Samsung records walking as cycling when pushing a pram

Tommysnannie
Tommysnannie Posts: 3 Member
edited April 2021 in Fitness and Exercise
When I walk with a pram my samsung watch records it as cycling. With this I seem to use far more calories than if I was just walking without the pram over the same distance. I don't use my exercise calories but I am just curious as to how the watch works out my calorie expenditure whilst walking pushing the pram.

Replies

  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,158 Member
    edited April 2021
    I'm impressed it catches it! I have had Fitbit trackers in the past, and I have a Garmin now, and neither recognizes when I'm pushing a stroller/pram or shopping cart/buggy. If I want the steps counted I usually put it in my pocket. It's definitely harder to push something, but I'm not sure how much harder. Terrain, the design of the stroller, etc. would all seem to play a role.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,876 Member
    Tommysnannie wrote: »
    When I walk with a pram my samsung watch records it as cycling. With this I seem to use far more calories than if I was just walking without the pram over the same distance. I don't use my exercise calories but I am just curious as to how the watch works out my calorie expenditure whilst walking pushing the pram.

    Incorrectly. I have no idea why it would be recognizing a walk with a stroller as cycling. My watch will recognize cycling if I forget to start it before heading out...but I'm also going 20 MPH more or less. I personally try to remember to set and start my watch for whatever exercise I'm doing...sometimes I will be doing something like playing with my kids on the trampoline and it will register on the watch as elliptical...or I'll be on my trick scooter with my boys at the skate park and if I'm practicing a lot of hops and jumps it will recognize it as strength training and usually insert deadlifts or squats. I just delete that stuff.

    The calories expended for walking are primarily a matter of mass over distance...so the additional energy expenditure from pushing a stroller on a walk would be negligible.
  • mummysinthekitchen
    mummysinthekitchen Posts: 12 Member
    So I wear a Fitbit Versa Lite and have the same problem. I do the school run twice a day purposely on foot to get my step count in and I used to find this so frustrating.

    This morning I discovered that I can go into the Fitbit app and just change the recording from cycling to walking. I looked back over the days when I've done the school run with no pram and there's not much difference in the calories burned so I'm guessing it just assumes its a slow cycle. My heart rate and distance covered would be the same either way as it doesn't depend on exercise undertaken so it has some accuracy.

    I guess it registers as a cycle as your arm will be travelling smoothly and imitates holding handlebars when you're holding a pram whereas when you're walking your arm would be a bit more jolty if that makes sense?
  • Tommysnannie
    Tommysnannie Posts: 3 Member
    Thak you I will try doing that 😊
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Merely a text label for review of the workouts. Can change it after the fact, add something useful if actually a workout for quicker review later.
    Not a factor in calorie burn.
    HR is used then.
  • Tommysnannie
    Tommysnannie Posts: 3 Member
    Thanks for your reply however I am very new to this and am not sure what you mean.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    On your Samsung records, the log of the workout.
    The name is a text label, you can change it to whatever you want.

    Nothing to do with MFP.
  • joolsmd
    joolsmd Posts: 375 Member
    I also have a Samsung wearable and it records me mowing the lawn as either cycling or elliptical :D
  • Roobyzooby
    Roobyzooby Posts: 189 Member
    Yep, same here when mowing the lawn!
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,163 Member
    My Fitbit once gave me a bunch of “steps” for driving on a twisty road. My arm was moving up and down as I turned the steering wheel and I was covering distance. It was also an unexpectedly unpaved road with a lot of switchbacks, so my HR may have been a *little* elevated as well.

    Aahhh technology!
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
    I've been wearing Garmin watches for years. I've never experienced anything like this.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,030 Member
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    I've been wearing Garmin watches for years. I've never experienced anything like this.

    My Garmin "auto-recognized" swimming, when I was actually bailing water out of a rowing barge. In terms of the motion, I can see why it might imagine that. But Garmins as a class are clearly not immune. (I turned off the exercise auto-recognition - I forget what the feature name is - because I always start workouts intentionally, for the activities I care about. I don't think this error is some huge flaw. Devices that try to be intelligent aren't perfect: Not a revolutionary concept, IMO.)
  • AmunahSki
    AmunahSki Posts: 90 Member
    For pram pushing or lawn mowing I guess a smart watch recognises ‘movement/motion’ but without the arm swing of walking (because you’re holding the handles, like bicycle handlebars). Quite clever, really.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,970 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    NorthCascades wrote: »
    I've been wearing Garmin watches for years. I've never experienced anything like this.

    My Garmin "auto-recognized" swimming, when I was actually bailing water out of a rowing barge. In terms of the motion, I can see why it might imagine that. But Garmins as a class are clearly not immune. (I turned off the exercise auto-recognition - I forget what the feature name is - because I always start workouts intentionally, for the activities I care about. I don't think this error is some huge flaw. Devices that try to be intelligent aren't perfect: Not a revolutionary concept, IMO.)

    It's that the paradigm of auto detecting isn't ever going to be perfect because the thing doesn't really know what you're doing, it has to infer from your wrist movement. Just telling it what you're doing, when you consider it to have started and ended, makes this kind of thing a non issue. Seems like it comes down to a choice between having things auto detect, or getting exactly the data you want, we've all got to pay the piper one way or another. Garmin devices tend to nudge their users toward the data, auto detect was off by default on mine.

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