Fitbit Milage Way Off - Anyone experienced this?

Dannilee2013
Dannilee2013 Posts: 37 Member
edited June 2015 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi

Me and my husband went on an 11 mile way this morning, we know 100% that it is just over 11 miles. We both have fitbits and mine recorded the walk as 5.3 and hubs as 7.
We both have the Charge HR and we were both in exercise mode, is it likely that the calories burned were also out? The time walking was correct.

Anyone else had this problem?

Replies

  • festerw
    festerw Posts: 233 Member
    You may need to go into the settings and adjust your stride length. It 'guesses' based on the basic info you provide on the initial set up, but entering a stride length will make it more accurate.
  • 7lenny7
    7lenny7 Posts: 3,498 Member
    The Fitbit and other step-counting activity trackers cannot be expected to provide an accurate distance. The only way to make sure it was accurate would be to measure your average stride length over a considerable distance, then make sure your stride is EXACTLY that length for every step, no matter the incline of your route, the weather, your energy level, etc.

    I've been calibrating my FitBit Charge to my Forerunner 305 and had the FitBit reading within 1.5% of the 305 distance for several runs, but then yesterday it gave me a result that was more like 5% off. What changed? I was trail running for the first time.

    I think the best you can do, given the inherent limitations of step counters, is to walk a KNOWN distance, divide that by the number of steps, then enter that as your stride length. Even then you have to understand that many factors can affect the result so the distance FitBit comes up with is only an approximation.
  • Adc7225
    Adc7225 Posts: 1,318 Member
    I experienced some issue with Exercise Mode - I just stopped using it. I am not really sure how it counts steps in Exercise Mode, the manual does say this is only tracks running and walking while in Exercise Mode so I am not sure how accurate that is and what criteria it takes into account while you are in Exercise Mode.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    Dannilee2013 wrote: »
    Me and my husband went on an 11 mile way this morning, we know 100% that it is just over 11 miles. We both have fitbits and mine recorded the walk as 5.3 and hubs as 7.
    We both have the Charge HR and we were both in exercise mode, is it likely that the calories burned were also out? The time walking was correct.

    Anyone else had this problem?

    To get accurate mileage, you each need to calibrate your stride: http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/How-do-I-measure-and-adjust-my-stride-length

    It doesn't affect your burn, though. Trust your Fitbit for several weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

    You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users
  • omma_to_3
    omma_to_3 Posts: 3,265 Member
    Yes, try adjusting the stride length. I know the ones on the arms can be off if you don't move your arms enough when you walk though. I have a FitBit zip that I wear hooked to my bra. I adjusted the stride length and it is very, very close on the distance when I compare to my GPS watch.
  • djscavone
    djscavone Posts: 133 Member
    Since you both have the issue I would agree that it could be the stride plus the exercise mode. Try their tech support. When I went from a ZIP to a ONE I found the ONE was way off. I had to reset it almost daily it was so off on everything. Tech support walked me through a few things and then finally they mailed me a replacement Fitbit all free of charge.
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
    What was the step count? It sounds like it might have missed steps, too. I just re-calibrated my stride length yesterday because I walked a 5 mile course and, even though the step count seemed okay, I was almost a mile short. Turns out I had my stride length set incorrectly. I changed that and everything is fine. You should have roughly 22000+ steps for an 11 mile course.

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