Why have my Fitbits been so inaccurate??!!

[Birdie1987]

Hi guys, 

Im having serious issues with my fitbits!!!! Ive had 2 now! 

I had a charge 5 at first & it was pretty good for a few months. However i never really believed the step count was accurate! When i would run the gprs would drop out all the time & not upload my runs to the app. Then my running pace was so out. My 5k time is usually around 20 mins, so roughly 4 mins per km & it was telling me my pace was over 6 mins per km! Also, the charge would never display my heart rate, i tried resetting it several times & still the same. Luckily i purchased it from John Lewis & they are amazing when returning items so they gave me a voucher.

Sooooooo…. Now i have an inspire 3. Ive only had it a week & similar things are happening. My running pace says its 6.20 per km & strava says its 4.10 per km. I ran 5km & my watch said i had only done 3.8km. I drove to work the other day & my step count went up 400 steps from sitting in the van for 30 mins! How can they be so wrong? Its not as if they are cheap either, my charge was £140 & inspire was £90. 

Has anybody else had any of these problems? Its driving me insane. I really like the fitbits & want to continue using them. Is it something im doing wrong? 

[Bill_209]

The Inspire 3 is my first fitness tracker so I can't speak from experience on this but, it seems to me that an accelerometer worn on the wrist to 'estimate' step count will never be as accurate as one that is worn on the ankle.

That being said, I have read articles that suggest that tests comparing a few different wrist-worn fitness devices showed that the Apple watch was the most accurate one for step count, but is that additional accuracy worth the extra money spent to get it?

[Pathk54]

Yes, I had inspire 2 for 2 years and loved it. I’d compare other tracker users (Apple) and fitbit was most accurate—used track my walk.  The band end broke so opted to get the inspire 3… thought it was an upgrade! Pretty accurate until just the last couple months, I think? Now I don’t trust it at all.  Was it when the new dull, gray app  was presented? And now it will work one day and not register walks the next or steps on the app don’t match the miles on the app. The sleep register is useless because I know it’s not accurate when I was up much of the night but FB tells me I had 6 hours. Or I sleep thru  and it tells 2.5 hrs. . Not sure what changed but after giving these as gifts in the past, I’m not sure I’ll even make it to end of my absolutely worthless paid subscription. It’s almost a farce! 

[ApocalyptcPanda]

Same here. My issue is with the tracker and app. Sometimes I walk the same route and get wildly different results. Right now it shows my previous days’ steps the exact same number as today. Ever since google took over and disbanded groups, they have continued downhill.

[lmacmil]

The Inspire 3 (and probably all others) seems very sensitive to how you swing your arms.  When I'm running it's pretty consistent but when walking I have to consciously swing my arm from my elbow to get an accurate count.  If I swing from my shoulder, it drastically undercounts my steps, by as much as 300 to 500 in a 2.25 mile walk.