Can You Deduct Steps? & Misc

[Tyler.25]

Hiya Everyone!

Please note that I'm visually-impaired so some things may not be so obvious to me as I used screen readers/magnifiers at times, so I miss sighted obvious things at times!

Can Steps Be Deducted?

Today whilst I was drying out dishes, using a different method, it seems like I was triggering the step count on my FitBit Inspire 3. I would've thought that, giving the watch GPS access, that it would track via GPS as well as the mechanics within the watch, to determine whether I have walked or not.

I would love to know if there is a way to deduct steps from my account for today? I am looking at achieving the 22,222 steps award next and already it things I've done over 1,000, which is completely wrong!

This demonstrates my typical 'first-thing' step count.

How Can I Set My Weight Correctly?

When I go to update my weight to 9st, 10lbs, it changes it to 9.1st, whereas on Google Fit, it allows you to input both. I have attempted to enter "9.11" and it changes it to "9.1" too, but isn't there 14 Lbs in 1 stone, so shouldn't it allow to go up to "X.14"?

Is There No Map Available?
When I used "Android Select To Speak" to read out one of our walks, at some point it read "Map" even though I have not seen or found any map, neither has my partner. We enabled full access, yet no map has been showing up. On the walk, where the heat rate is shown, or somewhere else, I just selected everything and at some point heard this. We looked at the settings, enabled location, and haven't seen any sort of map since?

Best Regards,

Tyler

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Tyler.25 welcome, you may find these articles of interest How does my Fitbit device calculate my daily activity? & How do I add, edit, or delete Fitbit data and activities? As steps are the foundation of community challenges they can only be treated as described in the above article.

I use Kg for my weight so Imperial weights are not something I'm up to speed with on the Fitbit app. I suggest you try entering 9.7857 Stone.

The Inspire 3 does not have a map function, you may find using Google maps on your phone can be configured to give you walking directions. Once your walk is completed (provided you started the exercise on your Inspire 3 and did not rely on auto-recognize) you can sync and see a map of the walk.

I apologize for my lack of experience with the "Accessible" features.

I hope this helps but if you are still stuck please post here again.

Cheers

[Tyler.25]

Hiya Gr4ndp4,

Thank you for reaching out to me!

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@Gr4ndp4 wrote:

you may find these articles of interest How does my Fitbit device calculate my daily activity? & How do I add, edit, or delete Fitbit data and activities? As steps are the foundation of community challenges they can only be treated as described in the above article.

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In a long way, this page achieved what I was looking for. There are no ways to actually delete steps, however, instead of being able to delete steps, you can log to say that you were driving instead. So I went onto the FitBit website dashboard as this is more technical than the app, I found the times when I am pretty certain I did not make anywhere near those steps in our, somewhat small flat, and logged this as 'driving'. This resulted in those being removed from my data!

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@Gr4ndp4 wrote:

I use Kg for my weight so Imperial weights are not something I'm up to speed with on the Fitbit app. I suggest you try entering 9.7857 Stone.

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I can learn KG for weight, I just have always used the old metric system for weighing myself, but for everything else, I do use KG, and luckily our scales are digital and allow us to switch. I will just have to learn the 'good zones'. This sounds more to be a problem with the app to be reported in the suggestions board.

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@Gr4ndp4 wrote:

The Inspire 3 does not have a map function, you may find using Google maps on your phone can be configured to give you walking directions. Once your walk is completed (provided you started the exercise on your Inspire 3 and did not rely on auto-recognize) you can sync and see a map of the walk.

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Seems rather strange of the app to request location access, which I have granted full access, even whilst not using the app, for it not to display a map. The Google Fit app does this, however I've not figured out how to link them up correctly. I am starting to love FitBit more and more, yet, I'm on a 6 month free trial provided with my purchase, and, well, it just seems very strange to me this is not a feature and 'Android Select To Speak' did read 'Map' to me before now.

I do love the website, which I never knew about before going through the help page you linked to, I didn't like how Google removed theirs. Some very minor changes and this would be perfect, I'd be more than happy to continue the subscription after my trial has ended.

Thank you for your time and help!

[lmacmil]

I believe there's an accelerometer in the Fitbit that detects motion of your arm.  It can't distinguish between arm swings that go along with actual steps vs arm movements that take place while the body is stationary.  My wife's step count increases while she's playing the piano!

The Inspire 3 has no built-in GPS.  It has to connect to your phone's GPS to record the actual distance and then it also provides a handy map of your journey.  If you don't have your phone with you, it will calculate distance based on your step length which I believe it sets based on your height.  You can adjust the step length manually if you know what it is.  I have adjusted mine based on the distance walked (per the phone GPS) and the number of steps.

[Tyler.25]

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@lmacmil wrote:

The Inspire 3 has no built-in GPS.  It has to connect to your phone's GPS to record the actual distance and then it also provides a handy map of your journey.  If you don't have your phone with you, it will calculate distance based on your step length which I believe it sets based on your height.  You can adjust the step length manually if you know what it is.  I have adjusted mine based on the distance walked (per the phone GPS) and the number of steps.

