Stride length question

jessiedawn8400

I have been trying to dial in my stride length and am coming up with a wide range with the different methods.... Doing it with the treadmill at 2.3 mph (which feels like a natural pace for my everyday walking to me) I'm coming up with 23 inches. Going off the GPS on map my walk I have to have my stride length set to 30 inches for it to be close (.25 miles on maymywalk and .22 per Fitbit... Which is close enough for me), and again at a normal natural pace for everyday walking, not excerise pace. I did a 5k this weekend (walking) and based on steps and distance it comes out to about 30 inches also. There was definitely a difference in the speed I was walking the 5k vs using mapmywalk, but it wasn't a high intensity 5k,just a fun walk. I've also gotten my feet wet and walked along a tape measure laid out and heel to heel is about 23 inches while back heel to front toe is average 29. I'm not sure which figure to use in the fitbit app... Or maybe I'm being too anal about getting it so close?

@heybales maybe you have some insight?

heybales

Getting that avg daily pace stride length right is very important IF you do a lot of daily steps.

Tape measure across room isn't good because it's so far from natural and long enough for good avg.

Calibrated treadmill (sadly they require it too - if gym machine might ask how often they do it) set to level could be the best.

It's so hard to hold to a slow pace like that outside, likely going faster than you think.

And I keep saying avg, but really mid-point, because the dynamic adjustment per step has to go up and down, middle is best.

So if exercise walks aren't over 4mph, than would be fine - and feel very slow outside.

GPS outside not always great for that though, enough inaccuracy unless it long and straight probably has enough errors, besides walking pace off GPS will be very incorrect.

I'd go for treadmill again, 2 mph - 1/2 mile to 1 mile minimum.

jessiedawn8400

Thanks! My pace at rge 5k was about 3.15... Just over a 19 minute mile. That's probably my average excerise pace honestly. I'm working in getting it up more, but that was a comfortable pace I could go for a while at. I have been averaging about 9000 steps daily for the last few weeks, so I'm not sure how much of a difference this will really have for a few inches in the stride length??? I'll give it another go on the treadmill again for a longer distance and see what I get there. It's be so much easier if these didn't need adjusted so much lol.

heybales

So getting up to 4 mph isn't unrealistic for some moments, so that makes 2 mph a good medium.
That way it can correct down to the grocery store shuffle step impact, and up to that higher pace.

9000 isn't a huge impact for minor inaccuracy, when people start getting up to 20K and they have it set at say fast exercise pace stride length, but majority of steps and day were way less pace - then you got more major problems.

Bring music or TV - 2mph for 1 mile seems soooo slow.

Now, what can make another difference down the road, weight loss. Specifically in legs such the stride changes.

But usually have to lose a decent amount of volume there to make a difference, and usually starting high.

jessiedawn8400

Thanks for all your help! I'm hoping to have enough time left after my appointment with the trainer today to walk that slow mile on the treadmill of not it'll have to stay as is for a week or so. I'm seeing the expected results with my weight loss, so I'm not too concerned if I have to put it off a bit. I'd just like to get the fitbit as accurate as possible.