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At the end of my rope..

temna

temna

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 5, 2008
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I have been using my watch for about a month, taking my dog for 2-3 km walks at the dog park, sometimes twice a day with no issues from my watch tracking it. I tried out the workout app, to see what kind of distance the different paths are. I spent a couple hours walking the different paths, and the activity app only recorded like 3 minutes of exercise. What's the deal? Why doesn't it record my walks as exercise?
 
Why does it count it when I don't use the workout app, but not when I do? That doesn't make sense.. Especially if I use Outdoor Walk, what exactly are they expecting for heart rates for a walk?
 
Newtons Apple said:
Heart rate has to be elevated to a certain point to be counted as exercise. Same for my fitbit, you can walk all day long but unless you get your heart rate up it will not be counted. That magic number of beats per minute varies for each person.

Your walk must be at a brisk pace.
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Strange, it counts it as exercise when I'm not using the workout app..
 
Something else is not right. Once you hit "start" on the workout app it should be recording until you press stop. You don't need to get the heart rate into a zone.

You only need to get HR into a zone to record activiity without the workout app recording.
 
I have experienced the exact same behavior. I do the exact same walking routine and when I start a workout, very little of it is "counted" as exercise (~20%), but when I don't start a workout and just use the normal activity feature, then 50-60% is counted as exercise. It makes zero sense.
 
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MartyCan said:
Something else is not right. Once you hit "start" on the workout app it should be recording until you press stop. You don't need to get the heart rate into a zone.

You only need to get HR into a zone to record activiity without the workout app recording.
Click to expand...

The app recorded a 3.87km walk with over 11k steps and an average 109 bpm. but recorded a whole 16 minutes of exercise for the day.. 14 minutes of that walking the dog earlier without the workout app loaded, that being like a quick bathroom walk around the neighborhood.. It makes zero sense..
 
temna said:
I have been using my watch for about a month, taking my dog for 2-3 km walks at the dog park, sometimes twice a day with no issues from my watch tracking it. I tried out the workout app, to see what kind of distance the different paths are. I spent a couple hours walking the different paths, and the activity app only recorded like 3 minutes of exercise. What's the deal? Why doesn't it record my walks as exercise?
Click to expand...
I have a greyhound. And although they are extremely fast sprinters sometimes walking my dog is like walking a 90 year old grandmother (no offense to grandmothers). So I can take my dog for a 30 minute walk for maybe a mile and get about 2-3 minutes of exercise credit. That's why I do my own walk after she's been out.
 
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I think the Apple Watch does it right. I can go for a walk without setting a workout app and get 28 minutes of exercise counted for a 30 minute walk. If I walk with my wife, I may get 5 minutes. It comes down to actually moving enough to count. Apple won't count minor efforts as minutes towards your goals. Just the way it is. Try to walk closer to 4mph steady. You can check fitness rags and they will say the same. We need effort that raises the heart rate or it means very little.

Or... Set to workout other and get the credit no matter what. If you pick the workout app - it expects you to workout.

Not my opinion - just the way it is.
 
I guess I don't see why it counts it as exercise when I don't use the workout app, but doesn't when I do. Exact same walk. It's not like I walk slower when is use the exercise app.

We are talking the exact same amount of activity, maybe more doesn't get counted because I have the workout app running. Same walk without it, and it counts it towards exercise. SAME ACTIVITY. It's not like I load up the workout app and walk through the dog park like Shaggy.
 
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temna said:
I guess I don't see why it counts it as exercise when I don't use the workout app, but doesn't when I do. Exact same walk. It's not like I walk slower when is use the exercise app....
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Because it is NOT measuring your HR and just best guessing. With the Workout app running it can tell when you are actually in an exercise zone. The higher the zone the more calories you will burn per minute. You probably need to be at minuum of 55% to 60% of your MHR before it start counting many calories. For best results and if you are fairly healthy you should shoot for at least 30 minutes 3x a week in the Moderate to hard zones as a starting minimum. Here is a chart to help you understand what zones are and where you should be. Also the best way to estimate your MHR is the simple 220-age formula.

Just to add:

For a 50 year old then 220-50=170MHRx0.60=102HR puts you at the bottom of light

So to get into high moderate you would need to have an average HR of about 136HR (for a 50 year old)

Also when you get to the end of the rope you tie a knot in it and start climbing back up.;)


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That doesn't explain it. That doesn't explain why it doesn't register the activity. It is Outdoor Walk, not Marathon, not Outdoor Run.. It should register the same whether I use the Workout App or not. There is something wrong with the software, period.
 
