MS Band2 Vs Fitbit and # of Steps

tallarob

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I have had my MS Band 2 for a couple of weeks and have enjoyed it. Prior to that I had a Fitbit. It seemed to me, though, that I was not getting as many steps with my Band as I did with my Fitbit, so I tested it today when I played golf and walked 18 holes. Here are the results:
MS Band - 11,898 steps
Fitbit - 15,802 steps
Big difference! The question is, "Which one is right?"
Stay tuned, I'm going to do some more tests this weekend.
 

tallarob

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Just ran a little test:
25 minutes of running and walking:
Fitbit - 3262 steps
Band - 3198 steps
Walk where I counted out 1000 steps:
Fitbit - 1001 steps
Band - 994 steps
Have to say they were pretty close in this test. I will continue to test and will post results.
 

gwinegarden

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Indications, that I have seen, seem to say that Fitbit overestimates and the Band underestimates, so the real number is somewhere in the middle, as with your test.
 

tallarob

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One last test.
Played golf today and got the following results:
Fitbit - 11413 steps
Band - 9148 steps, a difference of 2,265 steps - almost 20% fewer than the fitbit.

Fitbit showed 4.99 miles and the Band 4.56 miles
Fitbit showed 1625 calories and the Band 1223 calories.
Sure would be nice to know which one is correct!
 

zei20t

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what fitbit model is it?

AFAIK the HR monitoring models can give you a more accurate calorie reading than others. Without HR, they take a guess.
 

BlackSheriff84

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My wife has the fitbit charge hr and i have the msb2 we have notice simlar results the fitbit counts alot more steps than the band 2. We have came to the agreement that the band 2 is a lot more accurate. As the fitbit counts extra steps when she aint even walking. Like at the dinner table, playing and picking up our baby. Pritty much any activity were you move your hands will add steps. Great job fitbit! Lol
 

luxnws

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My wife has the fitbit charge hr and i have the msb2 we have notice simlar results the fitbit counts alot more steps than the band 2. We have came to the agreement that the band 2 is a lot more accurate. As the fitbit counts extra steps when she aint even walking. Like at the dinner table, playing and picking up our baby. Pritty much any activity were you move your hands will add steps. Great job fitbit! Lol

To me, Fitbit is like the teacher who is an easy grader. They probably could change their algorithms to make it discount steps taken. I think they err on the easy grading side as a motivational tool. Just one guess. Can't argue with their success. They are among the biggest fitness wearable companies at the moment.
 

ACF1

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To me, Fitbit is like the teacher who is an easy grader. They probably could change their algorithms to make it discount steps taken. I think they err on the easy grading side as a motivational tool. Just one guess. Can't argue with their success. They are among the biggest fitness wearable companies at the moment.

I disagree, at least compared to Fitbit One. If I walk 20 steps, the Fitbit One logs 20 steps, and just in case someone is wondering, I know how to count at least my 20 steps, LOL. I had problems with Band 2 to record 10 steps. Unless I do long walks, it had a hard time recording anything.
 

Nate Silver

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I disagree, at least compared to Fitbit One. If I walk 20 steps, the Fitbit One logs 20 steps, and just in case someone is wondering, I know how to count at least my 20 steps, LOL. I had problems with Band 2 to record 10 steps. Unless I do long walks, it had a hard time recording anything.

Yes, and I believe that this is by design. The logic being that a few steps back and forth, here and there, (say less than 20 steps, just as an example, I'm not sure what the threshold is) do not constitute appreciable benefit, and may in fact be 'phantom' steps triggered by arm or body movement. You'll find plenty of complaints about phantom steps on the FitBit forums. I know when I had my Surge, I used to routinely rack up hundreds of steps while driving to and from work each day, and hundreds more from repetitive motions while at work. Discounting anything less than a certain number of consecutive steps effectively filters these out. I'm not taking a position on which approach is more correct than the other, but I believe this is MS's position on the issue.
 

TennisGuy45

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FitBit is under a class action lawsuit for inaccurate health monitoring.

