lap swim

[kyak]

I'm starting the year out with a goal of at least 10,000 steps/day. however due to the frigid outdoors this time of year I have chosen to swim laps some days. can someone please explain how the swim option in the "exercise" field of a Fitbit hr works, does it count "steps" in some manner at all? or does it merely acknowledge that I "exercised" that day? I'm getting ready for bed and my Fitbit says I've only walked 8,000 steps today....but I swam laps for 30 mins (between moderate and vigorous) so according to this website: https://www.pehp.org/mango/pdf/pehp/pdc/step%20conversion%20chart_FFB805BB.pdf I can add another 4K plus steps to my Fitbit total. thoughts?

[Dominique]

You just have to accept the fact some activities do not translate well into steps, because they aren’t really step-based: in addition to swimming, activities like weight lifting, stationary bike or yoga come to mind. You’ll have to use other metrics (e.g. calories burned, active minutes) to assess the impact of such activities, even though Fitbit may not always fully detect how demanding they are.

If supported by your Fitbit (as appears to be the case here), starting the swimming activity provides Fitbit with hints on what to make of your arm moves, translating them into laps and distance, as well as estimating calories burned.

[kyak]

Thanks for the feedback, I will enable the swim option next time and see how it does.