Why doesn't Fitbit calculate distance istself

[Melanie40]

I started going for walks at lunch and after work. I've noticed that although I have entered my stride length, start time, and duration, I am still asked to enter the distance. Why can't the Fitbit automatically calculate this from all that data? After all, it too keeps track of the steps by time of day.

[Dominique]

Why do you need to manually log such activity (walking)? Your Fitbit tracker is a pedometer and should record your walking pretty accurately, if you remembered to wear it.

Have you seen what happens if you click on Don't know the distance?

[Rothrock42]

I think that is just optional. You can change it if you know that fitbit was inacurate for some reason. I never fill it in.

[slysam]

That is optional, sometimes people like to enter the distance or if you didn't wear your Fitbit. If you don't have a good reason to enter the distance I would suggest leaving it blank. For some activities like walking, changing the distance can mess with your step count--you can eiher gain or lose steps.

[slysam]

Just adding, I don't log walking. I just let Fitbit track it. Sometimes if I do fitness walking I will wear a hrm and use a GPS/HRM app that automatically logs to Fitbit. I actually usually end up deleting the Fitbt entry because it alters my steps and the fitbit calorie burn was pretty similar to my HRM's anyway. I mainly use the HRM app for non-walking activities but sometimes for walking just because I like having a record of the route and my heart rate during the walk.