Outdoor cycling not credited as exercise with Apple Watch series 6

Same problem for me. My girlfriend and I did nearly 20 miles by bike today in about 2 hours and average heart rate was 140BPM…and we both averaged about 20 minutes of exercise also the calorie count for calories burned were much less than if we were walking. This is clearly a problem with this activity that Apple hasn’t seemed to be able to fix or recognizes as a problem. I use the watch constantly for other training such as weightlifting, running and elliptical all of which do a fine and correct job of tracking activit calorie burn etc. I sincerely wish Apple could fix this; it strangely disincentivizes one from doing cycling.

I’m having the same issue, only a fraction of my outdoor

cycle minutes is credited to my activity minutes. But I do have a twist! When riding

my electric bike, it does seem to record properly. Yes, I’m still pedaling with

the electric, with a 100+ BPM avg.        

I’m having the same issue, only a fraction of my outdoor

cycle minutes is credited to my activity minutes. But I do have a twist! When riding

my electric bike, it does seem to record properly. Yes, I’m still pedaling with

the electric, with a 100+ BPM avg.        

Another person here with the same outdoor cycling issue. It’s the first time I’ve written on a forum, so Apple review this and potentially look into these issues?

Wondering if you are using “other” or “indoor cycle” whilst awaiting a fix?

Thanks TM

Well, I had an incredibly unhelpful discussion with an Apple so-called support person (a specialist in their fitness app and health benefits). She seem to feel that outdoor exercise is being set up to credit less than a full work out even if you have your heart rate up was correct. She suggested I try to figure out what pace I’m going out because if the Apple Watch feels my pace is too slow even if my heart rate is in a cardio range it will cut off minutes. She felt like getting 25 minutes credit for a 50 minute outdoor workout or 40 for a70 minute workout sounded correct (I had already pointed out that I did do the recalibration, I had my phone with me, software was up to date on both devices, and I was on trails where I was not stopping for lights/cross traffic but continually moving). And she said that I should try after the workout to figure out what pace would give me credit though it’s not clear exactly how I would do it. It’s just a bad algorithm. Indeed, while not crediting outdoor workouts fully, it’s sometimes still gives me credit for exercise just walking around the grocery store. I’m definitely not maintaining a swift pace there. So don’t look for full credit in outdoor workouts. I have long since turn my exercise ring back to 30 minutes and always exceed that, so I’ll just try to more thoroughly ignore it. Wish I could turn it off so I wouldn’t have to look at it. Really I’m just tracking workouts at this point. Deeply disappointed in Apple

I noticed this as well. Today my wife and I went bike riding for 50 min together. She got 40min credited and I got 35 min credited as exercise in the rings. Same distance. Basically same speed. But her heart rate is typically higher than mine while riding.

I also found this article from Jan 2021 on:

https://www.idropnews.com/faq/faq-why-am-i-earning-less-exercise-minutes-than-the-length-of-my-actual-workout/151374/

The text we're looking for:

"If you’re doing an outdoor cycling workout, however, it’s important to remember that you’ll only get credit for your exercise minutes when you’re actually exercising — that is, exerting force on your pedals and raising your heart rate.

For example, you might take a leisurely hour-long bike ride but only end up with 15 minutes of credit on your Exercise ring, since the time that you spend coasting rather than actually pedaling doesn’t count.

In short, most Apple Watch workouts that focus on vigorous activity track heart rate and motion to determine what qualifies as “exercise minutes.”"

So our watched are judging us based on our heart rates. Kinda makes sense. Looking into the health app under heart rate during that workout it shows me Workout: 78-127 BPM. I'm now guessing it will only count minutes over 110 BPM for me?

Does anyone know the method to calculate the exact BPM it needs for each of us? Is it based on our own cardio fitness?

I'm noticing this is NOT an apple watch issue since the whole bike path was recorded as well as all the other data. The watch IS recording data as intended. It's the app taking that data and determining if it's "exercise minutes" worthy for my person.

This is an APPLE FITNESS app problem.

I am having this problem as well. After reading this thread, I searched for an app that would track cycling and sync with apple watch. I download and tried Komoot yesterday. It synced every minute of my 3 mile ride as exercise in the Activity app. I did have to sync it to Apple Health, and that is where the exercise ring info came from.

Right, I’m aware. Which is why I’m also using Komoot. I’ve battled a lot of Heath issues this year, so I’m still gaining strength and endurance. But I need that ring to close when I do get out there and do anything. Eventually I’ll be able to hit the required metrics from the watch app.

No, it doesn’t; at least not for me. All the exercise minutes are from Komoot, and all the move and calories are from the activity app.

When I used JUST the activity app, I got move and calorie data, but my exercise ring didn’t progress.

When I used JUST Komoot, the exercise ring progressed, but the move and calorie data did not.

If you did both apps and it counted exercise from both, you can go into Apple health and delete the Komoot data.

I’m in the same situation. Very frustrating to say the least. All other workouts work fine, except Outdoor Cycling, which happens to be my favorite. I’ve checked all the calibration settings, I’ve tried unpairing/pairing again, I’ve tried resetting calibration, yet yesterday I was credited only 15 minutes out of a 38 minute ride 😟 I’m not the fittest person but my HR is by far exceeding that of a ‘brisk walk’. Sorry not to be of more help. But if you find a solution please let us know. Cheers!

Update* The other day I went to the Apple Store and commented on this issue. The sales guy recommended using Strava to record my cycling and see if made any difference. And it did! I don’t know why or how but when using it, I started getting credited the right amount of exercise minutes. Also, I updated to watch iOS 8, maybe the update also helped but who can tell.

Good thing: since watchOS 8 the watch will pause the outdoor cycling workout timer when you stop moving (at a stoplight, etc). This will help offset the time discrepancy. Before this, we figured out that it will calculate exercise minutes ONLY when your heart rate is at a minimum.

Apparently still an issue. I received the SE for Christmas, have done two outdoor bike rides, neither registered in the exercise ring. All my walks and runs outside show. Sure hope apple fixes this soon!

Did anyone get to fixing this issue? Its actually ridiculous to see that 30mins of brisk Outdoor cycle riding, with HR upto 130 is not being counted as exercise!!

It’s synced automatically, which is great. Here are a screenshots from both apps.