How accurate is the step tracker on your phone?

Fernando936mfp

My goal is to lose 20 pounds. I’m only 5.2ft and weigh 61kg. I know it will be hard cause I dnt have a lot of fat to lose.
My question is how accurate the step tracker on your phone?

Thanks

tinkerbellang83

It varies from device to device.

There are 2 things you can do to check the accuracy of your step tracker/activity level in MFP.

1. Take 10 steps and see how many your phone counts, repeat a couple of times.
2. Stick with the calorie adjustment (either in full or a percentage - many people start with eating 50% back), log your food accurately (food scale is best) for 4-6 weeks, and see if you lose the weight you're expecting to (with 20lbs to lose 0.5-1lb per week is a reasonable rate of loss). After the 4-6 weeks you can then adjust as necessary.

Danp

I've found my watch (Skagen Hybrid) to be super accurate over the course of the day.

I tested it while on a walk by counting out 500 steps and checking the count and it would always come in almost spot on, between 490 and 495. But on the flip side it picks up a few phantom steps here and there while I'm on the train or at my desk so in the end it seems to even out to a pretty spot on step count.

Unfortunately I've given up trying to get MFP to accurately adjust calories for steps. Luckily I've been at this long enough that I'm able to manually adjust my calories to account for different levels of daily activity pretty easily so it's not too much of an issue.

MikePTY

I am not 100 percent sure how accurate my Huwaei is with number of steps on day to day activities. But I will say that when I use this exercise functions to track my 5k races, it is super accurate. Like to 0.01km accurate. So that gives me a lot of faith in the overall step count.

The biggest issues with using a phone as a tracker is that I don't have it on me 24/7. So it misses lots of steps I get during the day walking around my house and office.

apullum

I find step counting to be meaningless for my goals and exercise routine. I'm a runner; I find there to be a big distance between running 5000 steps and walking 5000 steps. I therefore measure my mileage walked, run, or hiked, rather than my steps. My Runkeeper app automatically tracks walks of 15 minutes or more; anything shorter is probably going to fall within my activity level setting, unless I have a weird day with lots of little walks. Runkeeper is a little bit off in terms of distance, but at this point my errors in MFP and Runkeeper seem to offset one another; I've lost the weight I wanted to lose and have maintained for a few years, so it works for me

Keep in mind that you are already in the optimal BMI range for your height. Tracking steps/distance is good, but it's going to be far more important to track your food intake very accurately. That usually means weighing all solid food. You may also want to consider recomp rather than weight loss. If you lose weight, you have no control over where your body burns the fat from, so you may not get the appearance you want. Recomp allows you to build muscle and reduce fat, and it makes most people happier with their appearance.

whitpauly

I use the Pacer app sometimes when Fitbit isn't synching with MFP seems pretty accurate,right now I'm using some random walking app just as motivation to get more Fitbit steps cuz my phone isn't on me all the time and I strive to get to 10,000 on the app then on Fitbit I'll have 15,000 or more but to me it counts pretty good 👍

springlering62

I realized my Apple Watch was picking up needlepoint, crochet and even sign language as steps sometimes. One day I “waked” a mile working on a yarn project. So I take it off when I craft. Other than that, I have this OCD habit of counting steps when I walk or run so usually know how many steps I’ve taken without looking. I find it’s pretty accurate.

whitpauly

springlering62 wrote: »

I realized my Apple Watch was picking up needlepoint, crochet and even sign language as steps sometimes. One day I “waked” a mile working on a yarn project. So I take it off when I craft. Other than that, I have this OCD habit of counting steps when I walk or run so usually know how many steps I’ve taken without looking. I find it’s pretty accurate.

I've gotten steps on Fitbit from rocking a baby to sleep in the rocker recliner 😆