How Accurate is the FitBit Charge?
Well, after seeing how much you all seemed to enjoy my Ultimate FitBit Guide, I thought I’d share a little experiment I did recently with my FitBit Charge.
As I mentioned in my other post, my FitBit Charge does not pick up steps when I am pushing a shopping cart or a stroller. This was annoying when I finally realized it – because those are well-earned steps!
Wristband FitBits track by movement of the wrist/arm, so I was curious just how accurate my FitBit charge was. I wanted to know if I was getting too many (or too few!) steps each day, especially when I was exercise.
So last night when I was at the gym, I decided to do a little experiment. I walked around the track three times – one time with the FitBit Charge on my wrist, one time with it in my pocket (which is how I use it when I’m pushing the stroller or a grocery cart), and then I counted my steps out loud the third time.
Here’s what I tracked:
The first time – when I was wearing it on my wrist – I started at 7683 steps, and I ended with 7869. This was a total of 186 steps tracked on my FitBit Charge.
The second time, I put the Charge in my pocket! I started wth 7869 and ended with 8077 for a total of 208 steps.
The third time, I counted my steps out loud, and I ended up with 181 steps.
So in my super unscientific analysis, it seems that the FitBit Charge on my wrist was more accurate than putting it in my pocket. There was a time or two when I was counting my steps out loud where I missed a step or two, so my step count may have been a little higher even. But I feel confident that when I’m walking (not pushing anything, using an elliptical, etc.) it is accurate.
Though I still am wondering how I wake up with at least 100 steps each morning 🙂
This does make me wonder how accurate the FitBits that you clip to your pants (or shoe, etc.) are, since when I put this one in my pocket, it did give me a higher number of steps. If you have the FitBit One or Zip – or anything from the FitBit line (such as the Surge or the Alta), I’d love for you to do a similar experiment and let me know what you find in the comments!
I have a zip. I husband had a charge. I wonder if I wore both at once how they would compare. But who is to say which one is correct?
Good point!
The only problem I have is that it doesn’t track your steps when you push the stroller or the cart at the grocery store! When I am being active and getting steps I’m usually doing one of those things, so that’s a big bummer for me!
That is a bummer, because those steps definitely count!