Why is driving counted as exercise?

[R-3493]

I got Fitbit to help me track sleep and keep myself accountable to how often I exercise, but it is currently impossible to do the latter.

I ride a scooter (the Vespa/moped kind) and Fitbit is always giving me 1,000+ steps each time I ride it - which is a minimum of twice a day. There are many posts on this site where people are asking about motorcycles, driving a truck, etc, that gives them steps or floors they didn’t actually do and how to remove them. The solution given is always “log the time you spent driving/riding your motorcycle as an exercise”. That does remove the unwanted/fake steps, but here is the problem - now Fitbit tells me “You’ve exercised for the day!” and fills up a side on the exercise tracker as if I completed a “1 of 5 days of exercise this week” when I haven’t. 

I’m not a developer myself, so I can’t *really* comment on the difficulty of changing the back end of a software, but I can’t imagine it would take multiple years (which is how long this has been a problem) to discount driving as an exercise or have an option to “not count steps” for a specified period of time, which makes me believe this issue is just being ignored. I hope to continue to use Fitbit in the future, but unless this issue gets fixed, I will be switching to another company for exercise/sleep tracking. Please let me know if I am wrong and there is another way to eliminate fake steps recorded while driving my scooter while also not counting driving as exercise that I have been unable to find on these forums. Thank you so much.

[SunsetRunner]

Hello @R-3493 

You mentioned in your post an option of possibly having a “don’t count steps” option for a particular period of time to eliminate steps being misinterpreted in activities such as driving. I for one would not be a fan of such an option due to life not being as predictable as that and the fear of forgetting to disable such in option for when I want those steps to count again. I believe you get those 1,000 steps each time you drive your scooter each day because although your feet are not physically walking I think it’s safe to bet that your hands/arms are moving to steer the scooter and maybe even hitting a bump or two and a step is registering at that time as well. If ya stop somewhere along your ride to let’s say buy a coffee then your suggestion would force the user to remember to “start the step count again” to walk in the coffee shop, order your coffee then walk back to your scooter, hit the don’t count these steps option yet again to carry on with your route. This method seems overly cumbersome and redundant. I think Fitbit didn’t mean to name driving as a Exercise in the classic definition of the more widely accepted idea of an exercise. But just as an entry you can do to help the user to later look back at their Fitbit app and think to themselves.....ummmmm why didn’t I get many steps between the hours blah blah and blah? Well they can look at their app and see “Oh I was driving my vehicle at that time”.  You also mention that your Fitbit tells ya “You Exercised For The Day” and fills up the side of your tracker as if you exercised for the day when you feel you haven’t. You also asked if there was a way to remove “fake steps” as you call them.

.....Well exercise can also be a state of mind..... meaning that when one person runs that’s exercise to them and reaching their best potential, someone else walks because they can’t run (maybe even disabled) and that’s their absolute best and then someone else walks to their car and drives around the block because they might be recovering from a severe injury and this is a major accomplishment and a form of exercise for them. So are these considered fake steps too? Maybe a way for you to eliminate “fake steps” as you refer to them is to simply put your tracker snugly in your pocket on your scooter rides and carry on. Just a thought.