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Apple Watch Series 3 exercise goal much too easy

I've been logging exercise with my Apple Watch for about 18 months and it is typically somewhat challenging to close my exercise ring. I choose an Outdoor Walk and typically close the exercise ring after 30 minutes, as expected. However, over the last two days I've not done any exercise, mostly reading a book, sitting at my desk, getting up to eat, etc. Yet my exercise ring has been closing easily, without anything close to actual exercise.


It would be wonderful if I can get a full day's exercise sitting on my Lazy Boy, eating chips and drinking beer but I may be fooling myself.


What could be going on and how do I fix it?

Apple Watch

Posted on Apr 26, 2020 12:01 PM

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8 replies

May 8, 2020 4:52 PM in response to Community User

fieryjack, I followed the instructions in the two links you provided but it did not help. My watch typically shows me exceeding 300% of my exercise goal without doing anything more than watching TV, sitting at my desk, eating breakfast, etc.. Looking at the daily log, I seem to get exercise credit almost every hour where I get move credit; the bar graph for my Move goal looks almost the same as for my Exercise goal. I don't think this is a calibration issue because it is so far off and my heart BPM seems quite reasonable, e.g. 60 bpm while I'm writing this response. Any other ideas?

May 25, 2020 7:56 AM in response to JWYjwyoung

I would check the flights of stairs your watch is recording. That's what happened to my old Apple Watch. It started racking up an outrageous number of flights of stairs when I hadn't walked up a single flight, which translated to grossly exaggerated exercise minutes and calories burned.


Hopefully your watch is still under warranty or you have AppleCare. I spent hours on the phone with Apple Support. Several times I turned my watch on and off; recalibrated it; unpaired it; etc. Nothing worked. Mine was no longer under warranty and I didn't have AppleCare so I had to buy a new watch. If you have a Costco membership they've had the series 5 on sale recently. And I made sure to get AppleCare this time.

May 25, 2020 9:23 AM in response to awuserjan

Thank you, awuserjan. It is true that my watch is showing excessive stairs climbed. I've not paid much attention to that because my house has 5 levels and each level has a short flight of stairs so I normally do an uncountable number of stairs every day. Already at 9 am this morning my watch shows "23 flights climbed" and I'm half-way toward meeting my exercise goal with no real exercise other than walking around the house. My heartbeat does not significantly increase walking up a mere 10 stairs. However, I'm not sure how that relates to Apple's definition of their "Exercise" goal, which I believe is elevated heartbeat for 30 minutes.


Regardless, with no warranty I probably need a new watch.

Apple Watch Series 3 exercise goal much too easy

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