Clarification on Stairs Climbed feature.

[Stratguy]

Concerning many posts about scrapping the 'Stairs Climbed" feature, FitBit needs to clarify. Many contributors claim that this totally inaccurate feature screws up some of the other functions whilst JohnnyRoy ( in January 2020) said: Floors climbed do not affect steps, calories, or anything else. It is entirely a stand-alone stat. Who is correct?

[47d]

Point taken.

--------------------

Hi,

I fully understand where you are coming from... If you have access to the WHICH consumer app they have done reports on the various fitbit devices and the metrics of the fitbit charge4 are reportedly very accurate. Might be of interest. All the best.

47d

[Hikercindy]

My daughter is asking which fitbit to buy.  I told her not to buy the Inspire 2 because she lives in a 4th floor walk up, carrying kids, groceries and wash.  Personally I have a charge 2 and I really appreciate the stair counting.  I hike and when I hiked 4 mountains it said something like 378 stairs.  I also live in a colonial, so it's part of my daily exercise.  If nothing else, it's entertaining.  I want to get credit for those stairs.  

[Stratguy]

Hi 47d,

I know you never suggested deleting it, I never said you did??????????

[jjw112858]

I agree with you.  I also like to see the stairs so would not have gotten the Inspire 2 in hindsight.  Some people don't care about the stair count which is just fine.  It is a personal thing.  But if you do like it then definitely get one that counts them regardless of the already mentioned accuracy.  If seeing that count motivates you then that is all that matters.

[Stratguy]

Hi Steve,

This is the one question that Fitbit have yet to definitively answer and hence my constant querying it: does climbing stairs actually contribute to the totals for steps and calories burned? You say it does and that's fine - is that something you have found by your own experience or did Fitbit answer this, long before I joined, when all of this first started although having been through all of the posts I still can't find any concrete info from Fitbit!?

[Stratguy]

Hi Steve,

Then a simple on/off toggle would appear to be the obvious answer and I would think that would satisfy everybody!!

[SteveH · Accepted solution]

@Stratguy I have not seen any Fitbit documentation that explicitly says that you get steps and calories when walking upstairs but I don't find that surprising - there's no documentation that says they're tracked when playing football either but we can be sure they do. Why would they take the effort to exclude steps and calories when climbing stairs?

My observations from using fitbits that track stairs is that steps taken from walking upstairs count towards your daily total. When using a fitbit that does not track stairs - such as the Versa Lite - they are also counted and, as far as I could tell, at the same rate.

A setting to turn stair tracking on / off would seem to be a good compromise and could be implemented without upsetting anyone. I found that someone has already created a feature suggestion for this and if you'd like to add your vote you can find it at: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Option-to-turn-off-floor-tracking/idi-p/1145077

[Stratguy]

Hi Steve, ,Visited that post and gave it my vote, many thanks for that!

[Stratguy]

LZeeW: I have already done this and got rid of the annoying icon on both my iPhone and the Dashboard on my Mac but there doesn't seem to be a way of deleting the icon from the Charge 4 - still, I can live with that!!

[Stratguy]

SteveH: I was only suggesting being able to get rid of the annoying Stairs Icon if it wasn't a stand alone feature and the device did, if fact, track stairs and steps even if the icon wasn't visible (maybe I didn't make that clear, sorry, my mistake). I have now removed that icon from the App on my iPhone and the Dashboard on my Mac and the steps and calories still seem to be counting OK but there appears to be no way of removing it from my Charge 4 but, perhaps, if there was a way it would also lose the steps and calories that it is still counting!!! Ah well, C'est la vie, I can live with that! 

[47d]

Hi, Thanks for the info’. Happy New Year to you.

Dave

[CathyS115]

I disagree.  I go up and down a lot of flights of stairs, and I value this feature.

[47d]

Hi Everyone,

I am 74 years young and once a week I walk up and down the stairs in my house for 30 minutes, I find that it is a good cardio workout and keeps my knees working well. I like it, but bear in mind that it works by the decrease in atmospheric pressure as you go up so is not as accurate as some might like. I say KEEP IT.....

Dave

[Hikercindy]

In addition to going up and down stairs a lot, I hike a lot. I like the
stairs climbed feature because it is an indication of the elevation
change. There is much more effort when hiking up steep hills and
mountains. I don't know how fitbit calculates calories used.

[BillJ99x]

When my Fitbit accurately counted stairs it encouraged me to try to hit the goal. Plus it was nice when hiking in places like Yosemite and Zion to track the elevation by corresponding each set or stairs recorded to 10 feet of elevation.

But none of that matters anymore since my Fitbit will often show 50 or more floors when I haven't done a single one. I don't know what changed or when but the stairs feature is completely useless now because it's so wildly inaccurate. 

[47d]

Hi, For what it's worth I find that if I wear my Fitbit to bed to monitor my sleep patterns it sometimes records that I have climbed some stairs when in actual fact it was sensing the decrease in atmospheric pressure when I threw back the bedclothes...

Dave

[Podunk]

Sometimes I wish they would allow us to adjust the sensitivity so that we would get credit for stairs. Yesterday was laundry day and I did 15 flights of stairs into credit for none of them. Over the summer when I had a fan running in the living room I could walk past it and get credit for a floor and on a windy day when I was out walking around the yard I could sometimes pick up 10 floors by just walking around the corner of the house on a breezy day. As you can see Sundays I can wish the sensitivity was greater for when I was doing household stairs and Sundays when it’s windy or the fans going in the living room I wish I could make the air counter less that’s a deal so that I did not receive on earned credits. It would be one thing if they averaged out to real values but they are always at the extreme edge.

[47d]

Good idea, whwether it’s do-able or there is the will to look into might be another matter.

Dave.

[Detroit4Torque]

I am a new Fitbit user with the Sense 2 model. I specifically selected it for key features including stair climbing / floors count. The Sense 2 has an altimeter and works well. Currently, I select walking when doing a set of stairs/ floors. This workaround does capture the typical data expected. 

My recommendation is for the software to include an Exercise option for Stair Climbing.

Nevertheless, users must understand that they must travel some distance, not just jog in place, so to speak. 

I suppose one could come up with a workaround for stationary stair climber usage. If a disability compels you to hold rail, try attaching the Fitbit to your ankle (maybe use athletic tape or cut an ace bandage to desired length). I read that someone experimented with this method with some success. 

Hope my perspective helps users get the most from device.

[Podunk]

The connection point on my charge for for the strap broke recently. As a result, I am now placing the Fitbit inside my sock. I find that I am getting more accurate stare counts. I am also getting credit for more steps when carrying objects because my arms are not swinging enough to activate the accelerometer inside the Fitbit. A sudden breeze or a fan still gives false steer, climbing numbers, but at least when I climbed the stairs within my home. I am getting credit for almost every set of stairs. We are befor, it was rare to get credit for spear counts. Forgive any issues when reading this because I have dictated this on my iPhone.