Fitbit thinks I'm riding an "outdoor bike" when I'm pushing my daughter in her pushchair...

SarahFromWalthamForest
SarahFromWalthamForest Posts: 101 Member
edited November 18 in Fitness and Exercise
My Fitbit thinks I'm riding an "outdoor bike" when I'm pushing my daughter in her pushchair.

Does it make any difference that Fitbit is recording my walk as a bike ride? In how Fitbit assesses calories, weight, etc?

Replies

  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    This must be the legendary Fitbit accuracy I keep hearing about. I would expect it has a different calorie formula for cycling vs walking and pushing something.
  • greypilgrimess
    greypilgrimess Posts: 353 Member
    I noticed this too. I assume it's because it reads your exercise but your wrist isn't moving up and down like in a run. My fitbit is a ChargeHR so I figure it measures my calories burned based on my heart rate, but I don't know. I don't use it as a calorie tracker so I never paid much attention. I certainly wouldn't rely on the fitbit's 'calories burned' total.

    I am curious though as to how many extra calories I burn per mile (on average) with the stroller, whether I'm running or walking. It has to be more, especially on trails.
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    Lots of trackers have this kind of thing built in to guess when you're doing some kind of exercise. When I play my instrument in rehearsals, Fitbit thinks it's outdoor biking, Garmin thinks it's swimming. I don't think it makes any difference in how it calculates calories burned for the day because it never changes whether or not I delete the entries. I think there may be a setting somewhere to turn off auto-exercise detection - but I'm not sure nor do I know where it is (if it exists).
  • Duck_Puddle
    Duck_Puddle Posts: 3,237 Member
    Aldo's-FWIW-my Fitbit is pretty dead on for my calories burned (over the 2-3 years I've worn it and comparing my weight change against calories consumed-which is weighed/measured).
  • shyhall
    shyhall Posts: 24 Member
    You can go into settings and turn the "recognise cycling exercise" off if that helps.
    It might then log it as walking instead.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    Per distance, walking burns four times as many calories as riding a bike.
This discussion has been closed.

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