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This may be a dumb question but..

jenlo1971
jenlo1971 Posts: 49 Member
edited November 2024 in Getting Started
I walk a certain route. I always wear my Fitbit and have also carried my phone and ran map my walk. The first few times a did this- it seemed my Fitbit and map my walk were showing the same number of miles. Tonight the map my walk showed .50 mile more than the Fitbit. Is this a glitch? Or is there some other reason this may have occurred?

Replies

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    jenlo1971 wrote: »
    I walk a certain route. I always wear my Fitbit and have also carried my phone and ran map my walk. The first few times a did this- it seemed my Fitbit and map my walk were showing the same number of miles. Tonight the map my walk showed .50 mile more than the Fitbit. Is this a glitch? Or is there some other reason this may have occurred?

    If you track your walk in the Fitbit app, then it uses GPS to calculate the distance. If not, it just multiplies the number of steps times your stride length.

    I don't know how MapMy calculates distance.
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
    edited August 2015
    Fitbit app has GPS to track the route. Don't even need to have/use one of their pedometers to use the app to track the route (basically what/how MapMyWalk does).

    In the past, I found MapMyWalk to overestimate my route consistently so I just stick with the Fitbit app.

    My suggestion is to just use one instead of both. Otherwise you'll constantly be trying to figure out which to use and why there are discrepancies.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    I have Runkeeper and Fitbit. There are occasions when the GPS on Runkeeper goes wonky and calculates my walks as .5-1.5 miles further than I actually did. I didn't care for Fitbit's GPS when I used it.
  • badhair56
    badhair56 Posts: 239 Member
    you're lucky, the couple of times my "map my walk" was off, it was only by about 0.3 miles but not in my favor. I actually walked farther than it calculated, and this is on a known route that I've taken several times. and most of those time I was using the program and it gave the correct mileage. a little research showed a few things that could have happen like needing to restart my phone, too much cloud cover (not likely in San Antonio) having too many things running on the phone at the same time, ie: email, wireless etc.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    None of the apps are totally consistent with each other or 100% consistent with themselves from day to day. GPS is not perfect.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    I walk the same route and it is never the same.
  • TnTWalter
    TnTWalter Posts: 345 Member
    can you drive the route to see which is right?
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
    edited August 2015
    TnTWalter wrote: »
    can you drive the route to see which is right?

    Why drive? You could just map it on google maps. I'm not sure how driving it would give you a better read out? Unless you are assuming her car has GPS and even so - that's now adding in a 3rd device.

    Or do you mean relying on the odometer? Just seems like a lot of work and overthinking the situation.
  • jenlo1971
    jenlo1971 Posts: 49 Member
    It's in a state park so driving is not an option. A trail in the park. I just wondered what could affect this.
  • Rockey58
    Rockey58 Posts: 1 Member
    jenlo1971 wrote: »
    I walk a certain route. I always wear my Fitbit and have also carried my phone and ran map my walk. The first few times a did this- it seemed my Fitbit and map my walk were showing the same number of miles. Tonight the map my walk showed .50 mile more than the Fitbit. Is this a glitch? Or is there some other reason this may have occurred?

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    PikaKnight wrote: »
    Why drive? You could just map it on google maps. I'm not sure how driving it would give you a better read out?

    you're moving faster, GPS is apparently more accurate at faster speeds as you move more per unit time - or so a Running app developer told me.

  • enterdanger
    enterdanger Posts: 2,447 Member
    I have found map my run to be inaccurate when it comes to distance and calories burned. Probably the same for map my walk.
  • jenlo1971
    jenlo1971 Posts: 49 Member
    It does provide some insight as to why maybe we shouldn't eat all those exercise calories and why some are not losing when they think they are doing everything correctly.
  • HG93022
    HG93022 Posts: 80 Member
    jenlo1971 wrote: »
    It does provide some insight as to why maybe we shouldn't eat all those exercise calories and why some are not losing when they think they are doing everything correctly.

    Excellent point!

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
    The only way to gauge the accuracy of any device is to trust it for several weeks then reevaluate your progress. I eat back 100% of my Fitbit adjustments, lost the weight & kept it off.
This discussion has been closed.

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