Taking 100 steps my band 2 registered 93.
My last device (dedicated step counter attached to belt) counted 110.

No fitness tracker will be 100% accurate.
 

BlackSheriff84

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I disagree, at least compared to Fitbit One. If I walk 20 steps, the Fitbit One logs 20 steps, and just in case someone is wondering, I know how to count at least my 20 steps, LOL. I had problems with Band 2 to record 10 steps. Unless I do long walks, it had a hard time recording anything.

I have worn both at the same time. they both do a good job of counting steps once you are up an going some.
I agree the band 2 struggles from time to time to get those short walks, for example to the ensuite toilet and back into bed.

But there no argument that the fitbit likes to bump up your steps. I actually put the fitbit on my 4 month old baby and within mins it racked up 40 steps.... ps my baby cant walk or even crawl!

What I found most interesting was my baby's heart rate was 146bps!
 

jlzimmerman

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My wife has a Fitbit Charge HR and it's a bit liberal on steps. One morning we woke up and went to the store, staying together while we shopped. When we were done she supposedly did 350 more steps than me. Even on weekends where we do similar activities the entire day she ends up with about one thousand more steps than me.

I know my Band is accurate because I tested my steps at intervals of 50, 60, 100, and 200 steps per test. Each time my Band was no more ~3% off my count.
 

luxnws

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FitBit is under a class action lawsuit for inaccurate health monitoring.

Taking 100 steps my band 2 registered 93.
My last device (dedicated step counter attached to belt) counted 110.

No fitness tracker will be 100% accurate.

Fitbit is being sued for inaccurate heart rate monitoring on the Surge and Charge HR, not for step count. Doubt it will have much impact on the company but the timing of the lawsuit is interesting. Fitbit's stock price has been absolutely crushed. If it keeps dropping, some other company could buy Fitbit on the cheap.
 

lankylars

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Just throwing in my two cents:

I have observed friends with the new FitBit Charge HR reaching a step competition goal by swinging their arm back and forth while standing still. I have not observed at any point the Band 2 counting arm swings toward my step count. I don't know, but it seems likely that the Charge HR factors horizontal movement more heavily into step counts than the Band 2 does. This would certainly help explain the discrepancies between step counts.
 

zei20t

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I have one better.

When i bought my Band 1 last year in the US, it replaced my fitbit charge. So it didnt get squashed on the flight home, i put it inside my analogue watch. The ticking of the watch triggered the step count for several days. needless to say i did over 80,000 steps those days.
 

indiW

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Try swinging your arm, B 2 counts each movement as a step, well mine does.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
 

marcwagz

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for a week I ran down a beach every day.
The one time I didn't use GPS tracking the band guesstimated that I ran 4.2km, while using GPS (every other time on the same route) registered only 3.2 km.
So I am surprised to learn that the band generally underestimates.
 

gwinegarden

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for a week I ran down a beach every day.
The one time I didn't use GPS tracking the band guesstimated that I ran 4.2km, while using GPS (every other time on the same route) registered only 3.2 km.
So I am surprised to learn that the band generally underestimates.

Don't forget, the band has to estimate the length of your stride while running. Number of steps could be bang on but if it underestimates your stride, it will come up short.
 

infinidim

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I have worn both at the same time. they both do a good job of counting steps once you are up an going some.
I agree the band 2 struggles from time to time to get those short walks, for example to the ensuite toilet and back into bed.

But there no argument that the fitbit likes to bump up your steps. I actually put the fitbit on my 4 month old baby and within mins it racked up 40 steps.... ps my baby cant walk or even crawl!

What I found most interesting was my baby's heart rate was 146bps!

I have been testing a Fitbit Charge HR with a Band 2 for a month now and I have seen that Band 2 consistently counts less steps. In a very controlled situation I found that the Band 2 was actually between 20 and 25% less steps that the Fitbit Charge HR. I have also found an issue on the Band 2 where it sometimes doesn't count steps at all - if you sit down for a while, get up and do a short walk and then sit down again it sometimes doesn't count the steps.

Not good.
 

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