Apple Watch- Help Needed

Talan79

I’ve done a search & know that Apple Watch & MFP don’t play nicely. I switched from a Fitbit Flex and have questions for those of you who use Apple Watch.
I have given access to the Health Kit to sync with MFP. I have also selected Apple Watch to count steps. When I deselect the watch, it defaults my phone to track steps.
This morning I ran 2.5 miles and did a weight lifting session. I didn’t track the run bc I thought that it would automatically detect it, but it didn’t. I did track the weight training.
Under my diary, I see two different adjustments. One for the tracked lifting, and only 39 calories for the steps. I’m already at over 12K steps.
Should I track my run or other cardio?
What do you guys do?
Do you track weights?
Also, on the Apple Watch activity app, the number of calories is way off compared to what appears on MFP TDEE prediction. Any insight would be appreciated.

NovusDies

Talan79 wrote: »

I’ve done a search & know that Apple Watch & MFP don’t play nicely. I switched from a Fitbit Flex and have questions for those of you who use Apple Watch.
I have given access to the Health Kit to sync with MFP. I have also selected Apple Watch to count steps. When I deselect the watch, it defaults my phone to track steps.
This morning I ran 2.5 miles and did a weight lifting session. I didn’t track the run bc I thought that it would automatically detect it, but it didn’t. I did track the weight training.
Under my diary, I see two different adjustments. One for the tracked lifting, and only 39 calories for the steps. I’m already at over 12K steps.
Should I track my run or other cardio?
What do you guys do?
Do you track weights?
Also, on the Apple Watch activity app, the number of calories is way off compared to what appears on MFP TDEE prediction. Any insight would be appreciated.

I start an exercise activity when I leave the house for a walk although it gets my steps as long as my watch arm swings freely.

The calorie adjustment between Apple and MFP is faulty. I use the Pacer app. I sync my watch with it and then sync it to MFP. It works pretty well.

Weight training results in too many earned calories for me. I want to track it so I can look back as needed and see when and how long but I deduct those calories from my calorie allowance. I know I earn some but I do not earn ~250 in around 30 minutes. That is almost as much as I earn on the elliptical with constant movement.

Talan79

I disconnected the health app, downloaded pacer, connected to my watch and MPF. Does this look right? Fitbit was about the same. This may be higher. When I had my watch connected, I only got 94 a calorie adjustment.

NovusDies

Talan79 wrote: »

I disconnected the health app, downloaded pacer, connected to my watch and MPF. Does this look right? Fitbit was about the same. This may be higher. When I had my watch connected, I only got 94 a calorie adjustment.

That is how mine looks. Mine jumped from 150-250 calories to 900+ when I connected it through Pacer.

PAV8888

To calm various fears a bit, both MFP and PACER (and Fitbit, not sure about Apple) use the Mifflin St Jeor BMR as their base.

From there on PACER adds calories as per their detection. While MFP assumes a fixed multiplier based on pre-selected activity level (1.25 for sedentary.... up to 1.8 for very active).

Pacer used to under-detect my activity by a little bit when I used it many years ago, which is not surprising given I didn't carry my phone 100% of the time. Presumably with some accurate input from your Apple watch Pacer will come up with a more fully accounted for TDEE number.

Past that integration between PACER and MFP works such that MFP "adopts" PACER's TDEEnumber (by midnight) using the exercise adjustment as the accounting entry that will equalize TDEE between the two apps.

Since MFP assumes a steady 1.25 BMR minimum burn to midnight, but PACER will probably assign only 1xBMR when it doesn't detect any movement, you will generally see this adjustment drift down a little bit if people stop being active before midnight.

Talan79

Thank you both!

Talan79

Ok. Now that I’m using Pacer, my adjustment is correct, but I think AW over estimates calories burned.
On Tuesday, I had 16,069 steps, 733 active calories from 3 miles run, 30 min of lifting & steps throughout the day. I used the heart rate and tracked on AW. According to AW, I burned 3,083 calories. This is a huge number for someone my size. I’m 5”2, and weigh 118, age 40.
Wednesday I had 15,984 steps, 3 miles run and 30 min weights, burned 2,550 calories, 787 active calories.
Took a rest day Thursday, had 8,712 steps, 357 active calories & burned 2,694 calories.
This makes zero sense that my TDEE was higher with half the steps on a rest day. I think the issue may be the resting calories in Apple Health app are just inflated. Can anyone make sense of this or does AW just take time to get to know my routine?

I’ve tried to see if I can modify the resting calories but that is not an option.

PAV8888

I am not exactly sure how apple watch calculates things I am assuming, from context, that "active" calories are more virtuous calories that have been gathered from highly energetic activities. This would compare them to more pedestrian calories collected from the almost insignificant aspect of you being alive which would be your, presumably, resting calories Somewhere in there in this discussion what is missing is the not so virtuous but not quite resting calories. The ones you collect by standing around, by fidgeting, by walking. The ones that are "somewhat active" but don't quite amount in this discussion to "active active".

Your Tuesday to your Wednesday is a big drop given the small difference in active calories and small difference in steps. Your Wednesday to Thursday increase is not explainable by the active calories or the steps. You will have to dig into the apple watch to see what it is detecting. Is it heart rate? Is it continuous movement over a longer period of time vs short bursts of more intense movement?

