walking/jogging with a buggy

[chrissy1987]

i am on maternity next month and already have a 2year old.  i went for the surge due to having gps i thought this would mean i can track my distance as well as my steps and heart rate while out and about with my 2 children.

however i am wrong.  what is the point of having a gps setting on your fitbit if it gets overridden by arm movement (ie steps).  i walk down into town and its 0.83miles holding onto pram i walk uphill (less movement ) and its only 0.43miles, same route.  surely there should be a setting in which gps overrides the steps and then from this distance it can work out average steps.  there are so many mums out there who want to get back into shape, but push the pram, hold a baby or do shopping.

i completely agree if gps isnt on then it goes on arm movement but i cant understand what the gps app is worth being on a phone if it isn the priority

any help/advice on any other models or other products that will be more accurate for me?  fitbit have offered me a refund for the confusion, but have to go through "boots" and only have a few days to make the decision

[wmchapman]

Right, dampers are used to keep from recording steps while driving or flying (a stationary wrist = driving)

There's currently a suggested idea by @fudge22 to implement a stroller mode in a future update. Feel free to vote for it or add your comment to show your support, this is the best place in the community to make your voice heard, the more kudos the more likely the engineers will give it a shot.  Right now there are more tracker users concerned they are getting unearned steps while driving than those getting an under reported reading while pushing a cart. Be heard.

I hope this information had been useful, feel free to reply if you need anything else!

PS Congrats!

[Emujo]

Put the surge in your pocket or attach it to your belt. You will lose the HR feature, but it will accurately record your steps. The GPS feature only tracks your where the surge has gone, the steps, HR, etc, are fed by data inputs from the surge. Let's say you take 2200 steps per mile, if you just drove around for 5 miles with the GPS running, and it worked the way you wanted, you would get 11,000 steps, regardless of whether you actually walked them or not. This way you can't "cheat". ( and please don't imply that I am saying you would cheat). Emujo

[chrissy1987]

many thanks for this i have voted and commented, just a shame this was written a year ago and fitbit still havent done anything about it

[chrissy1987]

thank you.  i used to be a personal trainer so the heart rate is a really good tool for me to show my fitness levels improve and recovery rate.