Apple Watch - First Impressions and MFP Integration
dgarrett1976
Posts: 3 Member
Have had the Apple watch (42MM Sport Version) for couple weeks now and love it. My main reason for the purchase was as a health and fitness tracker. The heart rate monitor is spot on when compared to a Polar HM with chest wrap and a wearable EKG monitor from the Cardiac Rehab unit. I am a heart patient so this element was critical to me.
Battery life has been excellent so far with never less than 30% at the end of my very long days.
As for features I uninstalled everything not being used that I could to reduce clutter. I will add back what I want when I need to. I reduced most everything in Glances to again minimize clutter. Notifications is a nice feature so I don't have to pull out the iPhone 6+ all the time so it now stays in pocket. (Bend gate was so much BS)
As for the integration with MFP ... nice opening from MFP and hopefully they continue to improve. The import of exercise data from the Apple Health app is finally working (uninstall and re-install MFP and make sure MFP is disconnected from any other tracker and Apps including from the trackers web site/App and from MFP website/App). The data import is still a bit wonky as it cuts out steps once it imports something ... perhaps a time overwrite issue ... not sure. It converts the specific exercise you use on the watch Workout app to an MFP standard exercise but uses the Workout/Health app time and calorie info.
MFP does not seem to handle the data import of the "Other" exercise option from the Workout app. I still have to manually add but no big deal but hope they fix it as others apps have done so already. The is my Feature request for MFP is to get the data import cleaned up. I doubt Apple will ever let apps direct import from the watch hardware so get with the program MFP.
Nutrient import back to health app is still a work in progress ... may not continue with that as the Apple health app really has a goofy interface and I prefer MFP for all those things. I hope they do not try and add a feature to add food items on your watch ... that might muck up the MFP simplicity. The watch is a viewer mainly not an effective input device ... especially for big guy digits.
I am going to give Premium MFP a try and see if the data displays are any better offering ... wish MFP had a 2 week trial on the premium version of the MFP. The lack of one tells me that they added benefits may not be that noticeable for the average Joe/Jane User experience. I still feel this whole monetizing of MFP has to do with trying to get a little payback for the overpriced buy Under Armor made. I'm still a fan of MFP and think it is the absolute best at tracking food intake.
So any other Apple Watch users out there that have something to add??
Battery life has been excellent so far with never less than 30% at the end of my very long days.
As for features I uninstalled everything not being used that I could to reduce clutter. I will add back what I want when I need to. I reduced most everything in Glances to again minimize clutter. Notifications is a nice feature so I don't have to pull out the iPhone 6+ all the time so it now stays in pocket. (Bend gate was so much BS)
As for the integration with MFP ... nice opening from MFP and hopefully they continue to improve. The import of exercise data from the Apple Health app is finally working (uninstall and re-install MFP and make sure MFP is disconnected from any other tracker and Apps including from the trackers web site/App and from MFP website/App). The data import is still a bit wonky as it cuts out steps once it imports something ... perhaps a time overwrite issue ... not sure. It converts the specific exercise you use on the watch Workout app to an MFP standard exercise but uses the Workout/Health app time and calorie info.
MFP does not seem to handle the data import of the "Other" exercise option from the Workout app. I still have to manually add but no big deal but hope they fix it as others apps have done so already. The is my Feature request for MFP is to get the data import cleaned up. I doubt Apple will ever let apps direct import from the watch hardware so get with the program MFP.
Nutrient import back to health app is still a work in progress ... may not continue with that as the Apple health app really has a goofy interface and I prefer MFP for all those things. I hope they do not try and add a feature to add food items on your watch ... that might muck up the MFP simplicity. The watch is a viewer mainly not an effective input device ... especially for big guy digits.
I am going to give Premium MFP a try and see if the data displays are any better offering ... wish MFP had a 2 week trial on the premium version of the MFP. The lack of one tells me that they added benefits may not be that noticeable for the average Joe/Jane User experience. I still feel this whole monetizing of MFP has to do with trying to get a little payback for the overpriced buy Under Armor made. I'm still a fan of MFP and think it is the absolute best at tracking food intake.
So any other Apple Watch users out there that have something to add??
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Replies
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Hi! A friend on MFP found your post and suggested in look your way. I have had my 42 mm sport (blue band! lol) for about a week. I have a defibrillator implant and cannot use a regular HRM (interference) so I was very happy to find the watch to be accurate with the HRM. I am on a major learning curve, but I did have a 50 minute consultation with Apple that was offered to me and happily took advantage of! I didn't think I could integrate MFP and my watch! How do I do that? Love the watch.0
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They do not make it easy and for sure the Apple mantra of "it just works" does not hold true here. The only way this works that I have found is to use the Apple Healthkit App to integrate with MFP. For sure neither MFP or Apple seems to want to make this easy for the consumer. It was more trial and error with much more of the latter but in the end it worked for the most part.
First make sure that MFP is not attached to any other health apps or trackers like FitBit. I did not find success until I went to the MFP web site and found that a I needed to disconnect MFP from my old Fitbit. This must be done on BOTH MFP website and the tracker website (Fitbit in my case). I also had to uninstall MFP on my iPhone and reinstall MFP. After making sure that MFP was not trying to import data from any other trackers or apps and performing the uninstall and reinstall then following steps using the iPhone MFP app worked for me
Launch to MFP>open More (icon at bottom right corner of app)>Scroll down to Apps & Devices and open>Scroll down the list of apps and devices until you find Apple Healthkit. (I have no idea why it is so far down the list but it is near the bottom) Open the Apple Healthkit and that will launch the settings screen where you can give MFP permission to read and write data to and from Apple Healthkit. Then close MFP and open Apple Healthkit>Sources. Here you should see MFP listed as an app that has requested permission to update you data. Open the MFP and then turn on or off whatever data you wish to share between the two apps.
For me I allowed MFP to write the all of the data it could to Apple Healthkit and I allowed MFP to read only Blood Glucose, Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure, Steps, Weight and Workout. Allowing MFP to ready Workout was the key as this imports the data from my works into MFP - you must use the Workout app on Apple Watch for this to be effective. MFP will import the workout data and associated information for calorie burn from exercise and apply it to your daily totals. It will convert the data to one of the standards that MFP use (Elliptical, Rower, walking Biking etc). Also note that MFP will not import the "Other" exercise category which I use for my trainer workout. You have to manually input that data.
Right now the Apple Watch workout app is good but not near as robust as it should and I assume and hope it will soon be. Apple watch will only communicate with Apple Healthkit on your phone ... I presume due to privacy concerns of your health data.
Good luck with it ... let us know how it works for you.0 -
I've had mine about a month now, LOVE it! There's still so much I have to learn about it, but loving it so far.0
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I just purchased my Apple Watch yesterday. Today was my full day of tracking exercise. It looks like MFP on my iPhone is connecting to the HealthKit app and it added my steps. I have two issues. MFP is not showing calories for exercise from the Apple Watch steps even though it did with the same amount of exercise from my Fitbit (device and iPhone steps). Is it not connected correctly? Is there a different calculation with Apple Watch as compared to Fitbit? Thanks for any advice.0
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I usually have to open the Activity app on my phone, then the MFP app on my phone. Once I do that the calories update on the website. There seems to be a delay.0
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Thanks for the instructions on how to pair the Apple Watch with My Fitness Pal--I finally got it working after following your steps, and really appreciate you explaining it.0
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I'm waiting for my apple watch which should be her on Wednesday. I've been using Polar for the last 5 yrs so this will be new to me. Glad I found this post soit will make a little easier for me and I will taking advantage of the consultaion they also offred me0
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