Activities do not record calories nor steps!

[Romoro914]

I love to use the ellipticial and stationary bike to get in my exercise.  However, my Fitbit Flex does not record my steps or my calories burned correctly when I do these acttivities.  I truly believe this needs to be fixed by Fitbit folks.

[cmyates4]

I think that is because your arm doesn't 'swing' naturally when you are doing these activites, like it does when you walk.  You can still record or log these activities.  And keep in mind that even if your fit bit doesn't register it or count it, your body will!

[Heybales]

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@Romoro914 wrote:

I love to use the ellipticial and stationary bike to get in my exercise.  However, my Fitbit Flex does not record my steps or my calories burned correctly when I do these acttivities.  I truly believe this needs to be fixed by Fitbit folks.

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Nothing to correct or fix, until the technology is better to discern what your activity is exactly.

Then different formulas could be used to calculate calories for that different activity.

As it is, the calories are based on step-based movements, mass and pace and time. Which is wrong for those other activities even IF you fooled it in to seeing steps taken.

[josephz2va]

The fitbit only records activities through movement of your designated arm. For bikes, you aren't moving your arms because it's stationary the whole time holding onto bars. Even the Spinning machine.

For Elliptical, be sure you are holding onto the roving arms, not the stationary arms. The roving arms do count steps. Or if you're on a systematic focus like just exercising a leg or legs, make sure your arms move or at least go up and down to count the steps.

[fit_gramma]

I also find that it does ot register when in do high inclines on a treadmill, so i use the distance, time and calories burned as indicated in the treadmill display. when walking in the neighborhood and carry a waterbottle it also does not register as the arm is not getting a compelte swing.

for activities that do not register steps or calories i go to shapesense.com then i choose fitness and exercise calcualtor / then activity based  calorie burn/ enter your age, height and weight, choose your activity category, then the activity ( it has everything from gardening, lawn mowing, hunting, fishing, walking, running, boating......) enter your time and it will give you your calorie.

you can then enter this into your activity log on your fitbit site i found this to be extremly helpful.

[ac7ss]

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@fit_gramma wrote:

... when walking in the neighborhood and carry a waterbottle it also does not register as the arm is not getting a compelte swing.

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Umm, put the flex on the other arm?

[MissEllie]

How about putting the device around your ankle tucked in a sock to prevent it falling off, that may work as the foot is in movement?

[lynntracy]

I am interested if that will work, I'm going to try it.  I do a lot of spinning as well and would like it to be recorded.  If we enter in an activity manually, does fitbit use a formula to translate our entry into steps recorded?

[Heybales]

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@lynntracy wrote:

I am interested if that will work, I'm going to try it.  I do a lot of spinning as well and would like it to be recorded.  If we enter in an activity manually, does fitbit use a formula to translate our entry into steps recorded?

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Only for walking and running manually entered - your distance entered is divided by your stats for stride length to calc steps and replace what the Fitbit actually saw.

All other workouts replace just calories, steps and distance remain.

So find a better spot to get the most steps from it - but manually log it as activity to correct the calories.