Ionic recording floors while running on treadmill

[Jim_R]

This isn’t a complaint or bug report, more an observation.

I’ve noticed in passing that I seem to get more floors added to my daily total than the elevation gain, reported at the end of a run, supports. For example, my Ionic will say 380 feet elevation gain during a run but it looks like the daily floors total went up by 70 or more (a floor equals about 10 feet I believe).

I haven’t paid too much attention to that until today when I happened to do a 40 minute run on a treadmill, set at 0% incline, not that the incline should matter.  I started with a daily total of 8 floors and ended with 114.  So that’s over a thousand feet of elevation gain, as measured by floors, on a totally flat run.

I’ll spare you the math but that gain works out to a little less than 2 inches a stride. I have no idea how much I “bob” when I run but that number is probably not too off.  So my hypothesis is that bobbing during running counts toward floors. Not what I would have expected or wanted, but as long as I know how it works I can deal with it.

Jim

Moderator edit: Updated title for clarity

[Rich_Laue]

Hello @Jim_R the elevation reported is calculated by GPS readings.  Floors are calculated by changes in the air pressure. Wind, clouds, storms will effect the air pressure the ionic is measuring.  Floors are only given when the ionic detects the wearer is moving and the pressure changes enough to say at least 10 feet has been climbed.  This change also has to occur over a short period of time,  while forming has confirmed that the is a time limit,  they haven't started what it is. 

[Jim_R]

So your theory is that I gained 108 floors running in place in my basement due to changes in air pressure? I like my theory much better 🙂

Re elevation changes being determined by GPS I don’t think that is the case. I use the running app on all my runs with GPS turned OFF.  Nevertheless the run report I get on the watch includes elevation gain. This number seems pretty accurate to me, btw.  Unfortunately this statistic dies on the watch because greater minds than mine at Fitbit decided not to transfer this number to the app (it will only if GPS is on). It’s my understanding that the elevation gain (and floors) is determined by the Ionic’s barometer.

[Rich_Laue]

I didn't say anything about your treadmill usage,  you asked about runs, not treadmill.

With a recorded run fitbit will only display changes in elevation when the run was recorded with GPS and then only on the displayed map.

While you may be using the fitbit app on the phone with GPS turned off, while running outside your ionic will still auto detect the run. If you have not turned the GPS off for auto detected runs, your ionic will track your run with GPS and record changes in altitude as reported by the GPS.

Could a screen shoot be posted?

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @Jim_R, welcome to the Fitbit Community Forums! 🙂

I'm sorry to hear that you're having problems with your floors being recorded when you're running on your treadmill.

I'm not sure why your tracker would be doing this as since @Rich_Laue mentioned, your tracker will base either on the GPS information or on the elevation gains during a short period of time.

I can recommend at the moment to give your Ionic a quick restart and see if this makes any difference. Check the instructions on how to restart your tracker here.

Let us know if you need more help!

[Suziqu]

Hello, I'm about 2weeks into owning an Ionic, my first Fitbit.  I like many things about it and have yet to utilize many options, I'm disappointed with the inaccuracies in steps,  stairs and failure to calculate sleep on a couple of nights.  I've reset it as suggested several times since purchasing.  

Any help would be appreciated.  

[Rich_Laue]

Some thoughts I have @Suziqu

Your ionic doesn't Tracy steps by looking at the movement of your feet or the core of your body, but by arm movements.

In general Fitbit does a good job but occasionally will miss some steps and count some false steps. Compared to my waist mounted tracker, the steps on the arm tracker averages out.

Stairs are another issue, they are not counted unless the tracker sees the users walking, sliding the arm up the hand rail may keep steps from being counted.

Stairs are counted by a very small change in air pressure over a short period of time while the wearer is walking. 

While atmospheric pressure is relatively stable, wind currents are not.

There are times wind will effect the air pressure on the Ionic. Let's say the ionic is on the leeward side of the arm when the wind blows across the arm. This will cause the ionic to be in a low air pressure zone. It is the same reason the back of trucks get so dirty and a false floor mat be recorded.

With sleep I can not say, I assume your not tossing and turning a large amount throughout the night.

[lenny4d]

@Jim_R"Unfortunately this statistic dies on the watch because greater minds than mine at Fitbit decided not to transfer this number to the app" -- Yeah, but it is on the fitbit.com dashboard. Why on earth the web-dashboard shows a lot more basic info for an exercise (and also differently) than the mobile app is beyond me, there is no good reason for it. Probably different programmers that weren't talking to eachother.