Apple Watch - difference between Workout app and Exercise ring in Activities app?

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psomom
psomom Posts: 3 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
So has anyone played with this yet? This morning I used the Workout app to track my 30 mins on my recumbent bike - and I thought that would count as 30 minutes on the Activities app, and fill my green circle. It didn't - and I'm not sure why, perhaps it isn't meant to? I've been Googling like crazy but can't find an answer.

Thanks!

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  • daniellel76
    daniellel76 Posts: 15 Member
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    I think it should. Did you save it at the end of the workout, as I think you must got the save button for it to sync up. Also, did you use the inside cycle category? I noticed that when I used "other" the other day, it did not log as excercise in mfp, but it does if I choose run, walk, etc.
  • davidyaches
    davidyaches Posts: 7 Member
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    psomom wrote: »
    So has anyone played with this yet? This morning I used the Workout app to track my 30 mins on my recumbent bike - and I thought that would count as 30 minutes on the Activities app, and fill my green circle. It didn't - and I'm not sure why, perhaps it isn't meant to? I've been Googling like crazy but can't find an answer.

    Thanks!

    Pretty sure the Exercise ring is based on wrist movement so only step like exercises will update it. You can still get accurate calorie burn if you choose Indoor bike as the workout as the HR sensor will then be used to measure. Truthfully, i don't think the exercise ring is that useful. It doesn't tie into Health app and isn't used for anything other than probably adjusting the intensity of your steps and thus approximated calorie burn. But you would have already accounted for this by choosing workout which is tracked separately by MFP and in addition to the steps.
  • psomom
    psomom Posts: 3 Member
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    Interesting - I did hit "stop" but I don't remember saving it - I did use the Inside Circle option. I'll have to test it again!

    I'm trying to work out all the mapping between Health, MFP, the Watch, the FitBit app (because I had the FitBit Charge, and still have the FitBit Aria scale), etc etc - I didn't realize the workout would go through to MFP, time to go check that out! :)
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
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    I was using fitbit before (and still am wearing it for the time being). I am finding the calories burned wearing apple watch and the steps to be extremely close to what fitbit reports.

    Walking outside with workout seems to be very exact with distance.
    Running outside with workout seems to be reporting the distance a little short. I'm not sure why.

    The only complaint I have is that the Apple Health App is updating very slowly on MFP. Not sure if that's an MFP or an Apple problem.
  • berylw49
    berylw49 Posts: 68 Member
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    scottb81 wrote: »
    I was using fitbit before (and still am wearing it for the time being). I am finding the calories burned wearing apple watch and the steps to be extremely close to what fitbit reports.

    Walking outside with workout seems to be very exact with distance.
    Running outside with workout seems to be reporting the distance a little short. I'm not sure why.

    The only complaint I have is that the Apple Health App is updating very slowly on MFP. Not sure if that's an MFP or an Apple problem.

    Are you finding the workout calories burned to be accurate vs. the Fitbit, or the full days' worth of calories burned? I'm still wearing my Fitbit too--and letting that calorie burn feed into MFP, as I'm finding the Apple Watch a bit high for daily calories burned, compared to Fitbit. Workouts, on the other hand, are crediting me much fewer calories than Fitbit (which is possibly more accurate, since I have a Fitbit One so it's been estimating--no heart rate count).
  • scottb81
    scottb81 Posts: 2,538 Member
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    At the end of the day the total calories between the two are within about 3% or 100 cal with Fitbit lower.

    Workout cal on the watch are lower because it breaks out active calories apart from the resting calories. I'm not sure how they differentiate the two but they are both included in the total daily burn.

    Once they are credited to MFP with both workouts and steps included the result seems about the same by the end of the day.

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