Over counting steps

[Leebee50]

Hi, so like others, my charge 2 is over counting, I've a small property and it's not 45 steps from bedroom to bathroom and I don't walk in my sleep, this morning I've woken to 168 steps! Mmmm something isn't right.
I bought the charge 2 yesterday, noticed before bed the steps were inaccurate, put it down to it 'getting used to my movements'. I've set it up as people have advised, less dominant hand, stride length etc.
Please can someone tell me if I've missed something, should I return it, was it a waste of money?
I know people that wear Fitbit and other brands and seem very happy, sadly I'm not and really like the concept of challenging myself, as I'm not confident to join a gym, but sure need to get fit.
Any advice much appreciated and thank you in advance.
Lee (soon to be fitlee I hope x)

Moderator Edit: Edited thread title.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Leebee50, if you feel you are getting too many false steps a good idea is to wear it on your NON dominant hand, if that is possible for you, but in your settings tell it you are wearing it on your DOMINANT hand.  So, for example, if you are right handed, wear it on your left hand, and in the settings tell it you are left handed (even though you're not!)

Setting it for dominant alerts the program to expect more hand movements and will make your tracker less sensitive, so you should get fewer false steps.

Having said that, it is quite normal for any wrist worn tracker to give you a few false steps while you sleep -- just from rolling over and moving about in your sleep.  Usually these amount to only a very small proportion of an active day's steps.

The best advice I can give is to keep wearing it for a few days and try to focus on trends, rather than exact numbers.  You should soon see an improvement in your fitness level, and if you are like many people you will find it becomes important to you to meet your step goal each day.

My view is that the advantage of having a wrist worn tracker outweighs the disadvantages of a few extra "hand" steps, but that is, of course, only my opinion!  

Keep us posted how it goes.  Welcome to the Community!

[Leebee50]

Hello, thank you so much for the reply. So, bare with me. In the settings, handeness and wrist I should set to left, wear it on my left, even though I'm right handed? I think that's what you mean, I've now set it like that to 🙂
Please confirm that or direct me again, sorry this is all so new.
I'll be sure to give it a few days as I'm very keen and like the concept of this Fitbit.
Thank you again.
Lee 🙂

Sent from my iPhone

[Julia_G]

Hi, yes that's right. That should give you fewer false steps, because the Fitbit will be Las sensitive to hand movements.

Stay with it!

[Leebee50]

Thank you for your help and patience. I look forward to 'getting fit' 😀 Lee

[Julia_G]

It's a pleasure. Just post again if you have any issues, problems or questions. There is always someone here to help!

[April87]

I am also finding it overcounting. From overcounting in my sleep, blow drying my hair, even lying in bed. I wear it on my left wrist and I'm right handed.

[Leebee50]

I've got it on my left wrist now, shame something so high tech can't be fine tuned. Even driving, registers steps, maybe that's a sign I should be walking!
Well I'm hanging in there and just taking off about 150 at the end of the day, surely the extra steps will also miscalculate distance to?
Importantly, it does motivate me to walk more, so that's good 🏃‍:female_sign:

Sent from my iPhone

[Julia_G]

@Leebee50, counting steps while driving is a known issue.  I think this is because the vibrations carried from the steering wheel to your wrist, combined with the forward motion of the car, can be interpreted as steps.  Fitbit claims this should only happen if your car has very stiff suspension or you drive bumpy, country roads, but that is not my experience.  

There are 3 main ways of dealing with this:

1. You can plug it in to charge while you are driving.  It won't count steps while it is charging.

2. You can log a driving activity which will negate any steps or floors that your Fitbit picks up while driving. Instructions here.

3. As I can see that you are using an iPhone, you can download a free app called DriveBit that will automatically log the driving activity for you.  It is very easy to use and works every time as long as you remember to start the app when you get in to the car and stop it when you arrive.  You need to have data.

