Walking-pad steps in Apple Health

If your walking pad has no Apple integration and you don't wear a Watch, the time you spend walking at your desk never reaches Apple Health. DeskRhythm fills that gap: when a session with walking-pad time finishes, it writes a walking workout and estimated steps to Health — no Watch needed. The steps are a calibrated estimate, not a sensor measurement, so this page explains how to make the estimate close, and how to keep your Health data clean if you already track steps another way.

Calibrate your walking pad

DeskRhythm doesn't read your pad's sensor. It estimates your steps from two things it does know: how long your walking-pad session ran, and how fast you walk on that pad. You supply the second one — your cadence, in steps per minute.

To measure it, walk on the pad at your normal working pace. Count your steps for one minute — count one foot and double the number, or count both feet — and enter that figure as steps per minute in the Room's walking-pad settings. DeskRhythm then estimates each session's steps as your cadence times the minutes you walked.

It's an estimate, so a close number is enough; you don't need to be exact. If your usual pace changes, measure again.

Different speeds or more than one pad

Cadence is set per Room, because it changes with the pad and the speed. If you walk at two speeds — a slower pace for calls, a brisker one for email — or you have more than one pad, make a Room for each, calibrate each, and pick the right one before you start walking.

For example: a "Home office — slow" Room and a "Home office — brisk" Room, each with its own steps-per-minute. One cadence per Room keeps each session's estimate about right. There's no separate speed setting inside a Room — the Room is the speed.

If you already track steps another way

DeskRhythm is meant to fill a gap, not to report over a source you already have. If you wear an Apple Watch or carry your phone while you walk, those already log steps — letting DeskRhythm add its estimate on top would count the same steps twice. The pad workout, though, is usually unique to DeskRhythm, so most people keep that.

You have two ways to keep things clean:

  1. DeskRhythm's switches. On the Apple Health screen in DeskRhythm, the Steps and Walking workout writes are separate switches. If your Watch or phone already counts your steps, turn Steps off and leave Walking workout on.
  2. Apple Health source priority. Apple Health lets you choose which source it trusts first for a data type. Open the Health app, tap the data type (for example, Steps), then Data Sources & Access, then Edit, and drag your measured source above DeskRhythm.

Two notes on what these controls do and don't do: turning a switch off stops future writes — it doesn't remove steps DeskRhythm has already written. And disconnecting Apple Health in DeskRhythm only stops future writes from DeskRhythm; to revoke DeskRhythm's permission or delete steps it already wrote, use the Health app (or Settings ▸ Privacy & Security ▸ Health).