Credit for non-exercise steps on Apple Watch

tfield98
tfield98 Posts: 28 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I’m entering maintenance. I’ve set my activity level to not very active.

Suppose my Apple Watch logs 3 non-workout miles. Why doesn’t MFP give me calorie “credit” in MFP for those (approximately) 169 calories?

Second question: sometime MFP brings in an activity from my Apple Watch twice: once with a heart next to it. Of course I can delete one of them, but this is definitely a bug, no?

Replies

  • snemberton
    snemberton Posts: 175 Member
    Yep, two bugs. I've moved to using MFP only for my caloric intake and a spreadsheet with data from Apple Health to track my CICO and weight loss.
  • flagrantavidity
    flagrantavidity Posts: 218 Member
    Yea - MFP doesn’t play nice with Apple Watch. I would log with MFP and if you know how many calories your deficit is, go to your Health app on your iPhone and add up your Active and Resting energy and you will know your total calories out for the day is, and MFP will have your calories in.
  • GrumpyHeadmistress
    GrumpyHeadmistress Posts: 666 Member
    edited July 2018
    I can walk 20000 steps and MFP will credit me with say 100 calories. Then i log a swim using Apple Watch and MFP removes the 100 calorie credit I got for walking. The idea is to avoid double crediting you with calories (for instance for steps and for a run) but with some workouts it makes no sense. It’s a bug.
  • smck42
    smck42 Posts: 2 Member
    I was using a different calorie app for awhile and the other app gave me exercise credits based on whatever the move ring said I was at. That is when the light bulb went off. The last few weeks I have been putting in a manual cardio walk every day and you can adjust manual entries. So my run gets recorded as 100 exercise calories and my move ring is at 500 than the manual entry is 400. It works, it is quick and easy. First thing in the morning I’ll throw in the number I know I’ll reach, like 250 and then add more later in the day if needed. I don’t mind doing this adjustment because I like the watch too much to go back to something else. Before I figured this out I was just doing it in my head, calories consumed less than what the watch said I burned for the day.
  • ITUSGirl51
    ITUSGirl51 Posts: 191 Member
    As others have said, Apple Watch integration with MFP stinks. I’ve been in maintenance since April and still log food and exercise, but I use the AW activity as a guideline for my activity level. I manually put in exercise calories in MFP based on what my watch says. I also assume that inactive on MFP is about 200 active calories on the AW and adjust my exercise calories based on that.
  • tfield98
    tfield98 Posts: 28 Member
    ITUSGirl51 wrote: »
    I also assume that inactive on MFP is about 200 active calories on the AW and adjust my exercise calories based on that.

    Can you clarify what you mean by that?
  • tfield98
    tfield98 Posts: 28 Member
    Seems like smck42's approach will work: manually transfer the exercise ring from the AW to MFP.

    But, wow. I though MFP was supposed to be a good program. But, its CI function sucks because the database is so bad. And the CO function sucks, because it doesn't properly use the AW data.

    There are manual workarounds for the above, but, wow, it's hard to believe that I have to revert to such a "stone age" process.
  • simon_pickard
    simon_pickard Posts: 50 Member
    It's 100% a bug.
    Email MFP and moan about it. The more people do, hopefully the quicker it'll be fixed.
  • tfield98
    tfield98 Posts: 28 Member
    edited July 2018
    Definitely a bug. Hard to believe it still exists after so long. Hard to believe that MFP userss are screaming about this deep flaw. Here's what I just heard from MFP:

    JUL 10, 2018 | 04:13PM PDT

    Hello,

    Thank you for contacting us regarding your Apple Watch integration. At this time we are currently only reading the step data, and individual "other" workouts sent from the watch via what transfers directly from Healthkit. We are not yet considering the active calories amount, also being measured by the watch. (Emphasis added)

    In the meantime, you may notice that your total calorie burn showing on the watch, does not match the total being reported to MyFitnessPal by the Healthkit. This is to be expected. Please do, however, let us know if your step count is not matching up or you do not see your "other" workouts displayed in your MyFitnessPal Diary as "Apple Health Exercises."

    We appreciate your patience and understanding as we work out all the kinks. We will also do our best to update the following link as we have more information available: https://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/articles/1957681

    Please let us know if you have any other problems or questions.

    Warm Regards,
    Artie
    MyFitnessPal Staff
  • clark614
    clark614 Posts: 92 Member
    Are you saying you manually add your active calories from Apple Watch to MFP as intentional exercise? All of them?
  • smck42
    smck42 Posts: 2 Member
    Yes, whatever the move ring says I record as a walk and enter the calorie amount. You can adjust it throughout the day. If you start a real exercise on the watch than you will have two workouts for that day. Whatever workout came over and your manual entry. Than the two entries added together should equal your move ring total. Some people eat back exercise calories and some people don’t. I will because I am very active and I’m only a few pounds off from where I want to be. If you don’t than you could just record 100 calories less. MFP assumes a calorie deficit based on if you are sitting on the couch all day if your setting is at not very active. Even if you add the move calories you will still be at a deficit. And have a lot more energy. This work around takes less time for me than recording food. I actually like how apple breaks this out over how the fitbit does things.

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