The downside of logging a driving activity is that you get exercise credit for it, which seems a bit silly to me!

My informal method is to take it off my wrist and tuck it into my bra while I drive, and when I arrive I put it back on.  I find that if I am wearing it very close to my upper body I don't get steps from driving.  Works for me...

[Julia_G]

@April87, besides wearing it on your non dominant hand (left wrist for you) if you are still getting too many false steps, it is a good idea to tell a little fib in your settings.  So tell it you are left handed, even though you are not.  Telling the program that you wear it on your dominant hand makes is less sensitive to hand movements and should give you fewer false steps.

"Steps" while you are sleeping probably indicates you were having a somewhat restless night and those steps will have been picked up while you moved your arms as you tossed and turned.  Your sleep log is likely to confirm this.  This can be valuable information!

[Leebee50]

Okey dokey, thank you again for your help. I'll go for the option 'take it off when I'm driving', I'm bound to forget to do the app 🙃
I'm loving the motivation it gives, seeing I'm achieving something is great, I've been unfit for too long.
Have a good evening 🏃‍:female_sign:

Sent from my iPhone

[FocusT25]

There should be a function on the tracker to start and stop whilst driving. After a long journey or several shorts trips, i cannot remeber the exact times i set off and arrived and thus never input this data via the app. This really needs to be looked at. It can be a feature on the tracker itself, a "Driving Mode" that can be activated the same way excersise can be started

[Leebee50]

That would be a great idea and I'm sure with all our input on the forums, it will soon be something Fitbit do 😀 Have a good weekend.

Sent from my iPhone

[Lori_M]

I wore my FitBit Charge2 for the first time yesterday.  I was busy, but nowhere near as busy as my FitBit said I was!  I had 10,000 steps by 1 o'clock in the afternoon, which is waaaay overstating it.  

What is the solution to this?  I am right handed, wearing it on my left wrist.  Just walking down my stairs registered 40 steps this morning.

[FocusT25]

Have you got the tracker set up as you being right handed but the tracker as being on your left? Or non dominant?

[Lori_M]

No. I thought I was supposed to edit my settings to state that I am left
handed (which I just did). Can you refresh me, please?

[FocusT25 · Accepted solution]

Make sure you have the latest version of the app installed on your phone. Open the app and select Account, last tab at the bottom right. The first two options are for Handedness and Wrist. To state the obvious, if your right handed and wear the tracker on your right then both should read "right" "right". If you wear it on your left then it'll be "right" "left". It used to ask which wrist your wore the tracker and then ask for your dominant hand but the latest version of the app seems to have changed to how I have described above. Hope that helps!

[Leebee50]

Hello, thank you for the help. I have checked and done as you've advised. I've been deducting steps at the end of the day because if of it's sensitivity to movement.
Thanks again, have a good evening. 😀

Sent from my iPhone

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Leebee50, some of the information above is not correct.  The advice @FocusT25 gave is correct if your step count seems normal.  

However, if your issue is that your tracker is overcounting steps then you need to make an adjustment.  In this case you need to tell it you are wearing it on your dominant hand, even though you are wearing it on non dominant.  That will make it less sensitive to hand movements.  So, as you are right handed you should ideally wear it on your left (non dominant) hand but you should also tell the program a little lie -- i.e. tell it that you are left-handed, even though you are not.  

In your case you should wear it on the left hand, and also tell the program that you are left handed.  

Changing the setting to dominant hand will make it LESS sensitive to hand movements and make it LESS likely to count false steps.

Sorry for coming back in here, and I hope you are not too confused! 

[FocusT25]

If the above is true then Fitbit need to look into this. I cannot see how a £130 device needs to be altered in such a way. It's like telling somebody who wears shoes one size to big to wear an extra pair of socks. I really don't see how this is the long term solution. I also don't see how making it less sensitive can make it anymore accurate. I would end up second guessing. The solution is for Fitbit to get the algorithms correct in the first place.