Are you counting your steps?

[HelveticHiker]

Are you counting your steps while you are walking? I mean, are you using a pedometer or the Health-App in the Iphone? And if so, what is your experience? Are these tools accurate? What about counting calories? Does it work? https://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/images/smilies/think.gif

[Nodust]

I have a vivo fit. It counts steps accurate. Mileage changes by how long your stride is. On flat smooth trail it's close to mileage.

[Sarcasm the elf]

I was in one of those corporate step challenges last summer when I did a week long section hike. I used the pedometer they gave me while I was on trail, with somewhat amusing results. I have no reason to doubt the step count the pedometer gave, however I find that my average stride length on trail is substantially shorter when I am hiking then it is in normal day to day life, so the mileage the estimate based on steps taken is greatly exaggerated.

38435

[peakbagger]

I have heard of more than few folks who supplement their own step count by hooking the counter to their very active dog to win these challenges. Stride length really varies in the whites due to terrain.

[Engine]

My wife's Fitbit overestimates her milage by about 20% when hiking in the mountains. But she's killing it with both steps and "floors climbed".


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[FreeGoldRush]

Nope. I'm only counting the time it takes to get to the top of the mountain. :)

[AfterParty]

I was in one of those corporate step challenges last summer when I did a week long section hike. I used the pedometer they gave me while I was on trail, with somewhat amusing results. I have no reason to doubt the step count the pedometer gave, however I find that my average stride length on trail is substantially shorter when I am hiking then it is in normal day to day life, so the mileage the estimate based on steps taken is greatly exaggerated.

38435

That was on my birthday!

[swjohnsey]

I got to 47 and gave up.

[bigcranky]

I keep track on my phone. I don't think it's perfectly accurate, since when my wife and I walk together our phones give different step counts and distances, but it's good enough to let me know if I've gotten enough exercise for the day.

[Shutterbug]

I use a Fitbit. Since I joined FitBit on July 26, 2012 I have walked 20,322,196 steps. It is very accurate on steps, but just uses the steps to estimate mileage, calories, etc.

It is a good discipline. When linked to Lose.com, it is an effective tool to support a weight loss program.

[scrabbler]

Philosophically why does it matter to you?

[cliffordbarnabus]

Philosophically why does it matter to you?

do the app trail...without worrying about apps.

[MtDoraDave]

There were some places in southern NC, I believe, just north of Mountain Crossings/ Neel Gap where there weren't very many white blazes. Out of curiosity I counted steps between blazes... I think I got to a thousand before I gave up, but the next blaze was close to that point. Then I had to consciously force myself to stop counting. Better things to do in my head than count steps.

[JC13]

My wife and I both use a Misfit to track steps and sleep. When hiking/backpacking the tracking is off since we use trekking poles. For instance, we hiked 11 miles last week and her tracker showed 4.5 miles, mine showed 6.5, what we have found is that if we switch the tracker into a pocket if we have one, it will track much more accurately. When I walk at work around the lake, it seems to be pretty accurate but I am not using trekking poles.

[Spirit Walker]

When doing long hikes, I got a very good sense of distance through time. I maintain a very consistent pace when backpacking, so I knew if I had walked 5 hours I had covered 10 miles.

In my current life, I wear a Garmin GPS watch for running that also counts my steps. I have a different stride length when running vs. walking vs. hiking, so I don't consider it particularly useful for measuring distance unless I have the GPS turned on and even then, it can be off in dense tree cover or when going up switchbacks. Since it has a short battery life, I don't use the GPS for hiking for more than a short dayhike. It lets me know approximately how far I've gone, but only approximately.

[Pondjumpr]

My wife and I both use FitBit. Hers tracks heart rate but mine does not. An interesting note about accuracy is that when we hike together, mileage is very accurate and ours will match within a few tenths of a mile. However, when she hits 10,000 steps, I am only at 8200 or so. I'm 6'5" and she is 5"3" so it definitely takes into account for stride length.
I was thinking about this the other night and was wondering if anyone had ever tracked the entire AT on a step tracker. My tracker puts about 2000 steps per mile, give or take. That would be around 4.4 million steps, for me, if my math is anywhere close to correct. Since the trail is 11.5 million feet long, I guess that's fairly accurate. :)