Steps from my 90 minute walk were not counted, is this normal?

[Marla]

Hi,

I've had a Zip for many years and loved it; now I am trying to get used to my new Inspire HR.

I have the auto-detect feature switched on for walking and running. Today I took a 90 minute walk (with a few slow running intervals)  which I know from past experience is somewhere around 8,500 steps. At the end of my walk my Fitbit only showed 1,900 steps. Later, checking my dashboard on a computer, I found that I was still missing those steps but I had 100 active minutes and I had an entry under "recent exercise" that showed my walk.

Is it normal for Fitbit to deduct the steps that were part of an auto-detected activity? If so I think I will turn auto-detect off, since I walk as a way of getting to my daily step goal. What do others do? 

[WendyB]

Welcome to the forums!

I have always found auto Detect to be very iffy. I prefer to use the exercise mode to capture any workout I do.

You can have up to 7 exercise shortcuts. On your dashboard click on the gear and choose settings. Look for exercise shortcuts. Change to what you want. Make one of these Workout.

Device will need to sync before it takes place.

I use Workout mode to capture and exercise that is not listed.

Then I rename it as I state below

Then on the computer dashboard make a custom exercise. This will be at the bottom of the exercise tab Name it what you want.

Then on your device push in the button until you get to the exercise screen. Once there Swipe through until you see the Exercise or use Workout mode Hold in the button to start and when done Hold it back in to stop it.

Once it syncs you can rename it to the custom one you set up.

The manual explains it here and explains it very well

Inspire Manual

Inspire HR Manual

[Marla]

Wendy, thank you for all the information on creating a custom exercise shortcut. I still have my original question which I can't seem to find the answer to:

If I use the exercise mode to record the beginning and end of an exercise session (in my case walking/running), do I also get credit for the steps I take during that session, in my daily total step count? Because right now it seems like I am not getting credit for the steps if I designate (or auto-detect) a walk/run as an exercise session. I am trying to understand if my Fitbit is malfunctioning or if this is the intended behavior.

Thank you for any insight.