To think my Fitbit step count must be wrong

Putting make up on, changing the beds, folding laundry -anything movement wise with your hand is counted as steps.

I have to really try to get 10k steps. Usually a gym session and an hours dog walk after work.

I went to the gym the other day and ran for 20 mins, did a gym session and walked for 20 mins and only got 8 thousand.

I defo don't have long legs either.

My Fitbit counts hair twiddling as steps.... however, "10000 steps" isn't just one kind of animal...
10000 steps at a pace which raises your heart rate may have a positive impact on your health. 10000 steps ambling around at snail's pace, less so.
For me, I do about 7k around the house and a short walk to the local shops is probably 3k steps. You don't need to be going on long countryside rambles to get10k steps.... but on its own, it's a fairly meaningless metric anyway.

I have a Garmin (got rid of the shitbit) currently on 2116 steps from pottering.
I usually end up on 8-10000 that's with pottering and taking the dog for 2 walks a day (usually around 5km total).

Have you also set up your stride length?

DH has a 27" inside leg, mine is 33" 😂. On a dog walk, he always hits 10k steps WAY before me even though we're walking the same distance.

I clock up 300 steps during a completely inactive day in my miniscule flat - it's really surprising, and it is right as I alternate between three different counting gadgets. My very effective friend,, with a normal-sized house and garden, gets her 10,000 in without leaving home - she's always up & down stairs, moving stuff around, gardening & kitchening.

From what you've said about your house, it seems quite likely!

It's a good point, though, that the exact number matters less than the change over last week/month.

Trouble with Fitbit it tracks arm movement, whether that is walking, exercising, petting your dog/cat or as a poster said above knitting. I do like them though as it encourages me to be more active but you can clock up steps by swinging your arms about unfortunately.

This!

When I've a day with lots of meetings, my steps shoot up! Because I use my hands a lot.

I wear mine on my ankle now for more accuracy and to ensure it only tracks steps & not arm movements. I also have a walking pad at home when I WFH so my arms are stationery on the desk typing etc and I hardly accumulated any steps that way.

now I wear it on my ankle I can watch the number rise with each step on my phone and it’s spot on.

You can easily test it.
Go outside.

Look at the step count so far today.
Take a 100 steps.
check what Fitbit says, of course increment should be +100.
Repeat a few times.
Probably will come up with 6-15% over-estimates.

We have the same issue so we swapped for an hour and a different time each wore both. There wasn’t an issue with the fitbits, one of us really seems to either take more steps or swing the arms more

Test it on a walk of a known distance.
It counts steps for teeth cleaning and chopping food too.
I don’t think it takes much to get 10k steps in and your normal daily walking plus the dogs may be enough.

My partner and I can both go for a walk (the same walk at the same time) and we can each measure our steps at the beginning and the end of the walk, and his will register more steps than mine, on exactly the same walk? We decided he took little steps while I take bigger strides, thus registering fewer steps. Do you take tiny little steps all the time OP? Or maybe we're both talking rubbish, which wouldn't be the first time to be fair.

My fitbit luxe is eerily accurate. It counts things like knee repeaters and walking/ marching/kicking on the spot.

If I'm walking along I can check it any time and it's counting exactly as I step.

I can get about 2k steps on a weekend morning sorting out crap in my flat!

It's not counting steps, it's counting wrist movements. It's very easy to increase it's count without increasing your steps.

It sounds right. I worked from home, desk based, in a big farmhouse and could clock up 6k steps without leaving the house, just going from room to room and doing a bit of laundry.

It sounds wrong. I barely hit 3k steps with a desk based job and no commute.

Mine thinks I am cycling when I am pushing my little one in their wheelchair so doesn't count half the steps I am doing which is bloody frustrating!

I thought that 10,000 steps was about 5 miles.

I notice that if I had a restless night that I walk up with 100 or more steps registered and also while doing things like hanging laundry.

I find the sleep monitor quite unreliable. It often tells me I am in deep sleep when I am wide awake reading or watching tv.

I once hit 20k sitting eating cake in a coffee shop.
I'd been bouncing my baby on my knee the whole time. Poor kid must've felt travel sick.

Do you fidget? Drum your fingers etc?

Ooh I always thought it was more like 4 miles

how far do you walk the dog? To hit 10k steps a day I need to walk at least 5km (just over 3 miles) which takes 50-60minutes and be fairly busy around the house or office.

You are supposed to wear it on your non-dominant hand.

10k steps is generally around 7miles

It's not - it's around 5 miles.

When I had a Fitbit, I remember chuckling as I was half way through a 4 hour flight, and yes had done some airport walking, but had been sitting still reading my kindle for 2 hours when it told me I'd hit my 10k step goal!