Health App Active Energy Doesn't Equal Move Ring Energy

Hi Jamie_64,

We understand you're trying to manually add data to the Move category. We're happy to help.

The situation you're describing is expected. Whenever you manually add a workout to the Health app, it will show up in the Activity app under the "Exercise" category, not the "Move" category.

The Move category adds progress when your watch is actually moving. For example, the swing of your arms while walking or running. It will also use the accelerometer, heart rate sensor, and GPS, to track and more accurately log your movement data under the Move category in the Activity app. If your watch/arm isn't physically moving during your workout, the Move ring won't progress.

You can find more info on using the Activity app and calibrating the watch here:

Use the Activity app on your Apple Watch

Get the most accurate measurements using your Apple Watch

We hope this helps. Take care!

Hi Jamie_64,

Thanks for the follow up.

You are correct. If you go in to the Workout app and start an exercise in the Other category, it is going to use the heart rate monitor and motion sensors as a way of determining and tracking the activity. If your arms are steady, then the activity is solely based on the heart rate, which may not give you the most accurate results.

This isn't really a design flaw, it's more of a technical limitation of movement tracking. In your situation it sounds like you're sitting still with no movement in your arms, and your legs are moving. Since a watch is worn on your wrist it has no way of "knowing" that your legs are moving, therefore it's not going to track movement accurately because you are not moving the watch.

All of the other Workout types are calibrated with the motion sensors for the specific workout motions to more accurately track the calories and distance. With the "Other" workout type, there's no specific calibration since "Other" can mean so many different things. With "Other" it will still use the accelerometer, heart rate, and GPS as a way of giving the most accurate results. Now for your specific scenario you're in one place, so GPS isn't providing any data to help with the accuracy of calories/distance, you're arm isn't moving, so the accelerometer isn't providing any data to help with the accuracy either. The only data the watch is getting is the heart rate so it has to make the calories/distance determination based off of that one data point only, which is why your results probably aren't the most accurate.

Workout types on Apple Watch

We hope this was able to further clarify things. Cheers!