treadmill minutes vs fitbit active minutes

i've noticed a couple of times while wearing my fitbit one and walking on my treadmill i get two very different readings from each unit. tonight my treadmill said i walked 57 minutes while my fitbit dashboard said i had 18 active minutes. i understand my treadmill is rather old and my fitbit one is newer but i'm thinking the difference is a lot between the two units. can someone explain to me why such a difference? thanks for any help on this matter...

Replies

  • glasshalffull713
    glasshalffull713 Posts: 323 Member
    uhhhhh....?

    How long did you actually walk? Do you have this problem at any other time? The only thing I can say is that for a while the prong in the battery compartment of my fitbit was out of place and I had a bad connection so sometimes the battery would lose contact and intermittently, lots of steps didn't get recorded. Once I bent the prong back out by gently putting with a tiny screwdriver, no more issues.
  • mjohnson1twenty
    mjohnson1twenty Posts: 932 Member
    good morning glass half full~ with quick drink breaks and stretches i would say i walked a full 50 to 55 minutes. i will have my husband take a look at that prong to see if it's connecting properly. i would definitely like to get all my steps accounted for. thanks so much for taking the time to answer my question. hope all is well your way. have a great day~
  • dlr165
    dlr165 Posts: 118 Member
    I have noticed that if I walk 3.8 mph or faster on the treadmill it shows up as active minutes. Slower and I get step credits but no active minutes credit.
  • mjohnson1twenty
    mjohnson1twenty Posts: 932 Member
    thanks so much Dlr 165... i will try to step it up a bit when exercising on my treadmill and see if that corrects my problem. have a great day~
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    If Fitbit is doing the measuring, meaning you don't create your own activity, it needs to be between 3.8 and 4 mph for a whole minute, and burn 6 x your resting calorie burn to count as Very Active Minutes.

    The bigger question then, because it leads to the Fitbit knowing how fast you walked - was the distance correct on Fitbit?

    If distance was wrong, then their calculated stride length was wrong, pace was wrong, calorie burn was wrong, ect.
  • mjohnson1twenty
    mjohnson1twenty Posts: 932 Member
    hello HeyBales~ thanks for your input. i will certainly walk a bit faster on my treadmill next time to account for those very active minutes. as for my distance being correct... i'm not sure. i'll have to pay closer attention to that next time. i was focused more on my minutes Sunday. so, to make sure i'm understanding you correctly if the distance was off then that means my husband and i didn't calculate my stride correctly, right? should i recheck my stride again?
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    hello HeyBales~ thanks for your input. i will certainly walk a bit faster on my treadmill next time to account for those very active minutes. as for my distance being correct... i'm not sure. i'll have to pay closer attention to that next time. i was focused more on my minutes Sunday. so, to make sure i'm understanding you correctly if the distance was off then that means my husband and i didn't calculate my stride correctly, right? should i recheck my stride again?

    Do it while walking on the treadmill - if you think it's accurate for distance anyway.

    Walk at normal (not exercise level if different) walking speed.
    When the distance clicks over to 0.4 miles start counting each right foot going down for a step.
    When it clicks over to 0.5 miles stop counting.
    Double that number for total steps done in 1/10 of a mile.

    528 feet / total steps = stride length to use on Fitbit site.

    Because yes, if the distance was indeed off, then pace was off, pace is used to determine calorie burn. Which is used to determine VAM time.
  • perseverance14
    perseverance14 Posts: 1,364 Member
    Check what you have your stride set to. It took me a while to realize that if it was not correct, I had to adjust it up not down. I started out at 1.8 feet, but my stride is actually 2 feet. When I adjusted it down to 1 foot, then 8 inches, it was telling me I walked 1.25 miles when I knew for a fact the actual distance I walked was 4 miles (I was walking at work and we have a walking area with the mileage posted). Since I set mine to 2 feet (my actual stride) and my running to 2.5 (really I should set that to 3) I have not had a problem. I ran on my treadmill 30 minutes with 5 minutes warm up/cool down this morning, and Fitbit gave me 30 very active minutes.
  • mjohnson1twenty
    mjohnson1twenty Posts: 932 Member
    thank you so much perseverance14~ it's sounding more and more like i need to recheck my stride and change it to reflect my true stepping. sounds like you have a very nice track to walk on at work. i walk around my neighborhood and can get some great mileage that way. it was a beautiful day today. hope all is well your way. have a great night~