Step count challenge — what worked for you?

rachel_ABQ said:

Worth answering the question that was asked rather than the one behind it.

Adding the part of the answer the thread has not reached. It helps to ask what evidence would change your mind before you look at any. If nothing would, the discussion is not about evidence, and it is better to say so early than to spend nine posts discovering it.

Adding the numbers, since they settle part of this. If you are comparing against somebody else’s result, check that you are comparing the same measurement taken the same way. Most of the apparent contradictions in these threads dissolve at that step.

One thing that is still open after rachel_ABQ’s answer:

How would you tell the difference between that and the alternative explanation?

VendorMark said:

If you are comparing against somebody else’s result, check that you are comparing the same measurement taken the same way.

I do not accept the framing. The question has been narrowed to the version that has a tidy answer, and the part that was dropped is the part the OP actually asked about.

VendorMark said:

If you are comparing against somebody else’s result, check that you are comparing the same measurement taken the same way.

No disagreement, though the timescale matters more than the mechanism here. Most of what looks like a difference in kind turns out to be a difference in how long somebody waited.