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Activity Tracker doesn't track WORKOUTS? WALKING?

T

tivoboy

macrumors 601
Original poster
May 15, 2005
4,094
920
So, it seems that at least on my watch the activity tracker doesn't want to track workouts? I did a WALK today, 40 minutes nearly, but my Activity Tracker says I did only 20 of 30 minutes of activity.

When I go into the apple watch activity app I can see it shows 20 of 30 minutes, and the GREEN ring shows the same thing as on the WATCH, up to about 7 pm 66% complete.

But, when I scroll down to the EXERCISE section it shows the WALK that I did and it shows the COMPLETE RING even going over and the 100% goal achieved and the 39 MINUTES of walking?

What is going on here?
 

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More pictures

Here are the images from the phone tracker activity app showing the complete WALK and total details, well some at least
 

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Yeah, I carried my 3 year around a museum, walked around for hours, got a ton of Movement credit but a few minutes of Exercise.

And considering how I have recently learnt that walking for an hour a day has had minor impact on my energy levels, but doing 10-20 minutes on the stepper has made a big difference, I can see what they are hinting at.

A "brisk walk" is how they define it. I am sure some folks are being unfairly penalised, and some overpraised.
 
Also, pushing a stroller gets you no steps. Well, only gets you half. Went to the zoo and friend had a fit bit on, she got over 8,000 steps and I only got 4,000. :(

I was doing most of the stroller pushing.

EDIT: Just checked the Health app on my phone and that shows over 8,000 steps... Wonder why those steps aren't pushed to the Activity app. Hmmmmm.
 
Last edited:
I'm in the opposite boat to you. I have yet to complete a move ring despite completing (and even doubling) the activity ring. I do walk quickly which may turn it into activity instead but you'd think I'd be burning even more calories.
I've reduced it down a bit today to see if I can at least get all rings done once.
 
John A said:
A 12 minute mile is not a 'brisk' walk?
Click to expand...

Exactly, anything under 15 minutes for a mile is almost pushing into a jog:D

A walk is clearly exercise, in fact if someone's heart rate goes up well over 100 on walk your way out of shape or you are running:D

This person walked 3 miles in 40 minutes, that's exercise;)
 
John A said:
A 12 minute mile is not a 'brisk' walk?
Click to expand...

It depends on your conditioning. The Exercise ring seems to go by heart rate. If it's not high enough then it doesn't count it. I've had this issue because the watch likes to glitch on my heart rate when I'm using the workout app. All of a sudden it will drop down to the 60's bpm and stay there. I won't get credit for that time. Like today I did a 35 min walk and am only showing 27 min of exercise for the day (with some of it happening earlier in the day).

As for the complete green circle when you look at the workout, that indicates you completed the workout goal. So if when you launched the workout app and said you were doing it by time and set it for 20 min then it's complete (full circle) if you let it go for 20 min. If you set your goal as 2 miles and walked 2 miles then the circle would be complete. So you can have a complete green circle for your workout but not a full/complete green circle for your exercise for the day.

I think they should use yellow or some other color for the workout completion so as not to confuse it with the daily exercise ring.
 
kovey said:
Brisk means fast, not a short time period. A these are two different things.
Click to expand...

Lol kovey, you aren't very familiar with running. A 12-minute mile is a measurement of speed, not of time spent walking/jogging.
 
so glad my watch is coming in a month, so by then an update would've already been issued
 
so,

So, some interesting points here. But I don't really think whether or not a 12 minute mile fast pace walk is exercise is the THE point.

I don't think the activity tracker it making decisions about whether or not you are putting in enough effort, it should be simply tracking your effort. That means effort not captured by the Workout app, and effort that you put directly INTO the workout app.

Assuming that, it appears that the data is not being properly tagged or consolidated for inclusion into the daily activity totals?

I'm going to simply try it with RUN (but walk only at my 12 min mile pace) and then try it again with OUTDOOR WALK and see if the numbers are successfully added to the activity tracker totals.
 
No no no no no no

Walking is walking, walking fast is exercise

Your body, your muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones are designed to move you around and let you interact with the world. You can do this without needing more oxygen than resting.

When you're walking you're barely registering any cardiovascular activity, if you step it up to the point where your muscles need more oxygen and your heart beats faster to deliver it, then you're exercising.
 
thefredelement said:
No no no no no no

Walking is walking, walking fast is exercise

Your body, your muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones are designed to move you around and let you interact with the world. You can do this without needing more oxygen than resting.

When you're walking you're barely registering any cardiovascular activity, if you step it up to the point where your muscles need more oxygen and your heart beats faster to deliver it, then you're exercising.
Click to expand...

You don't have to perform brisk walking to get health benefits. There is a lot of studies that should that a simple 30 minutes walk can reduced type 2 diabetes, good for yours bones and can alleviate symptom of depression. Of course , the benefits depends heavily on your level of fitness to begin with.
 
so

so, let me get this straight. Nearly everybody here is saying that the reason the 40 minute 3.x mile walk is NOT in the activity tracker is because it wasn't enough quality exercise for the watch to consider as activity?

So, what was the other 20 minutes it deemed to consider activity, because for the most part of the day I was sitting at a desk, or walking to the bathroom, ALL of which was much slower and far less strenuous than the 4.5 mph average walk that I took.
 
There are HBPM thresholds that will qualify something as 'activity' based on your gender/weight/height/age. I take the approach that it's hard to argue with the actual data.

I for one appreciated this - I realized what I thought was exercise for 30 min on a brisk 'walk' was really only about 12 min. Use it as a motivational tool to pick up the pace and length.
 
Symtex said:
You don't have to perform brisk walking to get health benefits. There is a lot of studies that should that a simple 30 minutes walk can reduced type 2 diabetes, good for yours bones and can alleviate symptom of depression. Of course , the benefits depends heavily on your level of fitness to begin with.
Click to expand...

There's a distinct difference between exercise and health benefits.

Everyone should walk and everyone should run everyday for at least 30 minutes, it's so important.
 
I think the watch starts to learn your heart rates and the differences between when you're leisurely walking and walking for exercise. I've had my watch since Friday, and I've been at Disneyland for the past three days. Ive been getting more and more credit for "exercise" everyday, even though the distances traveled are roughly the same. It seems it's starting to realize the difference between a stroll and a brisk walk.

There was the mention of the watch learning your habits well enough to start leaving the iPhone at home while you run, so it's very well possible that there's an adaptation period for multiple aspects of activity tracking.
 
I have the same problem. Did 33 minutes of indoor cycling, average heart rate of 108, and yet was showing ZERO minutes on the exercise circle.

So you can't tell me that 108 BPM is not exercising.

But same thing as OP - in the Activity App - it's showing ZERO minutes for exercise, yet on that same screen, I scroll down and see the 33 minutes of WORKOUT at average heart rate of 108 BPM.

It's gotta be a bug. Frustrating. I want my completed circle.

How the heck are people getting that exercise circle to move?
 
c2one said:
Also, pushing a stroller gets you no steps. Well, only gets you half. Went to the zoo and friend had a fit bit on, she got over 8,000 steps and I only got 4,000. :(
Click to expand...

Does it matter? You're still getting out and about.
 
I've done some elliptical workouts and the time of that workout has been the same as the time added to the exercise ring. During those workouts, my avg heart rate registers as 124 BPM. My passive BPM is around 80.
 
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