Surge calculations seem to be off

[Uli_MT]

Hi there, 

This is my first week using Surge and I was so excited to see how many steps I am doing in a day and how many km I am covering. 

However, after about 3 days of great results it just seems that my results are too good to be true. 

For example, this morning I just walked to the kitchen for a glass of water and back to bed and my Surge tells me that I've already covered 0.07km, which is 70 meters and I live in a small apartment, there is no way that  the journey to my kitchen and back is 70 meters. I was fast asleep way before midnight, when the count resets. Same goes for step count. One trip and I was already 150 steps in, half an hour later, still in bed, I was already 250 steps in, so somehow I managed to get 100 extra steps by staying in bed.

Also, quick question about the calories burned, they seem to be a bit inflated too, as on average day, when I am not particularly active, I burn anywhere between 2600 and 3000+ calories. I am a woman of average size and average height. In the past I've used Polar watch with the HR monitor strap and it always showed way lower reading in terms of calories burned.  

Could you please suggest what can I do? I know I should switch settings from non-dominant hand to dominant hand and restart it. But is there anything else to be done?

Thank you.

[shipo]

A delta of a few hundred steps, either way, actual versus tracked is to be expected.  As with all wrist based trackers, regardless of who makes them, software is used to interpret events reported by an accelerometer; the results are close but will never be 100% accurate.

Regarding the calories burned, assuming your height and weight have been entered into your profile, your burn rate will be a combination of your base maintenance burn (i.e. your hourly caloric burn rate necessary to simply stay alive) plus any extra calories burned from activity.  This may or may not be similar to how other devices report calorie burn.

[pmkotran]

I have the same question and am not sure i understand the response given. I am on my first day (yahoo) wearing my surge. I drive a school bus which means I sit a lot yet after driving, the surge showed i had 1000's of steps, which I just could not have done. My hands are in constant motion turning a large steering wheel, does hand motion somehow translate into steps taken? Is there a way to intermittantly turn off the step counter then?

Thanks!

[shipo]

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@pmkotran wrote:

I have the same question and am not sure i understand the response given. I am on my first day (yahoo) wearing my surge. I drive a school bus which means I sit a lot yet after driving, the surge showed i had 1000's of steps, which I just could not have done. My hands are in constant motion turning a large steering wheel, does hand motion somehow translate into steps taken? Is there a way to intermittantly turn off the step counter then?

Thanks!

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Unfortunately, last time I checked there was no Bus Driver mode.  Sorry, that's a joke, couldn't resist.  🙂

The way the software works is if your hands are making repetitive motions it assumes they are steps; I imagine a school bus requires a lot of hand over hand work to maneuver the vehicle through neighborhoods and school lots and such.  So, unlike driving a car with very little hand motion (in relative terms), I can see how lots of steps could be counted.

The above said, there is also the flip-side of this; when walking through a grocery store, or in my case, pushing a wheelbarrow full of horse poop around, there are no steps logged because the arms and hands aren't making repetitive movements.  In this scenario, few if any steps are recorded.

[Uli_MT]

Of course, I do not expect the exact count to the last step and few hundred steps difference is to be expected. However, I am talking few thousands steps and 2-3km difference, which is significant. 

As for the calories, I know what my BMR is and I've accounted for it. I also do not expect a precise number to the last calorie burned, but I definitely do not expect the actual difference to be in hundreds.  

[pmkotran]

I'm not sure who responded to my question but thank you....for the humor as
well as the answer. I can simple take my surge off during the ride. Moving
your wheelbarrels full of poop however DOES deserve it's own button setting.

Thank you again.

[shipo]

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@pmkotran wrote:
I'm not sure who responded to my question but thank you....for the humor as
well as the answer. I can simple take my surge off during the ride. Moving
your wheelbarrels full of poop however DOES deserve it's own button setting.

Thank you again.

---

The wheelbarrows of poop comment was from me.  My wife and I were soon to become empty nesters and put our house up for sale four year ago; while waiting for it to sell I saw an ad on Craig's List for a "caretaker apartment on a 70-acre horse farm".  How could I resist?  I applied, and when I didn't hear back I called them.  Turns out 450 people applied in the 20 hours before they pulled the ad.

As fortune would have it, we got the apartment and have been living here ever since.  Of course the trade off is I need to get up at 5:00 three mornings per week to take care of the horses; I figure with the number of wheelbarrows I fill, walk out to the manure pile, and dump, I literally pitch a ton of poop a week.  🙂

[Rich_Laue]

@shipo For a year and a half i lived on a private farm and took care of 18 horses, 32 cats, and one dog. I could eat every day what i now eat in a week and not gain any weight, after leaving the farm in the next 10 years my weight went up 50 pounds to 183.

At 135 pounds i think i was the healthiest i had ever been.