new to fitbit, not sure it's accurately tracking my runs

[purplesky52]

newbie here...i've run the same route for two years, previously used mapmyrun for tracking. i don't think my fitbit is accurate when it tracks my runs, my pace and distance are much faster on the fitbit than on mapmyrun. i'm a very slow runner, there's no way i am as fast as fitbit says i am (i wish)!  

anyone encounter something similar? aside from this issue i love my fitbit, slowly learning the lay of the land, just concerned about the "inaccurate" tracking of my runs.

thanks. happy fitness 🙂

[alexthecat]

@purplesky52 which Fitbit device do you have? Are you using built-in or connected GPS? 

[purplesky52]

i have the luxe. pretty sure i'm using the built in gps.

[purplesky52]

i checked and yes, using the fitbit gps.

[charleskn]

You might try a run with the fitbit and mapmyrun, and post screenshots of both here. Is it possible there are settings (units, for example) which are causing the issue? I would also try a test using connected GPS.

[alexthecat]

The Luxe does not have built-in GPS, so you must be using connected GPS with that device. 

[purplesky52]

screenshots below, the 4.35 mile image is from the watch gps, the other is from the app gps. 🤔

mapmyrun always shows 4 miles with a pace between 14:00-15:00 min/mile.

[charleskn]

Howdy neighbor! 😉 You should check out the Leakin Park Run (5k) on Saturday mornings 🙂

Anyway, If the times are accurate, the pace is calculated from the duration, and the distance Fitbit thinks you ran, and the paces look pretty close, for the distance and times shown.

I was working on the assumption that the 4 miles from MapMyRun was probably closer to the truth, and since it looks like you're running along the Promenade, I used Google maps to measure the distance, and got 2.06 miles, one way. That's pretty close t the MapMyRun distance, given I had to eyeball your start and end points.

The Luxe does connected GPS, but that doesn't mean it will give you the exact same answer each time. I have found that some apps are better at tracking the phones GPS feed. In addition to my Fitbit Charge 4, which does pretty good, with GPS, I use a Polar heart monitor and the Polar apps and Strava to track my runs. Polar has two apps and one of them drops the GPS feed quite often, even though the Strava feed is rock solid on the exact same run.

The GPS can also just go off the rails sometimes, as you can see in this image from one of my Leakin Park runs. The course is out and back two times along the same route, and clearly it had some issues. Additionally, different apps use different algorithms to calculate the route and distance, which can introduce additional errors. My Charge 4 is set to Dynamic GPS, which means it will use the tracker GPS if the phone GPS isn't available. In this case, since my other apps showed the same route discrepancy, I assumed the Fitbit was using the phone's GPS as well.

In my experience, lots of other factors can affect the GPS accuracy (trees, buildings, where you keep your phone, how many satellites are visible to the phone, etc.). That said, I am surprised at the large difference in the two runs. The 3.8 mile run wouldn't surprise me. Especially if the fitbit didn't connect to the phone GPS right away. The loner 4.35 mile run is harder t explain.

That is the nice thing about some of the fitness apps/websites. They will let you correct the time and distance.

Sorry I don't have a good answer for you. Maybe we'll see you at the Leakin Park run one day.