Apple Watch & My Fitness Pal - double dipping?

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Level 1

81 points

Apple Watch & My Fitness Pal - double dipping?

Did a search, and not sure if this is been asked before.

I currently have everything from the Apple Watch and health kit syncing to my fitness pal. However, it's not only syncing my workouts, but also my steps. Is that double dipping? In other words, I think that the Apple Watch is tracking steps, as well as data from my workout. If I'm on a treadmill, does it do steps and the workout? I've tried to find a comprehensive guide on how to set up my fitness pal to work with the Apple Watch online, but I can't seem to find anything. I just want to make sure that it's not counting calories for my workout, as well as steps. Thanks in advance for your help.

Apple Watch

Posted on Jan 31, 2016 9:19 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Jonathan UK

Level 10

163,901 points

Jan 31, 2016 9:30 AM in response to jayman720

Hi

Neither your steps nor any other fitness-related data are double-counted by Apple's apps.

Health and fitness data from Apple Watch, iPhone and other sources (eg third-party apps) is aggregated within the Health app on iPhone, which adjusts results to avoid any double counting of data from different sources.

Steps taken during a workout will still be reflected in the Activity app on your watch, but the Health app does not double count them by adding data from the Workout app to data recorded in the Activity app.

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Answer 2

Jonathan UK

Level 10

163,901 points

Jan 31, 2016 9:24 AM in response to jayman720

When multiple sources are available for the same type of data (eg steps, active calories), the Health app uses only a single data source to update your consolidated data. That source is selected based on the priority order that you have set (or that has been created automatically - eg by default, Apple devices rank above third party sources).

To check your data source priorities, on your iPhone, go to: Health app > tap on the Steps chart in the Dashboard (or select via Health Data > Fitness) > Share Data. You can edit the order via Edit (top right).

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Answer 3

jayman720 Author

Level 1

81 points

Jan 31, 2016 9:31 AM in response to Jonathan UK

I woke up late this morning. Got dressed and went right to the gym. I noticed after my workout, my fitness pal said I had 4000 steps. There's no way that's possible. My thought at that point was that it took my workouts, which consisted of biking and weightlifting, and converted it to steps. It also grabbed data from the workout app, so it had biking weightlifting and walking in there as well. That's why am asking about the double dipping. Does that make sense?

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Answer 4

Jonathan UK

Level 10

163,901 points

Feb 1, 2016 11:31 AM in response to jayman720

You may wish to visit the developer support resources for MyFitnessPal.

If your question has not already been answered there, you can post your own question for the developer's support team.

Information there includes, for example:

http://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1689725-what-is-healthk it-and-how-does-it-work-with-myfitnesspa…

http://myfitnesspal.desk.com/customer/portal/questions/15977384-calories-burned

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Answer 5

Nathan-D

Level 3

979 points

Feb 1, 2016 11:31 AM in response to jayman720

I asked a similar question to the MyFitnessPal web site last year. They said that the app will project what it thinks you will do to the end of the day depending on what you are doing now. So the step count may go down or up later in the day.

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