Ambidextrous, which hand is dominant?

[N.Connelly]

I use my left hand as often as my right, sometimes more often. I've been wearing my Sense on my left hand, and have the app set for dominate hand. But it isn't counting steps correctly, I could be sitting down and reach for something, and it counts a step. Often times while I am driving, I end up with 20 or so more steps.

[N8teGee]

Hi @N.Connelly, good to see you in the community.

I think the best you can do is set it to dominant like you have. All the setting really does is introduce a slight buffer (makes it less sensitive) so that it ignores more movements that may not be actual steps. Saying that though, it's always going to be normal to have some movements counted as steps on a wrist based tracker. If it's only a few steps here and there I wouldn't worry about it. If you're averaging let's say 10,000 steps a day, even an extra 100 false steps isn't going to make any difference to your overall calorie burn etc.

We have to understand the limitations of such devices (nothing worn on the wrist is going to be 100% accurate) and try to work with them. If you do feel you are getting too many steps whilst driving, you can go back and log that period as driving which will remove the steps. See below on how to do that (taken from this help article).

Open the Fitbit app on your phone. 

1. Tap the Today tab 
2. On the Exercise tile , tap the + icon > Log or Log Previous.
3. Choose Driving as the exercise type. Make sure the exercise details overlap with the time period your device logged the unwanted steps or floors.
4. Tap Add or Log it. Your steps, floors, and calories burned will decrease for the time period you specified.

[SunsetRunner]

@N.Connelly - to answer your original question - which hand is dominant? - Here is an answer I got during a Tai Chi session. When you go to pick up a pen, which hand automatically reaches for it. That is your dominant hand, no matter how often you use either hand. I’m ambidextrous out of necessity, having arthritis in both hands. I use which ever hand is working best at the time. I can even type one handed, with either hand. But I write best with my right so my instructor said that is my dominant hand. Hope this helps. @N8teGee offered good advice for removing those extra steps. But have you tried simply switching your left hand to non-dominant?