Fitbit will likely tell you not to do this, but I've verified this technique works 100% on a treadmill for a completely accurate step-count.
Take it off, and if you're using a Milanese Loop style bracelet, you're probably going to have to switch to a conventional one for this.
Place the Fitbit and strap around your ankle, about 2 finger-widths above the prominence of your ankle bone; preferences will vary, but I like mine facing inwards. Use a strap of some kind or if your socks are reasonably snug and not all loose and floppy, you can use your sock to hold it in place, being sure that the sensor on the backside of the pebble or unit or whatever, has a direct and unobstructed view of your skin. I actually modified the strap on mine so that it can hold itself on there with no assistance by carefully cutting an extra couple of holes in the end of the strap, but that's something I'd only do if I were you, once you're SURE how snug you're going to want it and therefore, where the hole should be.
I brought this up to Fitbit Customer Service/Tech Support once when I was having basically the same issue; the person I spoke with disrecommended this because he said that the device wasn't designed to read pulse there. However, the anatomical structures of the bones and the muscles in the leg just above the ankle, and the one in the forearm just above the wrist, are basically identical except for size. The tibia and fibula bones are slightly larger and likely slightly denser than the radius and ulna, but they are anatomically homologous or even analogous, and the skin overlying BOTH is basically the same, with both being riddled with blood vessels, both have the same number of layers of skin and even have similar thicknesses to them, and only differing in size by a modest amount, more than likely.
Whatever anyone tells you to the contrary, there is ZERO reason why it would be LESS accurate there, and likely it will be more; you claim that you don't use the grips on your treadmill and swing your arms naturally, but it's I think fair that you are likely constrained as to how you swing them, and you might THINK you're swinging them naturally, and you might think you're not at least occasionally reaching out and holding onto the bars to steady yourself, but if you were, then the device would almost certainly give you accurate readings. I had the exact same issue. When I started using my Fitbit Charge HR around my ankle, (and every subsequent Charge model I've had,) I actually set my phone up on the treadmill's book stand, and a tripod with a camera on it and recorded about 10 minutes of video of me walking on the 'mill. I had live-update turned on, and I can verify that doing this test SEVERAL TIMES, it was accurate to a single step over several THOUSAND. I actually was counting both AT THE TIME and later when I went and watched the replay which was able, thanks to creative placement of a mirror and the camera, to see my feet hitting the deck AND the phone's display counting off the steps. Now... it did occasionally seem to get slightly off, but that's only because it doesn't update continuously in fact, but every... I think with the Charge 5, it's every 6 seconds. So the count would vary slightly in the short term, but if I ignored that and just counted for several straight minutes, the results were EXACTLY CORRECT. See, the Fitbit MIGHT record an arm-swing as adequate to count, but then again it might not depending upon how you swing them. BUT... it will DEFINITELY count LEG swings as steps, that's for sure, unless you're dragging your feet or taking extremely small steps.
Fitbit built a good product in the Charge series, pretty much every one of them... and there's no need to set your stride manually. Let it detect it automatically for you; it's actually pretty good at that, I think, and if it's doing it automatically, very likely it's also adjusting that length continuously on the fly as you walk, jog, run, or sprint, which is good and necessary for accuracy and precision since your stride length continuously varies depending upon a number of factors, including how quickly you're moving, so why not let IT worry about THAT? See, when you wear the tracker around your wrist, it only can INFER how many steps you've taken by how your arm swings on the natural and logical but occasionally mistaken assumption that you swing your arms just EXACTLY as you move your legs, and just about as far. If you're counting how often and how far your leg moves, THAT lines up pretty much exactly with the number of steps you've taken, unless, again, you're dragging a foot or both, limping, etc. For normal-gait normal ambulation, (walking normally,) having it around your ankle will let it know EXACTLY how many steps you've taken and from ITS perspective, there's no difference; it's even in the same orientation with respect to the force of gravity as it would be on your arm, and has the same general motion and path through space when it's on either appendage. The heart rate is detected fine and at least as accurately as on the wrist, and it reads steps precisely. The only downside is you do have to be a little careful not to kick it by accident with your other foot, but as long as you aren't routinely kicking yourself in the leg, the odds are pretty good that you won't kick your tracker. (It might be a good idea at first to wear a sock with enough length to fold it down so there's two layers of cloth in between the device's faceplate and the outside world, just to enhance its survival odds, until you get used to wearing it there.) If you try this and it doesn't work for you, and you've tried rebooting it and that didn't help, and quitting and restarting the app, (and failing that, uninstalling and reinstalling it on your mobile device,) then it might be time to consider upgrading to a newer model if you're still using one that's 4 generations back from the current. If you absolutely must have the Fitbit on your wrist, then I'm sorry, I can't really help you.
IF you just need a timepiece of some kind to go on your wrist, think of the advantage of putting your step-counter/tracker on your ankle: you can go back to wearing the watch you actually WANTED TO WEAR anyway around your WRIST, AND you still get the advantages of using your Fitbit for fitness tracking, etc. unobtrusively around an ankle. (If anyone notices the bulge in your sock, you can have fun with them and say you're on parole and have to wear the monitor. When their faces go pale, pull down your sock and show them it's a Fitbit and that you're not a dangerous psycho-killer, but only if that's what you feel is appropriate under the circumstances. Remember to smile and laugh ominously or if you think you can pull it off, maniacally.) I would, though, turn all the notifications off if your current model has them, and set the screen mode to "manual wake" to conserve battery while wearing it somewhere you're unlikely to use the display if your Fitbit has an auto-wake feature. Happy trail, good luck, and keep steppin'!
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