Driving vs sitting in an office

Merkavar
Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
edited April 2022 in Health and Weight Loss
Let me set the scene. I am driving 11+ hours, mostly with cruise control on cause the GPS says turn right in 600 kilometers. And my fitbit adds +1200 to my fitness pal exercise for the day. sure I took breaks every 2 hours or so but that normally involved walking 100m to pay for petrol or use the toilet etc

But on another day I will sit at a computer for 11+ hours and it adds -100 to my fitness pal.

Is driving more taxing than it feels and I actually burned this many calories? Or is this an error with fit bit counting each bump in the road as a step so it adds the calories for all those bumps/steps?

I am just wondering how trust worthy the fitbit adjustment is or should I more or less ignore it.

Cause driving and working from home both involve sitting for long stretches, short walks, but give vastly different results.
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Replies

  • Justin_7272
    Justin_7272 Posts: 341 Member
    As far as I know FitBit typically adds calories based on tracked exercises and steps, so I would look at how many steps it is tracking from driving vs. not driving. I assume it is adding steps from driving. I've noticed if I'm stationary biking my Sense adds steps even when I have the activity set to cycling, whereas my Blaze does not, so there may be differences from device to device as well. You could always just take it off while driving to remove any discrepancy.
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
    Justin_7272 wrote: »
    You could always just take it off while driving to remove any discrepancy.

    yeah might do that next time. I am not really concerned about normal everyday driving, it was just that it was a very long drive and some how got up to 6k steps or something when i would be surprised if I made it over 1000

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Merkavar wrote: »
    Justin_7272 wrote: »
    You could always just take it off while driving to remove any discrepancy.

    yeah might do that next time. I am not really concerned about normal everyday driving, it was just that it was a very long drive and some how got up to 6k steps or something when i would be surprised if I made it over 1000

    Yeah, it's likely registering the bumps as well as the hand movements on the steering wheel as steps. If you've been sitting and driving all day, you know you didn't actually get 6K steps. Your device is giving you the adjustment because it thinks you're moving. Driving is more taxing than just sitting, but you're not getting those actual steps which is what the device is assuming to give you those additional calories
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,743 Member
    It's also possible that if you get stressed at traffic etc., the fitbit is registering raised heartrate as exercise.
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 920 Member
    Is this a wristwatch situation? Maybe it's logging your wrist motion while driving as steps?
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,254 Member
    Driving is slightly more taxing then sitting at a computer especially if manual and in city traffic.

    That said your Fitbit is probably registering hand movement which may or may not be good for accurate credit given one's mix of activities.

    In your specific case as described probably not good.

    Have you adjusted your Fitbit app by telling it you're wearing your Fitbit on your dominant hand?

    This cuts down a bit on random hand movements.

    You can fully suppress the detections by manually entering an activity for the time frame it was detecting

    I don't have the time to research it right now, but you can look up MET values for the type of driving you're doing and an activity the Fitbit has in its activity database that has the same value and create an exercise equal to the duration of the drive.

    Reason is that if you blank the 11 hours Fitbit will just assign 1x BMR to the time frame when I'm reality I believe your description of being a passenger + in your vehicle might be closer to 1.4 or 1.5. which incidentally is above MFP assigned 1.25 for sedentary, so a small adjustment should take place

    Google search compendium of physical activities and the Google site that has it in handier format than looking through the full PDFs of the studies...

  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Have you adjusted your Fitbit app by telling it you're wearing your Fitbit on your dominant hand?

    Wearing on my non dominant hand and set to non dominant. Are you suggesting wearing on my nondominant hand but setting it to dominant hand so that it is less sensitive?


  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,254 Member
    Merkavar wrote: »
    Wearing on my non dominant hand and set to non dominant. Are you suggesting wearing on my nondominant hand but setting it to dominant hand so that it is less sensitive?

    Yes :smile:
  • BruceHedtke
    BruceHedtke Posts: 358 Member
    I drive a 2007 car and every bump in the road is felt, believe me. It also has a slight vibration...so, if I'm going to drive for any "significant" amount of time (more than 30 minutes), I take my Fitbit off.

    Years ago, I took a two hour drive and I remember looking at my Fitbit when I got into the car that morning and I had taken about 150 steps. Two hours later of just pure driving, I got out and it was telling me I had taken over 3,000 steps and I hadn't left my seat. Bumps in the road probably won't add up too much but any vibration in your steering wheel almost certainly will skew your numbers.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    Driving burns a ton of calories if your car looks like this:

    article-2017721-0D1DEF0400000578-763_1024x615_large.jpg
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
    BruceHedtke wrote: »
    Two hours later of just pure driving, I got out and it was telling me I had taken over 3,000 steps and I hadn't left my seat.

    sounds very bumpy, i drove like 13 hours and it got to 7k steps. It was a ute with less than 20k KMs so likely new.

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