Steps & Swims

[ays77]

I know alot of people have probably moaned about the same thing, but how is it that I hadn't even left bed this morning and already clocked 80 steps?

I've just cleaned my flat for 20 mins and apparantly I've done a 15 min swim. 

I'm losing the will to live, how are you supposed to really know how many steps you've done? I'm doing a good 5-600 more a day in the hope that gets me to where I should be. I know that's better for me in the long run, but it's frustrating 😞

[Julia_G]

Hi, @ays77 , I would not worry too much about a small number of steps upon waking.  80 steps is probably not more than a minute or so walking.  It probably indicates a night when you were a little bit restless - the Fitbit will often count some steps if you are tossing and turning.

As for your swim, if your Fitbit detects that you are active - which you were! - it will try to match your activity with one of its built in auto recognized activities.  In this case I would recommend turning off auto recognized activities that you never do.  I have swim turned off for that very reason.  

To set your auto recognized activities go to your app and click on the gear icon top right.  On the next screen choose Exercise.  There you will see the list of auto recognized activities.  Tap on each one to set the minimum time before an activity is recognized or toggle the on/off button to have that activity ignored.  

Be sure to sync your Fitbit whenever you make a change in the app.

Welcome to the Community Forums!

[ays77]

Thanks for your reply! It wasn't so much about that 80 steps that particular morning but the accumulation of all the extra steps the Inspire 3 clocks throughout the day... it can be up to 500 more steps or more a day than I know I am actually doing, which is frustrating.

Thanks for the tip on the swim, makes sense as I actually swim every week day so it's obviously picking it up as an activity I already do 🙂 

[lmacmil]

You would be amazed at the number of "steps" you actually take just puttering around the house.  I put my Fitbit on about 8:30 this morning.  By the time I went for a walk a little after 10, I already had over 600 steps and I never left the house!  The Fitbit counts almost any arm movement as a step even if you're standing still.  Check your steps before and after you brush your teeth and you'll see.  If you're swimming almost every day you are getting in some real exercise.  Don't worry about your step count.  IMO, zone minutes are more important.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @ays77 , I don’t actually entirely agree with @lmacmil .  For myself, I used to worry a lot about the extra hand “steps” I got.  I “talk” a lot with my hands and I thought I was “cheating” especially with my friends’ leader board, etc.  

I worried so much that I bought the top rated pedometer (according to the Journal of American Medicine at the time it was the Fitbit One, long since discontinued) which was a tracker worn on the body.

I set up two accounts - one with my Fitbit wrist worn tracker and one with my body worn pedometer (the Fitbit One) and worn them both consistently for 30 days.  At the end of the month’s trial the two trackers were within a few hundred steps of each other.  While it is true that the wrist worn trackers will give you extra steps for vigorous hand movements (piano players and pharmacists who count pills are amongst those who complain!) it will also often fail to count puttering steps around the house (my 92 year old mother wears a Fitbit and grumbles that she is on her feet for at least an hour making dinner and gets almost no credit…) or when you walk on thick carpet…

My experiment indicated (to me, at least) that it pretty much all “comes out in the wash”. You get some extra false steps, you lose some real steps.

I have been wearing a Fitbit now for ten years and my experience is that people who worry a lot about the “exact” number of steps don’t do very well with any wrist worn tracker.  The best advice is to look at trends - are you doing more over a week or a month?  Are you getting fitter?

Remember, for most people 250 steps is only about 2 minutes walking…

So I would say, yes, DO look at your step count - but look at the trends and the bigger picture!  And yes, as @lmacmil says, some more active exercise, in addition to stepping, like swimming is a great fitness booster. 

Good luck!  Feel free to post on the forums whenever you have questions or concerns about your Fitbit.  There is always someone here to help.

[lmacmil]

Good points from Julie_G.  My wife plays piano a lot and gets steps from that even though she's sitting. 

After a year on this forum, it's my observation that, in general, a lot of folks who wear fitness trackers (any brand) obsess over data they get from their tracker that in the big picture (i.e., overall health) doesn't really matter all that much.  As a popular song once said, "don't worry, be happy."

[ays77]

I think im probably still a bit lazy in the fact that I like to do my 10k a day and be done with it.... if it is  massively over counting my steps and i hadnt really done 10k, It would just be good to know roughly what I need to make up... lazy and probably slightly obsessive, now I read it all back 😂

[lmacmil]

I know what you mean.  I have a health plan that gives me a small reward if I get 5000 steps for 10 days in a month.  I could stop wearing it once I hit that goal, which is usually within the first 12 days or so.  But there is some small thrill when I feel the vibration telling me I've hit 10k steps.