Can't Get Surge & Fred Flintstone's Treadmill To Play Nicely Together!

[EnjoyToday]

Hello All!

I am new to FitBit & Surge. I am quite lost trying to get my Surge's step count (or miles) to match my treadmill. Perhaps you guys have some suggestions I can follow to get them to co-exist peacefully.

The treadmill isn't a real one. It has a belt just like a motorized unit, but no motor. My legs are the motor. The arms swing naturally while the waist is against a padded bar. Option two is to grab some hand holds on moving arms & swing the arms like when running. Specifically, it is Walkfit 5000 (1970's? version, not the new one)

I have read lots & lots of posts here & on outside sites on the subject and tried all the applicable solutions. No luck so far.

What really puzzles me is that after I adust my running stride length shorter or longer, the percentage of error vs. what Fitbit shows can go closer or it can be the inverse. (Example- If stride is 2'3" and there is a 200 step discrepancy, changing stride shorter can lower or raise the discrepancy. Changing the stride longer can also make the difference bigger or smaller. Goofy, huh?)  I've done sevearl re-starts of the tracker, too.

I tired the Fitbit in the pocket suggestions, as well as in my sock. The count discrepancy doesn't change. Actually, having it in the pocket or sock isn't a great sloution for me because one of the reasons I use a Fitbit is the reputation for an accurate wrist based heart rate monitor. I really have to watch my rate while going about excersing.

To make sure I am adusting the stride right, here's what I do:

Log In to my Dashboard (I do not have a smart phone.)

Change the Running Stride setting.

Log Out

Sync the tracker

Set the Surge to "Treadmill Run"

Count my actual footsteps.

Compare the two.

As mentioned above, sometimes I have re-set the device. This is usually if the resulats were way wrong.

Some Example Readings:

Note- To make them all match, I extrapolated the step count to 200 steps. Some were 200, some 400, some much more. All were adjusted to make this easier to read.

   Stride at 2'8" (Actual) Count = 200

    Stride at 2' 3-1/2"      Count = 200     FB = 143     29% Error
    Stride at 3' 0"             Count = 200    FB = 134    33% Error
    Stride at 2' 0"             Count = 200    FB = 156     22% Error
    Restart 2'0"                Count=  200    FB = 123     39% Error  (Restarted Fitbit before this test)
    Stride 2' 8" (Actual)    Count = 200    FB = 130     35% Error (My actual stride while on treadmill)
    Stride at 3' 6"             Count = 200    FB = 165    18% Error
    Stride at 4' 1"              Count = 200  FB = 136     32% Error

[EnjoyToday]

I apologize but I goofed & pushed the wrong button. The previous post got posted before I finished. Oops!

Anyway... The first example in the 'chart' was my actual stride length. The Fitbit step count was different than when I returned to my actual length later.

Also, as the chart (sorta) shows, lengthening or shortening the stride can have th opposite effect.

And, I tried each test twice (or more). Once was with arms swingging naturally and once with the arms pushing & pulling on the arm gizmos on the Walkfit. The counts were very close for each.

So, I'm supre duper lost and a bit frustrated trying to get the step count to match my head counted steps. Do any of you have a suggestion I may try to get the step count on the Surge to match the in-my-head count while on the treadmill?

Thanks Very Much for sharing your skills!

Enjoy This Day!

Paul