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temna said:
I guess I don't see why it counts it as exercise when I don't use the workout app, but doesn't when I do. Exact same walk. It's not like I walk slower when is use the exercise app.

We are talking the exact same amount of activity, maybe more doesn't get counted because I have the workout app running. Same walk without it, and it counts it towards exercise. SAME ACTIVITY. It's not like I load up the workout app and walk through the dog park like Shaggy.
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(I'd say to edit your opening post, because this part wasn't clear)

This is indeed weird. Like the others are saying, general "background" activity tracking can give me more or less "exercise" credit depending on how briskly I walk -- BUT, if I'm doing a workout and use the Workout app, it counts the entire elapsed time as a Workout regardless of my heart rate or active calorie count.

But-but, if my "workout" isn't very strenuous, the Active Calories total is less.

Check the Activity app on your phone again and see if your workouts are getting logged as they should, at least in the amount of time they tracked.
 
temna said:
That doesn't explain it. That doesn't explain why it doesn't register the activity. It is Outdoor Walk, not Marathon, not Outdoor Run.. It should register the same whether I use the Workout App or not. There is something wrong with the software, period.
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What is your average HR during these walks? Sorry, NM you did answer that earlier.

When I walk our dog I seem to get full credit. She's energetic and my average HR is usually around 110 BPM for a 60 minute walk of 5.5 - 6 km.

Something is still not right.
 
From a MacRumors article: "The monitor also automatically tries to measure your heart rate every 10 minutes, but doesn’t record the data if your arm is moving."
Sounds like your walking is fast enough to register as moving but not brisk enough to be considered exercise. I think the Watch needs to be reading movement + heart rate to count the activity as exercise.
I've noticed that as I get in better shape my regular movement is less likely to count as exercise. For example, I was at walking around shopping at the mall for about two hours over the weekend and only got a couple of minutes of exercise. Then I realized that that particular mall doesn't have stairs. I usually take the stairs to get my heart rate up and fill the green & red rings during the day.
 
BarracksSi said:
(I'd say to edit your opening post, because this part wasn't clear)

This is indeed weird. Like the others are saying, general "background" activity tracking can give me more or less "exercise" credit depending on how briskly I walk -- BUT, if I'm doing a workout and use the Workout app, it counts the entire elapsed time as a Workout regardless of my heart rate or active calorie count.

But-but, if my "workout" isn't very strenuous, the Active Calories total is less.

Check the Activity app on your phone again and see if your workouts are getting logged as they should, at least in the amount of time they tracked.
Click to expand...

The workout is logged, it just throws me off that for almost a full month I have filled all three rings, now that I tried the workout app, only two rings are filling up. It's really throwing me off and taking the fun out of it.
 
temna said:
The workout is logged, it just throws me off that for almost a full month I have filled all three rings, now that I tried the workout app, only two rings are filling up. It's really throwing me off and taking the fun out of it.
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I don't recall if you have talked to support or taken the Watch to a genius bar? It just seems to me that something is not right with your watch if this is happening.

Have you done a reset to factory and restore?

Have you unpaired it and re-paired it? Something is not right with your watch if it is behaving like that.
 
BTW the same thing happened to me today. I collected 5 minutes of exercise just walking to into school today - but when I took a 15 minute outdoor walking "Workout" later on in the day, it only collected 8 of those minutes as actual exercise. Like others have said, it'll acknowledge that you're walking, but unless you get your heart rate up it won't count it as exercise.

That being said, I'm not sure my heart rate counter is very accurate, which disappoints me since if it is, it's throwing everything off.
 
Have you tried setting goals in the Outdoor Walk workout? You can set, time, distance and calorie goals. Not saying it would solve it but maybe try it? Swipe sideways to see the various goals.
 
The interesting thing is I take my dog to the dog park every day after work. I end up with a third of an exercise wheel. Thursday night I was being lazy and didn't go to the dog park. That day I got two thirds an exercise wheel. I'm so confused that on my lazy day I got twice as much exercise.
 
temna said:
It's really throwing me off and taking the fun out of it.
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The error filled experiences with my SS AW Exercise Tracking just never ceased. I tried to get it resolved, but exhausted all possible fixes that Apple Support offered. Two wasted weeks and countless hours later, I returned it.

Went back to my trusty SUUNTO AMBIT 3 that reports with great accuracy and syncs perfectly with my iPhone 6S Plus.




http://www.suunto.com/en-US/Product-search/See-all-Sports-Watches/
 
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