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It is always with me along with my phone, the only time I am wearing the watch without my phone is at home, however my phone is always within meters at home.

Our past journey's, I can't find a map, perhaps it's because I don't know how to access? I only learnt before that when you're on our walk up last did, you can swipe to see your "Energy Burnt" and other windows. Could you please explain where your map shows, if there is something I am missing?

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Tyler.25, You must record the "Exercise" walk by using the start icon on your Inspire 3 and carry your phone with you, as you note it uses the phone's GPS. Once you have finished the walk, on your Inspire 3 finish the exercise. In your Fitbit app on your phone, sync>touch the exercise tile and the map should appear.

I hope this helps, let us know how you get on.

Cheers

[lmacmil]

It should show up on the exercise page where it shows how far you walked, step count, etc.  Attached is from my Fitbit dashboard on my computer but I see the same thing on my iPhone in the Fitbit app.

You have to have the app set so it runs in the background otherwise you won't get the map.  The Android app has to have access to your phone and location.  I don't think those are defaults.

[Tyler.25]

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@lmacmil wrote:

You have to have the app set so it runs in the background otherwise you won't get the map.  The Android app has to have access to your phone and location.  I don't think those are defaults.

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This is what I meant, this is how I have it configured.

Ah, I can't really see my FitBit too well, I have attempted to look to see how to start recording an activity. My last walk, my FitBit was doing something,k I think it detected I was being active? Asked my partner and they didn't really know what to do, was just saying "Start", so i tapped it to start, thought it was doing so from that point, then 1-2 minutes later, it says "Go" or "Started" or something along those lines. About an hour later, not having completed my walk, it started vibrating again, and this time it said "Ended", couldn't find what I had done on the app/dashboard...!

The screen doesn't really stay on too long for me to be able to see it fully on the watch, actually, just used my stronger magnifier and I eventually found out to swipe left twice, it shows 'Start', planning on walking, according to Google, a 13.3mi walk which is estimated to take 4hrs 22mins, but may take a 5-10 minute break in the middle to replenish, hoping it'll keep tracking for the entire time though?..!

[Baltoscott]

Hope you enjoy the walk. 

Yes, swipe left 2x to get to the exercise menu. You can then swipe up and down to select an exercise. Walk is usually first on the list unless you've changed the order in your phone app. You tap to hit start, and then tap again on the arrow, triangle, to actually start. When you want to finish, you swipe up to 'pause' which takes you to a screen where you can 'finish' the walk, or 'return' to the activity.  It shouldn't stop recording when you rest, but if you can't read the screens and just start tapping around, you may wind up ending the activity by accident. 

[lmacmil]

After you hit start the first time on the walk screen, in tiny letters at the top of the screen, it will say "GPS connecting" and show a small arrow outline.  Assuming you are out in the open, after a couple seconds you may feel the Fitbit vibrate and it will say "GPS connected" and the arrow turns solid.  At that point, the mapping function will kick in.  When you finish, hit "pause", swipe up and hit "finish" and then swipe up again and hit "done."  When the app syncs with the Fitbit it should show the map of your walk.

The Fitbit will automatically detect exercise without scrolling to the exercise screen.  I don't think it will do the mapping thing for an automatically detected exercise.  And if you stop long enough, it will assume you've finished and stop recording.

[Baltoscott]

Good points @lmacmil - as you say there is no mapping when an exercise is automatically detected, and therefore no GPS. And like automatically starting, it will automatically stop once you do.  

[Tyler.25]

I've somewhat got there!

Walk there:

The walk back however, I changed nothing, done things the same, didn't pause prolonged at all, if anything we paused on the way there for 5 minutes, yet it seems to have broken up the walk on the way back differently, and some of the data seems to not be there. Felt the watch vibrate twice, but I had presumed it was to let us know we walked 10,000 steps again as it did on the way there:

It's still all recorded, just our actual walk was broken up and parts missed, inbetween the FitBit was still tracking tracking miles/steps, but not sure what happened on the way back, if you have any ideaas?

I much more love walking seeing the map too, seeing if we can build ourselves up to walk our local marathon, which is very flat compared to the routes we've been walking, so could scrap a little time off and set an achievement for us both!

(P.S. Is there a way to reply to this thread in general without selecting to reply to a specific person, or is that how it goes around here?)

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Tyler.25, I'm pleased you are able to make some progress. So far as replies are concerned everyone who has contributed to the thread is automatically subscribed to it and gets an alert if there is any activity that we can respond to or ignore as appropriate. If you want to address one person "@" gets you a drop-down & you can select the addressee from the subscription list as I have at the beginning of this post.

Thinking about your desire for a map, have you investigated MapMyWalk which provides comprehensive planning & maps on your phone using the phone's GPS?

Cheers

[Tyler.25]

No, I never knew this existed. I only discovered the Ordnance Survey and what they offer the other day, I just thought Google was the best and had all the info, but then I noticed that Google started to update and show paths only after we had walked them and doesn't know about many footpaths which we're very keen on!

Thank you for sharing this!