Steps not accurate

[DeeDee597]

I am comparing my Charge 3 with my treadmill.  According to my treadmill, when I walk 3 miles at 3.3 mph for 54.5 minutes my fitbit says I have only walked 2.6 miles, not 3 miles.  When I google my treadmill numbers they are accurate. 

But, when I walk 100 steps and look at my fitbit, it is accurate.

What is going on?

[JohnnyRow]

It sounds like your steps might be accurate, just not your distance.

On treadmill, distance is calculated as number of steps times stride length.  So if stride length is set too short, distance will come up short also.

Fitbit sets a default stride length but you can adjust it.

See How does my Fitbit device calculate distance traveled? 

and Can I change my stride length in my Fitbit account? 

If you want a quick adjustment to stride length rather than measuring it, you could just multiply you stride length times 1.15, (3/2.6) to get close.

Above is assuming your step count is correct.  If you were holding hand rail part of the time with fitbit wrist, those steps often are not counted because the arm is not swinging freely as in walking, which is how steps are detected.

[DeeDee597]

Wonderful!

I increased my stride.  Now it is accurate!

Thanks.

[DeeDee597]

Thanks for your e-mail.

I mistakenly thought my treadmill was accurate. Duh! When I asked my
husband, he looked up how to see if the treadmill is accurate (ge also knew
that my computations for accuracy were wrong). Fortunately, It is very
close. When I put my speed in at 3.3 mph, in reality it is 3.45. That
is close enough for me!

I'm glad you pointed this out to me.