Normal walking steps vs going up & down mountain trails

jhayden74942

I have a Garmin vivofit 2 and have used it for 3 months. Yesterday I started doing mountain trails around Bakersfield CA. Is there a way to tell the difference between counting steps up the mountains as opposed to just counting steps like you're walking on a smooth side walk or bike path. I've walked 16,000+ steps today all on the mountains but there should be a way to tell the difference in the exercise.

Brynjolf

Use your heart monitor chest strap - it will take your HR into account for steps taken. That's the only way to be really accurate, otherwise you're better off counting them as steps on flat ground and chalking up the extra burned calories as a bonus.

jhayden74942

Okay. I don't have a heart monitor chest strap. I'll have to do a Google and see what I need or what is required. Thank you for the info.

allaboutthecake

I wear a Garmin XT with a chest strap. It gives accurate information + takes into account the elevation. As long as the Garmin can read the satellite signal, its good. Mine doesn't give you actual steps, but it gives cal burned, hrs/min, activity, hr, distance.

BrianSharpe

Brynjolf wrote: »

Use your heart monitor chest strap - it will take your HR into account for steps taken. That's the only way to be really accurate, otherwise you're better off counting them as steps on flat ground and chalking up the extra burned calories as a bonus.

Your heart-rate, in and of itself, is not a reliable indicator of increased caloric expenditure Most HRMs will assume a less fit person expends more energy than a more fit person does (all other things being equal) which is simply not the case.

At least with something equipped with a GPS the algorithm will take into account distance traveled and elevation changes which will give you a much more accurate estimate (I'm another Garmin 910XT user).

OP fitness trackers like FitBit or VivoFit lack the sophistication to differentiate in the way you'd like but, as someone else suggested, you could think of the extra energy expended as a bonus burn!

lorrpb

Some trackers count the elevation change as "floors climbed" but they can't know if you're on a sidewalk or rocky path.