diff --git a/config.yaml b/config.yaml
index 11465b42..60bdae5f 100644
--- a/config.yaml
+++ b/config.yaml
@@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ STEP:
     SEDENTARY_BOUT: ["countsedentarybout", "maxdurationsedentarybout", "mindurationsedentarybout", "avgdurationsedentarybout", "stddurationsedentarybout"]
     ACTIVE_BOUT: ["countactivebout", "maxdurationactivebout", "mindurationactivebout", "avgdurationactivebout", "stddurationactivebout"]
   THRESHOLD_ACTIVE_BOUT: 10 # steps
+  INCLUDE_ZERO_STEP_ROWS: True
 
 METRICS_FOR_ANALYSIS:
   SOURCES: &sources ["phone_metrics", "fitbit_metrics", "phone_fitbit_metrics"]
diff --git a/rules/features.snakefile b/rules/features.snakefile
index f295a686..ced22596 100644
--- a/rules/features.snakefile
+++ b/rules/features.snakefile
@@ -168,7 +168,8 @@ rule fitbit_step_metrics:
         metrics_all_steps = config["STEP"]["METRICS"]["ALL_STEPS"],
         metrics_sedentary_bout = config["STEP"]["METRICS"]["SEDENTARY_BOUT"],
         metrics_active_bout = config["STEP"]["METRICS"]["ACTIVE_BOUT"],
-        threshold_active_bout = config["STEP"]["THRESHOLD_ACTIVE_BOUT"]
+        threshold_active_bout = config["STEP"]["THRESHOLD_ACTIVE_BOUT"],
+        include_zero_step_rows = config["STEP"]["INCLUDE_ZERO_STEP_ROWS"]
     output:
         "data/processed/{pid}/fitbit_step_{day_segment}.csv"
     script:
diff --git a/src/features/fitbit_step_metrics.py b/src/features/fitbit_step_metrics.py
index f436b53d..17a356e3 100644
--- a/src/features/fitbit_step_metrics.py
+++ b/src/features/fitbit_step_metrics.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ all_steps = snakemake.params["metrics_all_steps"]
 sedentary_bout = snakemake.params["metrics_sedentary_bout"]
 active_bout = snakemake.params["metrics_active_bout"]
 threshold_active_bout = snakemake.params['threshold_active_bout']
+include_zero_step_rows = snakemake.params["include_zero_step_rows"]
 
 #Read csv into a pandas dataframe
 data = pd.read_csv(snakemake.input['steps_data'],parse_dates=['local_date_time'])
@@ -92,6 +93,12 @@ else:
     
     if("stddurationactivebout" in active_bout):
         finalDataset["step_" + str(day_segment) + "_stddurationactivebout"] = statsMinutes[statsMinutes['active_sedentary']== 'active']['std']
+    
+    #Exclude data when the total step count is ZERO during the whole epoch
+    if not include_zero_step_rows:
+        finalDataset["sumallsteps_aux"] = resampledData["steps"].resample("D").sum()
+        finalDataset = finalDataset.query("sumallsteps_aux != 0")
+        del finalDataset["sumallsteps_aux"]
 
 finalDataset.index.names = ['local_date']
 finalDataset.to_csv(snakemake.output[0])