Apple Watch Steps on MFP

Well, their description of No steps since way back in Oct, sounds more like either 2 accounts not syncing at all, or wrong step source which means neither steps nor daily calorie burn are coming over.

Not what you describe.

Considering Garmin can correctly get a a daily calorie burn value to MFP to create an adjustment on, and a workout synced over - it is an Apple issue.

MFP's side is obviously setup correctly to handle it - Apple is either screwing it up prior to sending which is my guess, or they are sending it incorrectly.

It's pretty simple actually regarding this math - there are database fields for Sync time and one for daily calorie burn, and a field for daily steps. That's it.
MFP uses the time and burn for math for the adjustment. Steps is for display only.
If a workout syncs over, fields for Start time, duration, calorie burn, optional workout name or type.
They both have a bearing on the eating goal of course.

And I'll bet that MFP tried to work with them to inform them it wasn't working right, and they needed to change something (MFP can't do that on their end), but the user outcry to get it working made MFP say fine we'll enable it the way it is.

I'm not sure if you saw the other thread where I spelled out how the math works.
If MFP knows about a workout, it's assuming the other account syncing in daily calorie burn does also.
Therefore the workout calories must be removed, or you would be double-counting.
Sounds like Apple is lowering the daily calorie burn by that much of the workout and then sending it.

From your description (website account view of extra Info on adjustment would be great for actual stats) - the 300 calories should be removed from the daily calorie burn for the adjustment on MFP though, because MFP already knows about it.
The 70 calories for increased activity burn should remain.
Well, possibly - you actually could lose a small adjustment like that because you pulled the 300 calories for say that hour out of the figures, but MFP figured you'd be at Sedentary level active say, but that would only be BMRx1.25 amount of burn removed.

Anyway, I'll have to find a friend local I can actually see what is going on and convince them to use MFP for a little bit. Or suck it up and have them go on my account.

As a stopgap, grab the CaliCalo app and compare the numbers. You can set it to grab the info from Health so you don't have to add any other data, but you'll get a fuller idea of what you're missing on MFP being able to check it.

ryenday wrote: »

I’m guessing I’m just not smart enough to follow anything you wrote there. Lol.

Yes, I can go into Apple Health and see how many calories the watch thinks I burned swimming. That number is also what MFP records.

Bottom line. Apple Watch thinks I get about 1375 ‘resting’ calories. That number is pretty much a constant (within 25 calories of 1375) day in day out. A 40 minute swim workout will show up on the watch as 300 calories (give or take) and that is what sync to MFP. ‘Active calories’ in the watch are workout calories PLUS anything like steps, movement etc. In an average day my watch usually gives credit for about 300 non- workout calories. (Which includes my approx 9000 steps a day average).

So Average day one - no workout. Apple Watch will give me roughly 1675 total daily calories. MFP will give me 1475 (I chose that based upon experience) and approx 150 calories for ‘steps’. So 1625. Close enough.

Average day two - swim workout for 300 calories. Apple Watch will give me 1975 calories (1375 resting + 300 swim + 300 other ‘active’ calories). MFP will give me 1775 (1475 + 300 swim workout + 0 extra activity (steps). Or worse with negative adjustments MFP will give me 1645 (1475 + 300 workout and a negative adjustment of approx 130)

So on days with a recorded workout I get no credit or negative credit for any non workout activity. When I had negative adjustments enabled I got less calories on MFP on days I swam than on days I did not swim. Obviously that is not correct.

As I said, I don’t understand your explanations but since other apps can get the data from Apple Watch and correctly add and subtract to give me the correct daily calories (like the FITIV app which pulls from both Apple Health and MFP food log) ) I consider it to be a failure on MFP’s programming part.

But wherever the fault lies bottom line is Apple Watch to MFP just does not sync correctly if you have a recorded workout.

I capture my calories in and out data via FITiv as well. That app seems to be able to translate both MFP and Apple Health calories-out just fine. I, too, think it's an MFP programming issue.

You can already buy premium and disable calorie adjustment from trackers and exercise, as you are suggesting.

But if you are doing #1 - why does it matter to do #2 then with calories?

Is MFP that much better than Apple watch as an exercise diary that you'd rather review your movement data here?

Why couldn't Apple just send the data like all the other trackers do - why must it be held to a different standard?
Because it's popular?


I don't follow your logic.
I pay for premium and turn all that crap off. Shame you have to pay to get this "feature".
MFP still doesn't sync correctly though.
Not sure what you mean by "like other trackers do"? I'm not asking for the moon here. I just want 2-3 numbers to sync over...

Resting Cals.
Active Cals / Workouts + extra Active Cals earn't during the day.

Would take a half decent programmer 5mins to add this. Why should they do it? Maybe because a LOAD of people use an Apple Watch and it doesn't work currently.

"Is MFP that much better than Apple watch as an exercise diary that you'd rather review your movement data here?"
Again don't follow, if you're tracking food coming in, why wouldn't you want to see what's being burnt?

