How does an ambidextrous determine dominant hand?

[mawitters]

I always felt my left hand was my dominant, although in school i was taught to write with my right hand. I do everything else left handed; ie throw a ball, etc. So...which hand is my dominant hand?

ma

[slysam]

For sleep or all day monitoring? For sleep, I would wear it on the right hand. It is meant to be the hand less likely to be moving and if you naturally prefer your left hand than I would consider the right the non-dominant for sleep monitoring. All day activity? I am not sure it depends which hand you use the most. Obviously if you are writing than your left is non-dominant, but for other activities your right is non-dominant. 

[mawitters]

I have it on my left and it asked me if i had it on my dominant hand and i said yes, so i guess that is right. Yes, my left is what i reach, throw, and use as the dominant. Since i don't write a whole lot anymore except for little notes here and there i guess that I would have to say my left definitely is the more dominant. I didn't see anywhere that i was supposed to have it on the least dominant arm. I would like to read some more info about the setting up process, trying to find it on the web.


MaWitters

[bluiiz]

I'm ambidextrous. I do everything left handed except write(I write with both hands but mostly right as years ago in school, they made me use my right hand). I keep it on my left as I'm a full time nursing student (at 45 😉 & I write A LOT!! I've figured out all the writing was counting as steps!!

[trainer]

You can find a manual for your device at the bottom of this page. Just go to your device under device help and it will show you an online owners manual.

[BrianHagmeier]

This might help a lot of LEFT handed and AMBIDEXTROUS people. 

In either case put the fitbit on your right hand and use as dominant hand and you will get much more accurate readings. 

REASONING: Regardless of our handedness we live in a right handed world. 99% of all doors open to the right handed advantage. Even rifridurators leave the factory opening from the right. The controls in your car are all on the right. (in the US) Laptop Keyboard delet, return, arross, punctuation is all on the right side.  

You may be Lefty or Ambi but the world we live in is for the Right handed. 

[pnutshell]

 I have the same issue, the instructions say use the hand you write and eat with. Well I write with my right but eat with my left. I have it on my left hand and picked non dominant. I will see how it goes both ways I guess.

[GoldaT]

I am technically ambi-dextrous ---- they tried to make me write with right hand but failed once my parents realized I wouldn't change and they stepped in at school and made sure mean teacher did not hit me every time I used my left hand to print.  I wear my watch on my left wrist and my fitbit on my right wrist.  I've set fitbit sensitivity for "dominant" and "normal" --- it seems to be working more accurately than it did on previous settings (before I was diagnosed with sleep apnea and began using CPAP machine to keep me breathing while I slept).  It's really a matter of trial and error for lefties and ambi's. Good luck.

[GoldaT]

@BrianHagmeier:  I would guess that you're not a leftie and I think your reasoning in any case is flawed. There is no right or wrong way to wear a watch or a fitbit.  For lefties and ambi's, it's a matter of trial and error to find out which wrist will work best.  It took me several tries, but I discovered that, for me, the right wrist worked best; all I had to do was programme my fitbit to meet my needs.  However, I was never able to wear a watch on my right wrist --- they would run in reverse. Even for some dominantly righties, using the left wrist might work in terms of sensitivity for their fitbit.  As for my refrigerator, it has two doors and they open either with my right or left hand; no adjustments were necessary.  My QWERTY keyboard works with either hand as well --- I use both hands on the keyboard and have no issues with where the punctuation and other keys are place; it's a matter of adapting just as with the fitbit choice of which wrist works best.

[Mike2]

Ambidextrous or not, the problem is that fitbit (most likely in an effort to simplify) named the setting wrong. 🙂

What the setting does is set the sensitivity of the fitbit. non-dominant sets the sensitivity higher and dominant sets it lower. So for me, a rightie who wears the fitbit on the left but apprently moves his hands a lot when talking or sitting or pretty much doing anything that's not walking the dominant setting (ie lower sensitivty) works best. It still overestimates my steps by about 2000 a day though...

[c_o_r_i_n_e_]

I'm a lefty but I sit at a computer all day and my right hand and arm have a lot movement. I find it to be very floppy when I walk too.

I was hoping to get clarity because I have the Charge HR and resting heart rate may be different for dominant and non dominant wrists......anyone anyone but i'll keep checking the boards.

[khurtsmom]

Having the same problem here. Was taught in school to use the right to write, I eat with my left, grab things with my left, will even cross over to open doors with my left, but my left side is also much stronger then my right so I end up holding babies on my left which will when walking through stores immobilize it where it doesn’t track points. I can walk and count 50 steps and it only tracks 13, so I don’t know if it’s a dominant/non-dominant issue or if it’s cause I’m only 5’1 and they naturally track a much bigger stride then my measily 12 inches. I like my fit bit but I get really frustrated with it too, it won’t track steps if I’m pushing a shopping cart either.

[GoldaT]

That's another reason I switched to wearing my Fitbit Flex on my ankle. I
found my steps were recorded more accurately when I carried stuff in my
arms or used a shopping cart as well. Let me know if you'd like the
information for my source for ankle bands.

[khurtsmom]

That’s exactly what I started doing the day after I posted this post! I put it on my ankle (I have a scrunchie band on mine so it struggles getting on and off but is so comfortable I don’t feel it when it’s on. I put it as non dominant and now it’s tracking every step beautifully. It still tracks my heart rate and oxygen fine too. Thank you Golda ☺️

[GoldaT]

I'm glad to hear that you've resolved the issue and wish you good steppin'
results from now on. G. 🙂🙂🙂🙂