Is there a support department you can ask? 🤷🏼‍♂️

NovusDies

I am not sure if this helps but here is my ongoing comparison between Apple and MFP:

Talan79

It seems to be working itself out. Today’s end calories will be around 1950, currently at 8K steps, unintentional rest day. That TDEE seems more likely than the one from yesterday. I think it was just taking time to get my routine. Thank you for help.

PAV8888

@NovusDies do you have the two synchronized?
How come the TDEE is not the same?

Also: Sed NEAT, I assume, is at maintenance, right? Without taking Deficit into account.
This should be set, by MFP at 1.25x Mifflin BMR.
Which means that Apple RMR is based on??? Or is it their equivalent to NEAT (i.e. burn without taking active calories into consideration.

Also... curious as to which one is closer, though, overall it doesn't seem to me that the weight is different enough to matter!

NovusDies

PAV8888 wrote: »

@NovusDies do you have the two synchronized?
How come the TDEE is not the same?

Also: Sed NEAT, I assume, is at maintenance, right? Without taking Deficit into account.
This should be set, by MFP at 1.25x Mifflin BMR.
Which means that Apple RMR is based on??? Or is it their equivalent to NEAT (i.e. burn without taking active calories into consideration.

Also... curious as to which one is closer, though, overall it doesn't seem to me that the weight is different enough to matter!

@PAV8888

I have Apple and MFP synced by way of Pacer. The screenshot is my spreadsheet that has somehow grown to around 80 columns. I am kind of crazy.

The Apple TDEE is what it thinks I am for the day. The MFP TDEE is NEAT Calorie Goal + Exercise calories.

Yes, sedentary NEAT is MFP's calorie goal for me maintaining.

Not sure how Apple figures the RMR which is what I called it for a lack of a better term. It must be based on my stats plus or minus something it is retrieving from the watch since it is variable.

My spreadsheet calculated TDEE is a 1.88 multiplier and the last time it all lined up my actual weight was almost perfectly in the middle between what it would be based on MFP's number and Apple's numbers.

Since I have been in maintenance and trying to recomp my weight has been upticked but a couple of days ago it dropped a little so I am hoping sometime next week I will get a usable result to see where I am. While I was losing my weight would come around every 3 weeks or so and line back up with my projection but this is new territory.

PAV8888

NovusDies wrote: »

The Apple TDEE is what it thinks I am for the day. The MFP TDEE is NEAT Calorie Goal + Exercise calories
Not sure how Apple figures the RMR which is what I called it for a lack of a better term. It must be based on my stats plus or minus something it is retrieving from the watch since it is variable.

So there are two or three observations of interest here!

MFP TDEE = MFP NEAT + Exercise Adjustment = Apple TDEE, if synchronization is 100% perfect.

Since I am fairly sure that PACER <-synchronized with-> MFP results in the exact same TDEE at the end of day, this would mean that Apple <-synchronized with-> Pacer does not equal the exact same number that Apple calculates.

Obviously in the big scheme of things this is a fairly small variance of no material concern.

And what you call Apple RMR, I THINK is what I was discussing above, what I would have called Apple NEAT. It looks like RMR Calories plus the level of activity that the watch detected but didn't deem worthy of assigning to the "active calories" category

NovusDies

PAV8888 wrote: »

NovusDies wrote: »

The Apple TDEE is what it thinks I am for the day. The MFP TDEE is NEAT Calorie Goal + Exercise calories
Not sure how Apple figures the RMR which is what I called it for a lack of a better term. It must be based on my stats plus or minus something it is retrieving from the watch since it is variable.

So there are two or three observations of interest here!

MFP TDEE = MFP NEAT + Exercise Adjustment = Apple TDEE, if synchronization is 100% perfect.

Since I am fairly sure that PACER <-synchronized with-> MFP results in the exact same TDEE at the end of day, this would mean that Apple <-synchronized with-> Pacer does not equal the exact same number that Apple calculates.

Obviously in the big scheme of things this is a fairly small variance of no material concern.

And what you call Apple RMR, I THINK is what I was discussing above, what I would have called Apple NEAT. It looks like RMR Calories plus the level of activity that the watch detected but didn't deem worthy of assigning to the "active calories" category

Yeah I see what you are saying now. I added the Apple and MFP sections a couple of weeks ago and then I went back and added the data since Jan 10th when I rebooted the spreadsheet. It does appear to be Apple's version of a NEAT number. That is interesting. I am not sure what I was thinking initially but I have relabeled it now.

I will be interested to see how it plays out when my weight comes back down again.

italysharon

Thank you for all this information! I thought I was pretty tech saavy until I couldn't understand half of what I was reading! This might have been answered already, but hopefully it is a simple enough question.

On MyFitnessPal, under Apps and Devices I have the Pacer Pedometer connected.
Under Steps I have the Pacer Pedometer AND Apple Watch connected.

Is this it? I just did this 30 min ago. I have only 538 steps and it already added 55 calories to MFP. I am 5'5, 155lbs, and my settings are for sedentary. Doesn't this seem like a lot? I mean this has been a LAZY morning for me.

Thank you for any advice!!!!

PAV8888

I would only connect Apple to Pacer and Pacer to MFP. I don't see a benefit of leaving a secondary connection between Apple and MFP.

Talan79

@italysharon I have Pacer connected under steps and Apps. It’s been working out correctly & I have my activity level set to not very active.