Fitbit User Guide: Essential Tips and Tricks

How to Make Your Fitbit Step Count More Accurate

Fitbit's trackers are pretty good at estimating your step count, but if you have longer or shorter legs than average for your height, or a longer or shorter stride than the average for people with a similar body type, your Fitbit's step count may be off by a bit. To make sure that your step count is accurate, you can manually enter your stride length into the Fitbit app. Here's how.

1. Go to a stretch of ground, like a track, where you know the distance from one end to the other.

2. Count the number of steps you cover while walking that distance. Fitbit says you'll want to make sure you count more than 20 steps.

3. Divide the distance in feet by the number of steps you took. That's your stride length for walking.

4. Repeat Step 2 while running, and again divide the distance by the number of strides you took. That's your running stride length.

5. In the Fitbit app, tap on Account on the lower right hand side of your screen.

6. Tap on Advanced Settings.

7. Tap on Stride Length.

8. Switch off Set Automatically.

9. Enter the walking and running stride lengths that you calculated.

Valentina Palladino

Valentina is Commerce Editor at Engadget and has covered consumer electronics for a number of publications including Tom's Guide, Wired, Laptop Mag and Ars Technica, with a particular focus on wearables, PCs and other mobile tech.