Fitbit charge more sensitive than a flex?

Adiemus200

I have been using a fitbit flex this past year and its been great. I decided to upgrade to a charge HR recently because of its extra features. I have only had it four days and its been fairly accurate until today. I have a active job and I walk to and from work. When I where my flex on a average day after work I walk between 11,000 and 13,000 steps. I wore my charge HR to work day for the first time and it counted 18,000 steps! It was a busy day today, but I have never got 18,000 steps at work before with my flex and I'm sure I have had busier days in the past than today. My normal calorie adjustment after work is approximately 200 - 400 calories, it was 800 today. I have either had a busier day than I realise, or my charge is more sensitive to hand movements than my flex was. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? I was also wondering if I should eat back my fitbit adjustment my charge gives me, it seems rather inflated.

heybales

Steps is just used to estimate distance, it's distance and time and mass that give calorie burn walking.

Is the distance about the same?

The stride length being seen and your stat for that could be different between devices.

Once you've confirmed accurate - yes, reach your goal.
- MFP is trying to correct it's math with more accurate figure based on your actual level of activity.

Bigger diet is not better by skipping those adjustments.

Adiemus200

Thanks for your reply. My charge says I walked an extra mile than I would normally do at work. I will see if this happens again tomorrow or weather it was a one off occurrence.

I checked my fit bit account. My stride length is set the same as my flex.

There is one thing I just thought of wich might explain my higher fitbit adjustment. The charge counts flights of stairs but the flex does not. My walk to work is mostly up a steep hill and my fitbit counted some of my steps as climbing stairs. I also live on a top floor flat. I have to climb a load of stairs to get home, my flex would have counted those as normal steps.

I will monitor my steps for now, I just have this hunch that its not quite right.

NancyN795

The stair climbing tally is really "just for fun". It doesn't affect any calculations, which is a good thing because it's very unreliable.

heybales

Is the Charge fitting tighter on wrist, such that it would then feel impacts easier, be those steps or plain arm movement or other big enough vibrations?

You might look for big step areas in your daily graph at times you know are not big step amounts.

You may have to adjust sensitivity setting on this device.

I'm sure you have more important things to think about on walk home, but perhaps take 5 minutes out of walk by testing.
Stop, note step count, walk and count steps or at least right foot coming down, until near some even 100 number approaching 5 min.
Note step count on device, see what difference. If counting right foot only, remember to double for steps.

Adiemus200

Yes my charge fits snugger than my flex. The strap is a bit smaller and I have it done up a bit tighter for my HR.

So far today I am getting inflated steps. So I did an experiment. I walked 100 steps and checked my charge and it counted the same as I had counted. Then put the fitbit in my pocket and did the same and had the same result. So I left my fitbit in my pocket for 3 hours and my steps are back to the normal range I would expect in 3 hours. I move my hands quite a lot at work so my charge must pick up on this. My sensitivity is set to normal and is set on to non dominant wrist. I guess im going to have to wear my charge in my pocket when im at work. :-(

Thanks for the responses I appreciate the help.

Adiemus200

Okay, I had my charge in my pocket when at work and put it on to go home.

My step count is about right now. However my calorie adjustment was almost as large as yesterday. Is that because the charge HR takes HR into consideration when working out calorie burn for the day? Sorry if this comes over as a stupid question. Im really confused about my new fitbit reports. >. <

kaitlinrt

I've read recommendations to wear it on a non dominant hand but set the charge HR to say you are wearing it on your dominant hand. This may fix some of your accuracy issues. I love the HR feature on my Charge so I would hate to have to wear it in my pocket and not have the HR feature utilized!

NancyN795

Adiemus200 wrote: »

Okay, I had my charge in my pocket when at work and put it on to go home.

My step count is about right now. However my calorie adjustment was almost as large as yesterday. Is that because the charge HR takes HR into consideration when working out calorie burn for the day? Sorry if this comes over as a stupid question. Im really confused about my new fitbit reports. >. <

When you take your HR off and put it in your pocket, be sure to turn off heart rate sensing. (I don't know for sure, but suspect that if you don't it will drain the battery faster, as it will probably keep looking for a heart rate on a frequent basis.)

To test whether the increased calorie adjustment is due to the HR function, try using it for a day with the HR function turned off and see if you still get the increased calories.

To test whether the calorie burn it is giving is correct, trust it for a few weeks and see if your weight change is close to the prediction.

Adiemus200

Thanks guys. I have changed my charge wrist settings to dominant rather than non dominant. Hopefully that will help. I will try turning the HR off etc... and have a play around with it. I fenced after work today and my fitbit report was about right. My calorie count for work just seems to be a bit off. Maybe I move more than I think I do.

heybales

HR based calorie burn is only used for the aerobic exercise range as it should be, above about 90, and they include test of enough steps to look like exercise, not just freaking out causing inflated HR.
Step based calorie burn used for daily still, since more accurate.

So if steps is right, that leaves distance as the other factor behind calorie burn, if you think it's still way off compared to other device.

The stride length being the same is good start, but that's not the stride length used for every step.
That length and your mass result in an expected impact for each step, impacts higher or lower mean stride was longer or shorter than the stat, and adjusted.

So it could still be that steps and stride length match, but the impact of the steps is seen different, and you are still given greater distance, which means more calorie burn for equal time.

Adiemus200

Thanks for your help guy's. My problem is now resolved. Changing the settings to dominant sorted my inflated step count. The HR feature on my charge was giving me more calories than my flex. :-)