As for being "held to a different standard" what do you mean? They are just numbers, different trackers report this in different ways, I'm just asking for one, if not the most, popular devices to have support added. Chill out trying to make this an Apple vs the world debate.

simon_pickard wrote: »

You can already buy premium and disable calorie adjustment from trackers and exercise, as you are suggesting.

But if you are doing #1 - why does it matter to do #2 then with calories?

Is MFP that much better than Apple watch as an exercise diary that you'd rather review your movement data here?

Why couldn't Apple just send the data like all the other trackers do - why must it be held to a different standard?
Because it's popular?


I don't follow your logic.
I pay for premium and turn all that crap off. Shame you have to pay to get this "feature".
MFP still doesn't sync correctly though.
Not sure what you mean by "like other trackers do"? I'm not asking for the moon here. I just want 2-3 numbers to sync over...

Resting Cals.
Active Cals / Workouts + extra Active Cals earn't during the day.

Would take a half decent programmer 5mins to add this. Why should they do it? Maybe because a LOAD of people use an Apple Watch and it doesn't work currently.

"Is MFP that much better than Apple watch as an exercise diary that you'd rather review your movement data here?"
Again don't follow, if you're tracking food coming in, why wouldn't you want to see what's being burnt?

As for being "held to a different standard" what do you mean? They are just numbers, different trackers report this in different ways, I'm just asking for one, if not the most, popular devices to have support added. Chill out trying to make this an Apple vs the world debate.

No - all trackers but Apple send MFP a Total Calories Burned figure - that's what the MFP API field is asking for and expecting.

The time of sync, the total calories burned at this point. Steps.

That's it.

Pretty simple.

Apple doesn't do it. Now, do they really NOT have the figure, or did they select the wrong field to send to MFP, and refuse to correct it at this point? I don't know. I only know how Apple appears to like to do things from other experiecne - their way or no way, very infrequently corrections that aren't totally on them.

With those 2 figures - time and calories - MFP does all the other math.

Optional is syncing over workouts and is part of different process. Fitbit and couple others don't. Garmin and Apple and S Health do. Start time, duration, calorie burn, mapping to MFP exercise selection.
That's it.

Your #1 says to turn off MFP math, as it sounds like you've done with premium, so your eating goal isn't changed based on anything that syncs in.

Well, if you've done that, then why would it matter if #2 happens to get all the data over. You aren't using it to adjust the eating goal.
Unless you want to view the Exercise diary on MFP.

Doesn't the food totals sync over to Apple Health, so there is your record of eating and burning amount, with better logging of workouts for that part?

And currently Fitbit has the market on activity trackers against Apple (when used as such, I guess more could have the Apple watch but not used as fitness tracker).
Add in all the other tracking methods that sync in to MFP, which has the API's already in place, and yes, it is about Apple doing it the already standardized way.

Perhaps if all this frustration by many against MFP were properly put on Apple to please correct their method - they would do it. Because except for the Apple apps that seem to deal with the info correctly (no surprise there really), any other app is going to expect data the way the other trackers handle it.
Total daily calories burned.

What seems to happen (incorrectly) is that MFP asks for Step Source and I set it to Apple Watch, but then for the calorie adjustment it looks at iPhone, not Apple Watch from steps (gets the steps correctly).
The adjustment based on iPhone is then ridiculous. When I run, my iPhone is either at home or on the console of the Treadmill, so you get no steps on it basically.

I was happy with how my Apple Watch and MFP were working, but now I've read this I need to check and see.

MOST of my activity is not step-based so it's not a HUGE worry to be honest, but I've run about 30k the past two weeks, would be nice to know if those steps vanished one way or another?!

Just bought an Apple Watch series 4 and MFP is correctly tracking my steps but they do not convert to calories (and do not show up in my exercises). Spent ages trying to find a solution. Very disappointed...

I'm here to say
THIS IS STILL AN ISSUE

I just got an Apple Watch for Christmas. I switched from my Fitbit + MFP flow for calorie counting and exercise tracking to Apple Watch + MFP. The sync is just wrong. In the iPhone Activity App it tells me my total calories burned for the day. In MFP once I add 500 to my goal (since I have a daily defecit of 500) and add the "adjustment" from the Apple Watch, it is still several hundred off. This is not a complicated formula. Something is just not happening right.

It really makes me want to go back to a fitbit. It is something I have used for years and assumed Apple would handle like professionals. This is not difficult. It's 3rd party app integration which they sell as a *feature*.

Absolutely a disappointment.

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Edit after reading more previous comments.

If it is MFP's fault then it's even more unforgivable. Fix it please.

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Second edit: I installed Pacer per @heybales instructions (previous post) and it fixed my problem. I went into the health app and gave it permission to give step and health info to Pacer, and then in MFP changed the step source from Fitbit tracker to Pacer pedometer and now everything works perfectly. Thanks for the tip heybales!