Let MFP app access phone's motion sensor?

FarewellBlues

Do any of you let the app access your motion sensor, so that MFP automatically tracks your steps throughout the day? I've been doing that, and hence not logging the walking/jogging activities that I do.

But now I'm starting to think that I don't like that it's sort of a "black box" -- I feel like I already accounted for the daily walking I do when I designated myself as "lightly active" at signup, and I don't know if MFP takes this into consideration when calculating the calorie burn from a certain number of steps. I mean, without those steps I'd be totally sedentary.

So now it's showing me nearly a 500 Cal burn for the walking I did today, which will put me at significantly less than 1200 Cal, even though I feel like I've eaten enough and that 500 Cal was already (at least mostly) included in my base activity level.

So, does anyone know the details of how MFP calculates this?

shadow2soul

No idea.

I know how it works with Fitbit, but I don't think it's the same with MFP accessing the phones sensor. See with Fitbit, your calories burned has to exceed what MFP thought you would burn based on your activity level.
I've seen posts where people get extra calories with only a few hundred steps from the phone sensor even with higher activity levels. So again not really sure there.

That said you can use the Fitbit app with your phone as the tracker (instead of buying one of their devices) and it will only give you extra calories if you exceed MFP's prediction of what you will burn.

FarewellBlues

Thanks! That's very helpful. Seems like it might be miscalculating just off the phone's motion sensor -- I have seen that where I've taken just a few hundred steps and it gives me extra calories.

So I think I'll turn the feature off and just log when I actually do exercise like running.

macgurlnet

I've seen several people mention that MFP starts giving calories for very small numbers of steps when it gets data from a phone's motion sensor. Something may not sync right?

What you could do instead is 2 things:

1) Test the accuracy of the step counter on your phone. Keep it on you and walk for say 50 steps at a normal pace and see what it says. Or maybe go for 100 steps.

2) Keep an eye on the number of steps you get throughout the week. Average them out to determine your average activity level. I think the below is approximately the number of steps for each level, though that is something that may vary from person to person

Sedentary: 5000 or less
Light Active: 5000-7500
Active: 7500-10000
Very Active: 10000+

You can always just log exercise separately, too. If that's working for you, stick with it

~Lyssa