runkeeper accuracy and fitbit accuracy

[sunkizzed]

im up very early in the morning monday through friday, i walk and run for an hour and 45 minutes each day.  i use runkeeper to track and wear my flex.  however, runkeeper tells me i do 6 miles and fitbit sometimes doesnt even reach 10k steps, so one day i manually entered my workout in according to runkeeper, entered the start time, duration and miles, it added about 4k steps more to my flex.   would this be okay or am i cheating?  i feel that doing 6 miles  i should have more than 10k steps in.  i did a search on the internet and according to my height, 6 miles should give me around 14k steps, so i would think this is correct but just wanted to get some imput.  i have not set my stride length on fitbit yet, waiting for someone to help me.

[sunkizzed]

sorry runkeeper tells me 6 miles and fitbit tells me 4 sometimes 4.5. i would think runkeeper is more accurate as it is gps

[Dominique]

6 miles is 9.65 km. 10,000 steps would imply an average stride length of 96.5 cm, almost 1 meter. If your Flex reports even less than 10,000 steps on such a distance, the average stride would be even longer than that. Even when taking into account your activity is a mix of walking and running, you would have to be extremely tall in order for your stride to be that long. It therefore looks like your Flex doesn't count steps properly.

I'm not sure setting your stride lengths (there are two, one for walking, one for running) would fix the step problem. You may want to consider the One (worn on your waist or against your torso) instead of the Flex. It's definitely reliable with steps. In fact, I've always wondered how wrist-mounted trackers (whether from Fitbit or from competitors) are able to reliably count steps at all.

One thing you may want to consider is that distances reported by Runkeeper aren't necessarily accurate either. They rely on your phone's GPS, which is not always dependable. Your best bet would be to use a 400 meter athletics track. I bought myself a cheap GPS watch (Soleus) after I noticed the GPS on my phone was not very reliable.

[Dominique]

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@sunkizzed wrote:

sorry runkeeper tells me 6 miles and fitbit tells me 4 sometimes 4.5. i would think runkeeper is more accurate as it is gps

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Yes, distances reported by Runkeeper aren't necessarily perfectly accurate, but they are definitely more accurate than what Fitbit reports. Distances per Fitbit are number of steps x average stride length.

[slysam]

I've used Runkeeper but I haven't compared it to Fitbit much when I know the exact actual distance. I have compared my Fitbit estimated distance to another GPS app when walking on a measured track. Both were slightly off from the tracks distance but in different directions. Fitbit very slightly underestimated and Digifit (the app I used) very slightly over estimated. Both varied from actual by only .1 mile, so it was close either way. I have calibrated my walking and running strides on the same track though. When I used Endomondo (anther GPS app) I would get varying distance on the exact same route. I had that once in the same day where the return was something like .2 mile farther than the to leg of the same route. Before I noticed this, I always assumed the GPS was more accurate than Fitbit and would trust it if it disagreed. But in this instance, my Fitbit distance was consistent both directions while the GPS gave different distances both ways. I think both should be close assuming either you correctly calibrated your strides of the fitbit estimated stride lengths are accurate for you. My experience is GPS tends to err on the generous side and fitbit on the stingy side when they err (with my current settings).

[roch.lacroix]

My thoughts for your consideration. I read through most of the comments and I also noted discrepancies .  Today Runkeeper showed that I ran 15 km in 1hr 45 mins while Fitbit showed I ran 16.35 km in 1hr 42 mins . Although would be inclined to accept Fitbit reading ( psychologically and morale perspectives) but Fitbit counts just steps and it can be ´fooled’ by up and down motion of your arm , riding a moser etc…Runkeeper measures distance and is less vulnerable to inaccuracies even with intermittent loss of satellite connection. Therefore If you are using both systems beware of their weaknesses and vulnerabilities and if you are to settle for one then  Runkeeper is the more reliable and true .