Versa over-counting steps and swimming distance

[Curly40]

Good evening everyone.

I've got my very first fitbit today to help me track my swimming. Due to bad health i can't walk very well, but I can swim slowly.

Within 4 hours I've walked 8000 steps (don't think I will do this in a week)

and when swimming I've swam 2500 meters in a hour, when its nearer to 600.

can any one think what I've done? or is it faulty and should I just sent it back?

Thanks for your help and suport

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Curly40 Welcome to the Fitbit Community! I hope you're doing well! Take into consideration that your

Versa is a motion sensor that uses the 3-axis accelerometer to detect said movement and translate it to steps. There are instances in which you will move your hands but won't be actually walking and your Versa may count these movements as steps. Since you mentioned that due to health conditions you can't walk well I guess you are using your hands a lot more for help. Also when sitting you may avoid standing up and walking and try to most things with your hands or keeping things nearby so you can reach them easily with your arms. The same could be applied to your swimming routine. I am not sure what happened to you but if you are hurt you will avoid doing too much with your legs and compensate with your arms. Since you are moving your arms more than what you normally would this will affect your Versa's calculation (for example distance is calculated by multiplying your steps with your stride length so you see how this can affect your stats). Try wearing your Versa on your non dominant hand but select that hand as your dominant on the Versa settings to make it a little bit less sensitive to movements. Hopefully this will help reduce the step count on your daily activities. If steps are counted while moving your hands (but not walking) you can negate them by logging a driving activity.

Let me know how it goes!

[Lynnusa2000]

So does this mean it is typical for swimming to count as steps? After the morning swim there are 5000 steps on my versa..no way those are real steps 

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Lynnusa2000 Welcome to the Fitbit Community! I hope you're doing well! The motion you did during your swim session was interpreted as steps but as I explained since the swim session was detected and recorded by your Versa the calories will be calculated based on this information (so you won't get double calories counted for this period). This is something that is bound to happen with wrist based devices since they will depend on the movement of your hands. This movement won't necessarily mean that you are walking but your device has no idea of this still you can log a driving activity as described above.

Keep me posted!