Exercise ring isn't updating.

I might give this a try next time I go on an appropriate cycle.

I can get about 5 hours cycling out of the watch, but this pretty much pushes it to it's battery limits. If I stop during that time I now stop the exercise instead of pausing it, I don't really know whether this makes a difference or not. On Monday we cycled out to watch the tour of Britain go past, we cycled about 4 hours out of the 7 we were out (more than our usual stopped time), as I recall it was in the 20%'s when I got back.

I tried it when hiking, and the battery lasted considerably longer (on the watch). For some reason the iPhone battery was drained instead. Perhaps the watch was connecting more frequently to the iPhone.

On the bike no exercise registered at all in Power Saving Mode, probably because I like to keep both hands on the handle bars and the motion sensor could not register much activity.

I just got my watch the other day and I'm experiencing similar confusion.

I went for a 34 minute run this morning, I know my heart rate was elevated more than the level of a "brisk walk" but I was only credited with 11 minutes of exercise. I did not start the workout app, so I'm not sure if that has any bearing on the recording, though reading the above comments it seems that it would not. The steps and mileage is pretty close as I was also running with my garmin GPS running watch. But I feel as though I lost out on exercise, as silly as it seems to care about that, I do 😟

In looking further, I think that not using the workout mode to track means that the heart rate isn't checked often as I have no heart rate data points during my run which would explain why I'm not credited with activity or calories.

I don't think heart-rate determines 'exercise' minutes. However, from what I understand it does enter the calculation of calories. And, this would make sense. A very fit person might have trouble registering 'exercise' while an unfit person, or one with heart problems, would easily register exercise were heart-rate the determiner.

George

Yes your heart rate is used to determine whether you are credited exercise or not.

I read this on the Apple blog: "The Activity app relies on arm motion and an accelerometer to track movement, whereas the Workout app uses a heart rate sensor and GPS. Open the Workout app on your Apple Watch, tap Outdoor Walk, and bring your iPhone on the walk."

Hope it helps

Because I didn't have it tracking in a workout mode, it seemed not to ping my heartrate as often. Is that the normally the case?

Last night I had it in workout mode for a walk and I had many heart rate readings over the 40 minutes I exercised, versus almost no readings for my non recorded workout run this morning.

The Activity app relies on arm motion and an accelerometer to track movement, whereas the Workout app uses a heart rate sensor and GPS. Open the Workout app on your Apple Watch, tap Outdoor Walk, and bring your iPhone on the walk.

To place the previously quoted passages in context:

"Complete your daily Exercise goal by exercising for at least 30 minutes each day. Every full minute of movement equalling or exceeding the intensity of a brisk walk counts toward your daily Exercise and Move goals. Any activity below the intensity of a brisk walk counts only toward your daily Move goal.

Make sure you earn Exercise credit during walks by allowing the arm with your Apple Watch to swing naturally. For example, while walking your pet, let the arm with your watch swing freely while the other holds the leash.

If you need both hands while walking, for example to push a stroller, you can still earn Exercise credit by using the Workout app. The Activity app relies on arm motion and an accelerometer to track movement, whereas the Workout app uses a heart rate sensor and GPS. Open the Workout app on your Apple Watch, tap Outdoor Walk, and bring your iPhone on the walk."

Use the Activity app on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Okay, so this confuses me further. I cannot figure out why I got basically 0 exercise credit for my run this morning. Seeing as I was running, at quick-ish pace (definitely higher than a "brisk walk"), I was definitely using the accelerometer in the watch. Granted, I was running so my arms might not have been swinging "naturally" as they were bent at a more acute angle, but for over half an hour of activity I feel like I'm missing some reason why it wasn't credited.

Once everyone can update to watch OS 2.0 you'll see that the exercise ring works a lot better than it used to. I have been running the beta software for over a month now and Apple did fix the exercise ring from my initial complaints from how it worked very first OS.

Now when I run walk fast or do anything like that I automatically get credit for my exercise whereas on the watch OS 1 you really had to start the exercise to get good results. So long story short when you guys all go to the new operating system on the watch I think you'll find the exercise ring is working a lot better.

But, on a very brisk walk last weekend, I got exercise credit without a single reading of the heart-rate monitor during the duration of the walk. I have also test walked slowly with the outdoor-walk workout initiated not received any 'exercise' credit. Therefore, I have concluded that the determinate is not the heart-rate monitor.

My experience is that walking fast, not running the heart-rate monitor determines whether 'exercise' is credited.

George

I will be quite excited whenever the new OS is released for the watch. From day 1 back in May I tried using it in my exercising and it was pretty much just ornamental. I would use my workout machine for 30 minutes with about 10 different weight lifting exercises and work my pule rate up from my resting rate of around 60-65 up to 100-110. Then I would get on my Woodway treadmill and walk at a 4.5 mile per hour rate up a 12 degree incline for 1 hour and get my heart rate up to 155-165 and hold it for an hour. I would have been exercising for 90 minutes and when I would check the heart rate during the exercise with the one on the Woodway they would match within 1 or 2 bpm. Then when I would get through with the workout it would say I had burned 270 calories and the Woodway would read around 700-750. Most other equipment I have used in various hotels and other places pretty much agreed with the Woodway and the Watch was totally ridiculous. My son in law is an Apple developer (not with Apple) and he agreed that the software from v1 was quite primitive and that Apple had not opened up the instruments to developers to make better software. The only thing developers could do was format the data that Apple was fetching from the instruments. My guess is that by the time we get to this time next year the fitness software will be light years ahead of where it is now. At least I hope so.

I am having a similar problem, mine is the exercise ring goes up when I'm not doing anything at all. I really don't know how this is happening, I mean; my average heart rate is only 61, yet my exercise ring is going up. its really annoying.