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Need a bit of input

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echelonokie
echelonokie Posts: 92
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While on the treadmill, I don't always swing my arms. A lot of time, my hands are on the little heartbeat reader things. Anyway! Say I'm on the treadmill for 45 minutes at 2.5 mph, should I enter this myself or will Fitbit track it being that I'm not really moving my arms?

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  • PinkNinjaLaura
    PinkNinjaLaura Posts: 3,202 Member
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    It should count your steps if you're holding on pretty loosely. When I have a problem is if I have my wrists planted so the Fitbit isn't moving at all. We have a treadmill desk at work so I have my wrists resting on my laptop when I type, and it doesn't catch most of those steps. But if I'm pushing a shopping cart it does count those.

    I used to hold onto the treadmill too but after watching Jillian Michaels yelling at her contestants on TBL over and over to let go, I finally let go. Except when I'm walking & working, I let my arms swing.
  • echelonokie
    echelonokie Posts: 92
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    Thing is, it's been a LONG time since I've been on a treadmill! lol I do turn loose sometimes, but a lot of it I'm holding onto the front or side bars.

    What makes me wonder if it's not catching it is that I'm doing 1.5 miles on the treadmill, my goal for the day is only 2 miles, and doing the treadmill isn't pushing me way over.
  • PinkNinjaLaura
    PinkNinjaLaura Posts: 3,202 Member
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    You might need to test your stride length. It estimates how far you're walking based on your height, but you may have a longer or shorter stride than "average." My walk stride is correct but my run stride is wrong. You can adjust it if you can figure out what it's doing wrong. I tested my walking stride by going to a track and doing one lap so I knew for certain it was a quarter mile. (I'm never quite sure how accurate the treadmill estimates are.)
  • echelonokie
    echelonokie Posts: 92
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    You know, that actually makes a lot of sense! And CURSE these forums for not saying when we have a reply!

    I know my walk stride but I also know the faster I walk, the shorter it gets so maybe that's throwing things off.
  • KimberlyinMN
    KimberlyinMN Posts: 302 Member
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    One thing that I've found is that if my Flex didn't count my steps right (or at ALL) on the treadmill, I just add the distance/intensity at the Fitbit site as an activity. Fitbit will send the steps it figures out to my Flex. (And then I don't log that exercise on MFP.)

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