Does Apple Watch Track My Walking When I'm Grocery Shopping w/ a Shopping Cart?

[HappyDude20]

I'm the one that goes grocery shopping a few times a week for both my family and my in-laws. That's about 4 trips to the grocery store per week.

Each time I go to the grocery store I have my Apple Watch with me but considering my hands are usually holding the shopping cart in front of me, the AW itself isn't moving in the standard back and forth as expected when someone is walking.

I'm wondering if my iPhone would counteract that as it is sometimes in my pocket while I'm shopping HOWEVER, most times during my grocery store visits I'm using the Notes app as a shopping list so I have the iPhone in my hand. iPhone on my right hand, AW on my left controlling the shopping cart.

I must say I do about .5 miles per grocery store visit, at Walmart. If it's Costco then I can do mile easily.

Just wondering and wonder if anyone else has thought about this and/or dealt with it.

 

[Deliro]

It will count your steps. Not sure what the question is? It does sync regardless of what you’re doing on the phone.

 

[HappyDude20]

It will count your steps. Not sure what the question is? It does sync regardless of what you’re doing on the phone.

Maybe this is a dumb question but how will it track my steps if my AW isn't moving as if I'm walking considering my wrist would seem just stationary when im holding onto the shopping cart for 30 minutes and only grabbing stuff off the shelves with my right hand? Considering I'm holding my iPhone w/ my right hand and really my right arm is resting on the shopping cart handle as I am one to slouch over the shopping cart throughout my entire grocery store run.

 

[Deliro]

Maybe this is a dumb question but how will it track my steps if my AW isn't moving as if I'm walking considering my wrist would seem just stationary when im holding onto the shopping cart for 30 minutes and only grabbing stuff off the shelves with my right hand? Considering I'm holding my iPhone w/ my right hand and really my right arm is resting on the shopping cart handle as I am one to slouch over the shopping cart throughout my entire grocery store run.

It is pretty accurate but likely not an exact science. It uses a combination of your phones GPS for distance traveled. Your height to get a estimate of your stride length. Check your health app and make sure your data is correct.
Accelerometers also play a factor. But your watch being stationary as you push the cart shouldn’t really factor given the other variables at work. I’ve used a Fitbit alongside initially and they are close. If your phone is giving a distance traveled from what I read it will calculate most of your steps based on this.

It’s a good gauge to give you an estimate.

 

[HDFan]

Just checked my health data for days when I did grocery shopping myself - back in 2019. I see some 4000 more steps on the days that I shop vs the day before and the day after. The movement sensor is extremely sensitive. Amazed at how little a vibration causes the watch to wake when it is charging. Your movement even while holding the grocery cart is an order of magnitude more.

 

[bransoj]

I previously had a fitbit Charge 2 and when i took 6 months off work to be with my daughter just after she was born i spent a lot of time walking with the pushchair. The fitbit was set to automatically detect workouts and it would often record walks with the pushchair as cycling presumably because of my hands being on the pushchair handlebars in a similar way to bike handlebars and moving forward. I would quite often end up with the steps from those walks not being recorded but an outdoor cycle session being recorded!

 

[waw74]

if you open the health app on your phone, you can see a chart with an hour by hour breakdown of when you got the steps.

further down on that page is a "show all data" which will give you further breakdown of when you made steps, it seems to record in bursts, so you might have groups of up to 100 steps max with their times to the second. On that page you can also see, some steps come from your watch, some from your phone. This only seems to be available for a couple days, you might be able to access more elsewhere.

 

[minimo3]

It will probably count your steps but there’s a chance it won’t detect your “stand” for your activity ring. I can be working on my standing desk for 2 hours and the watch often tells me to stand up. Other times I’m walking around the room watching a video on my iPad and I’ll get a notification to stand up

 

[BigMcGuire]

When I had a Fitbit I noticed my step counts wouldn't increase when I was pushing a cart. So I often pushed the cart with my right hand and let my left hand walk normally on my side.

The Apple Watch doesn't seem to have this problem. Using GPS and a more accurate step sensor? It seems to work just fine even if both hands are pushing a cart around Costco.

 

[Neonblue]

Same thing as I realised tracking an outdoor walk doesn’t register as exercise on my AW when my hand is stationary in my pocket. I have to consciously leave it out of my pocket and let it swing which is quite annoying.

 

[waw74]

It will probably count your steps but there’s a chance it won’t detect your “stand” for your activity ring. I can be working on my standing desk for 2 hours and the watch often tells me to stand up. Other times I’m walking around the room watching a video on my iPad and I’ll get a notification to stand up

Not 100% on this, but I think your hand needs to be pointed at the ground for stand to register, it can't really tell if your arm is resting on your lap, resting on a standing desk, or holding your iPad out in around of you.

and especially with the desk, it doesn't matter if you're standing or sitting, if you're typing, your wrist moves pretty much the same.

 

[Canyda]

Not 100% on this, but I think your hand needs to be pointed at the ground for stand to register, it can't really tell if your arm is resting on your lap, resting on a standing desk, or holding your iPad out in around of you.

and especially with the desk, it doesn't matter if you're standing or sitting, if you're typing, your wrist moves pretty much the same.

I've found with the recent Apple Watch OS updates that the Watch seems better at giving you "stand" credits if your arm is in motion, regardless of whether it's pointed down or not. I've closed my stand ring while sitting at my desk and gesticulating with my arms while talking. I've also closed it while riding by bike outside with my hands on the handlebars.

 

[CindiSouder]

I find the same issue when carrying item and pushing carts, which I do a lot of. I pushed a cart through every isle, many more than once , because dang Costco moves everything. I was rewarded with 500 steps after pushing that cart around for 45 minutes.

 

[ignatius345]

Each time I go to the grocery store I have my Apple Watch with me but considering my hands are usually holding the shopping cart in front of me, the AW itself isn't moving in the standard back and forth as expected when someone is walking.

Wear it on your ankle. Problem solved.

 

[matrix07]

most times during my grocery store visits I'm using the Notes app as a shopping list so I have the iPhone in my hand.

If you don’t know already, you can use Watch for that so you can keep your phone in the pocket. (I did it by creating Grocery Reminders & fill it with lists)

 

[blw777]

AW uses a number of different sensors to figure out when you're moving and walking, including but not limited to the motion of your hand. The accelerometer also detects the minor tremor in your body from footfall, in addition to acceleration. Even if your hand is on the pushcart your entire body is subject to acceleration, and it usually catches this. There are bounds, of course: if you're sitting in an airplane, it knows that 500mph is probably not you walking. Furthermore, it has access to your heart rate, so it can also tell if you're really completely sedentary or if you're moving in a way that causes even a minor change to your heart rate.

I'd say that it's surprisingly accurate all things considered.