Fitbit not accurate on steps due to rocking baby

You should see how many 'steps' I do when I play the piano easy way to win at challenges

My Fitbit recorded a very mysterious 16 minute Outdoor Bike session burning 122 calories at 8:16 in the evening. I don't own a bike and racked my brains about what on earth I could have been doing ... I was reading a book.

DH wears his on his dominant hand, making a big load of beef bourguignon for the freezer gets him round his exercise and movement rings.

I do sometimes swap my watch to my right wrist if I'm doing a massive ironing session.

This must be why whenever there is a ‘do you do 190k steps?’ thread, everyone seems to manage to do about 25000 a day, whereas I ran around at sports day all day yesterday (organising not competing) did 5 miles apparently and only managed 10k steps.
Some people on here claim to do 10k by lunchtime everyday just running round the house etc…

I wear my Fitbit on my dominant wrist. I once had to write a massive document by hand. It recorded a bike ride.

My Fitbit counts clapping as steps. I racked up a good number sat at school award evening.

Which watch do you have please.

I quite often call my Apple Watch a sexist pig when it's not even registered that I'm standing up if I'm running around the house carrying things, or cooking. ( DH does do his share of housework, but I know that's not the norm so my complaint is a valid one on behalf of other women.)

I ignore 'step count', I just try to complete all 3 rings, and track distance on actual walks with the outdoor walk Workout app on, which are then accurately measured by gps and also use heart rate data to estimate exercise.

You don’t need to track your activity, just do it - instead of aiming for 10k steps a day and worrying if it’s accurate, just aim to be as active as you can be in that day. That way there will be no beating yourself up if you don’t hit 10k, and that extra mental energy you’ll have not worrying about a target can be used to think of another activity.

Take you baby swimming, dance with them, do yoga (you’re on the floor with them so more likely to let you do it in my experience), take them to a trampoline place if they’re big enough, do some squats while you’re brushing your teeth.

if you focus too much on the counting, you’ll lose sight of the bigger picture, which is just to increase activity in anyway you can x

playing a Beethoven sonata on the piano is the equivalent of a 3k walk according to my garmin.

I've just got a cheap one. I take it off for rocking, although mine requires less rocking these days. If I'm pushing a buggy/trolley I can just tell the watch I'm walking and it uses GPS to measure the distance I've travelled and estimate steps, instead of relying on arm movement.

Hit my target whilst trying to wriggle out of my wet swimming costume one handed the other day though

Mine counts my filing at work!

Then it doesn't count my steps if punching trolley round Tesco.

It's a pain esp with the rocking when you can't predict when you're going to be doing it.

When mine were babies I had the little clip on one they did and clipped it to my bra. It's a shame they don't to a clip accessory. Might mention to them!

My husband recorded 11000 steps during a very heated phone call. He was sitting at his desk.

Fitbit and other wearables are very inaccurate.

Shhhh, but I’m on the cheap watch deal with Vitality too and often fake steps to make my daily goal🤐I quite like that it can be cheated! I sit on the sofa and move my arm back and forth to get the remaining steps for the day.

My Apple Watch doesn’t recognize doing dishes as “standing” again a bent arm thing similar to pushing a shopping trolly. It irrationally pisses me off.

I use the setting on my watch which means it doesn't start counting steps until I've done at least 15. That way it only records when I'm actually walking rather than cooking/waving/driving/etc.

I did that after MIL gleefully told me she'd racked up almost 2,500 steps just cooking dinner, and she couldn't understand how it didn't really count.

Means it's harder to actually get to 10,000, but at least I know I'm actually moving.

Well congratulations on having a baby that will be jiggled sitting down 😄 Not my experience!

I would try not to become obsessed with the number of steps. Even Fitbit say you need 10,000 extra steps per day to lose weight. Walking faster so you're out of breath will be better for this than counting the number of steps as pp said.

I wear my garmin on my ankle.

I was so obsessed I was removing mine when I used a hair dryer.

it’s on your arm, it detects your arm moving.

Mine adds quite a few steps with a bit of piano playing. The pirates of the Caribbean theme tune seems to do the most, it adds a few thousand steps on every time

You don't need accurate step count to know about your energy expenditure. Fitbit also gives you ...
... active minutes (heart rate above certain threshold)
... calories burnt (based on heart rate, mass, age, sex)

Mine doesn't count steps if I'm carrying my enormous baby on my hip! Very annoying!

Mine does detect pram pushing but not trolley pushing. It's a mystery!

Pushing a trolley, pushing a oram, it won't pick it up. I was obsessed with mine for a while but when I realised I could just shake my arm up and down for a bit to hit target it kind of lost its appeal. They're that accurate all.

I find step counts more accurate with fitbit in a pocket, but it then doesn't record activity in the same way.