control versus the treadmill based on how fast you can go while maintaining control and resistance based on your heart rate. You can achieve 10,000 steps and over 100 calories in under one hour on the elliptical using HR Interval versus the treadmill which takes a few hours.

[jimmyrr]

I strap my flex to my ankle instead of my wrist. That way on a treadmill or a bike in a spinn class I get closer reading to reality. But I only do about a mile in close to 20 min on a treadmill at 3.5 setting with a 1 to 8 incline. I use my phone as well to track my daily I have an android and it comes with s health I compare the two of them and still just get a guess not really based on incline bike resistance heart rate etc. Maby in the next year or 2 things will improve but for now I just take what I get and compare it daily overall it works weather correct or not does not matter so much to me just a look at what I achieved daily is a +++++++++++++ for me.

[Heybales]

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@jimmyrr wrote:

I strap my flex to my ankle instead of my wrist. That way on a treadmill or a bike in a spinn class I get closer reading to reality. But I only do about a mile in close to 20 min on a treadmill at 3.5 setting with a 1 to 8 incline. I use my phone as well to track my daily I have an android and it comes with s health I compare the two of them and still just get a guess not really based on incline bike resistance heart rate etc. Maby in the next year or 2 things will improve but for now I just take what I get and compare it daily overall it works weather correct or not does not matter so much to me just a look at what I achieved daily is a +++++++++++++ for me.

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Reality of what?

Steps or Calories?

@20 min @ 3.5 mph = 1.17 miles, should be decent amount above. Is the 1 mile as reported by the treadmill, or Fitbit?

[wcl1951]

outside for the fresh air, and go to Tesco shopping at the same time, benefits of being retired 😄

[Yduj]

I walk outside daily at least 10,000 steps. 10,000 takes a little more than one hour.

[kelfran]

First off, I agree with everyone else here: 6 MPH is quite fast and likely not an accurate measure. I would wonder if you swing your arms differently when you are on the treadmill vs. walking outside? I have found that the fitbit calculates my steps differently in heels vs. flats/sneakers, so maybe there is a difference in your stride or body motions.

[Deyadissa]

If you are holding on to the treadmill in any way, you are reducing your effectiveness of your workout. This is why I recommend ellipticals for weight loss as it is much harder to reduce your workout on those.

[jimmyrr]

Steps are steps on a treadmill without the gps tracking.The treadmill is
where I look and write it down then manually add it to my workout. The
calories I don't really care about it all depends on the incline. If I walk
a mile with an incline of 15 versus an incline of 0 the treadmill will give
me the correct readout and then I log that in manually to the fitbit

[selenarichard]

I think you should do a workout on treadmill instead of running because most of the times weather is not so good and that is the fact that we can't perform a good workout. I suggest you to go through this treadmill vs walking outside guide. 

[fifi78]

The average person is said to walk 3-4 miles an hour. 

Researchgate:-

Although walking speeds can vary greatly depending on many factors such as height, weight, age, terrain, surface, load, culture, effort, and fitness, the average human walking speed at crosswalks is about 5.0 kilometres per hour (km/h), or about 1.4 meters per second (m/s), or about 3.1 miles per hour (mph).