"Exercise" vs. "auto-detected activity"

[DesertT]

As a dad with a small child who is working full time, exercise is hard to come by for me. So I use the daily bike commute to and from daycare to get at least a moderate amount of light exercise in. 

I like using the "Biking" exercise setting for this, but more often than not, I forget to pause the activity, for example, while I'm checking my son into the daycare, which results in a "bike ride" that consists of mostly standing around, ruining my average speed, or I forget to end the exercise altogether when I get home and start working, until I discover, sometimes hours later, that the Fitbit still thinks I'm riding my bike. Which of course is totally silly and counterproductive. 

My question: I'm tempted to not actively log my bike rides at all, and instead let the Fitbit detect when I'm riding automatically, as it does that pretty well. However, in this scenario, will the Ionic still log those activities and factor them into my weekly exercise stats, e.g. move minutes and such? Or does it only include activities that I record using the "Exercise" function? 

It is unclear to me why it is so difficult to program the Fitbit so that it automatically detects when I'm pausing an activity, or once I have stopped doing it. Doesn't seem that complicated.  

[JohnnyRow]

If the bike ride gets auto-detected, then it makes no difference.  The issue is what if it does not get auto-detected, as can happen.  In that case, it depends on what you mean by "my weekly exercise stats, e.g. move minutes and such?".  The one and only place that would make a difference is in not calling it a day with an exercise session and not getting a workout log.  How important that is varies among people.

[DesertT]

Thank you, JohnnyRow! I guess what I meant by "my weekly exercise stats" is the motivational notifications my Fitbit sends me over the course of a week, for example "Keep it up! You're almost there! 2 more days to go toward your goal of five exercise sessions a week!"

If I DON'T use the Exercise app to log my activities, will those still count toward that goal or no? In other words, if I never decidedly turn on the Exercise recording function before an activity and instead simply do nothing and leave it up to the Ionic to detect my activity, will it still log those and help me complete my exercise goal? Or will the stats tell me that I haven't done any exercise at all, since I haven't engaged the Exercise app? That would really bother me. 

[JohnnyRow]

Like I said above, that depends on whether or not your bike ride gets auto-recognized as an exercise session.