Convert swimming to steps

[aSluder]

My insurance resimburses me monthly based on steps taken and I'm super disappointed that a $300 smart watch can't take a swim and convert it into steps automatically. If spinning gets you thousands of steps, surely swimming should! Is this under consideration for the Fitbit OS?

[edit001]

Your assumption that a $300 watch has to convert swimming to steps out of the box is wrong... for one thing the price has nothing to do with it.  I had a Suunto Spartan that I bought for 800$ at launched that did not do that and as far as I know still does not do that. I have a Fenix 3 HR that at lauch was around 600$ , it never did what you ask... and both watches were flagship watches with a lot more features out of the box compared to Ionic and a LOT more expensive. Only Polar V800/M400/M430 was able to do something closer to what you need but not exactly that..

If you really need that conversion I think you first need to study what the market offers and go with the brand that offers NOW a watch with the features that that suits your needs. Popping a complaint here will not solve your problem or help you in any way. Given the fact that the watch is new to the market and the software team has to deal with a lot of bugs and issue I am pretty sure your wish, if considered, will not see the light of day in the next 4-7 months.

[aSluder]

Whoa, I was just asking a question!

fitbit has always been about the steps so I figured I would vote for an algorithm in the future to convert swimming to steps and that way it counts not only toward our daily step count but all the fun challenges and badge earnings that Fitbit has built into their app/community. 

[WendyB]

You can add it to the features forum  if you want. But swimming is not step based.

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/idb-p/features

[bbarrera]

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@aSluder wrote:

My insurance resimburses me monthly based on steps taken

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@aSluder If you ask, they might tell you there are other ways to get credit for non-step based cardio activities like swimming, spinning, rowing, cycling, etc. My previous employer gave insurance discounts based on activity level, not steps, which is the way the system should work. I'd be surprised if the insurer was so short-sighted as to only consider steps. I can rack up 10,000 steps pacing around my office on conference calls, it does nothing to improve cardio health which is ultimately what the insurance company is seeking to promote.

So please check with them first, before trying to put a square peg in a round hole (like folks that put Fitbit on ankle during spin class). By the way, I'm a cyclist and when moving from Flex/Force to Surge/Blaze I stopped getting a lot of steps. I believe Ionic will be the same when I have a chance to test it. At first I was mad at the loss of steps after upgrading to a more expensive tracker, then I realized the number of active minutes per week increased substantially because I wasn't even breaking a sweat walking 14 minute miles for an hour. With cycling I was getting a better cardio workout, burning more calories, and doing it in the same amount of time. 

What I realized is that steps is the wrong thing to be focused on, indeed the government calls for a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous cardio a week. You can do that by swimming, cycling, running, or fast walking. After losing weight and gaining cardio fitness, it wasn't possible for me to do that while walking. And thats when I started spinning and cycling for cardio.