apple watch workout is way off on calories

All workout equipment and sport watches are calculating your total calorie burn. But this is inclusive of RMR/BMR calories which you would have burned anyway. The Workout app reports active calories (exclusive of the above). The Activity app however shows you both active and resting calorie burned for total calories burned which is what you should be using if you want to compare. And of course you also have to calibrate those devices with your weight and age if you want it to at least estimate somewhat close.

See this post for some good info:

Apple Watch running accuracy

Hi poolmanrob,

Yes, there is a way to calibrate your Apple Watch to improve the results shown in Workout and Activity. By following the steps in the article linked to below, your Apple Watch will then be calibrated.

Calibrating your Apple Watch for improved Workout and Activity accuracy - Apple Support

I also recommend going through the best practices outlined below to ensure you get the best Workout measurement.

Get the best measurement

Your Apple Watch will estimate your measurements during workouts based on the information that you entered during setup, but you can further improve its accuracy using these tips:

• Wearing your Apple Watch regularly can improve the accuracy of the Activity and Workout apps.
• Choose the Workout that best matches what you’re doing. For example, if you're running on a treadmill, choose Indoor Run.
• For GPS accuracy when you walk, run, or cycle outdoors, select the appropriate Workout and bring your iPhone. This will also help calibrate the accelerometer in Apple Watch for times when you don’t have GPS, such as during treadmill workouts or when you're running outside without your phone.
• To get the most accurate heart rate measurement when you use Workout, make sure your Apple Watch fits snugly on top of your wrist. The heart rate sensor should stay close to your skin.
• You can also use another heart rate monitoring device, such as a chest strap. To pair an external heart rate monitor with your Apple Watch, tap the Settings app on the Home screen, then tap Bluetooth and select it under Health Devices. Learn more about the Apple Watch heart rate sensor, its accuracy, and its limitations.

Use the Workout app on Apple Watch - Apple Support

Have a good one,

Alex H.

I used the Work out app for Elliptical... after a 40min high intensity work-out, it said I burned around 200 calories... the gym equipment said I burned 450... I am sure the gym equipment isn't totally accurate either, but I would think that I would burn more than 200 if my heart rate was above 150bpm for 40mins. lol

I too found the calories to be way off by about 50% under the workout app. I selected "other" as I was doing circuit training. It said it was going to treat my workout like a brisk walk. LOL.. I've used the watch for running and the calorie burn is very close to my garmin. However, the preloaded workout app's gps isn't accurate, so I am using Runtastic which is fantastic and accurate. My biggest problem is the calorie burn for an intense resistance workout. I am a trainer and accuracy is important for me and for my recommendations to clients. Otherwise LOVE the watch. JUst need to tweak the accuracy for a strength/circuit/bootcamp/crossfit style workout.

The Apple Watch does not calculate calorie burn correctly (active/resting/total). There are a few other threads here that discuss this issue. Having tried several outdoor "calibration" workouts and, afterwards, comparing them to several varieties of indoor workouts the Apple Watch consistently measures "calories burned" low. I have used two different chest straps and two different iPhone exercise apps that are both extremely close in their measurements (WITHOUT "calibration" BS) and they record calories burned 200-300 calories higher then the Apple Watch exercise app. (I have an iPhone 6 Plus, the Apple Watch snuggly fit to my wrist and I do not have any arm tattoos.. 🙂

If you want Apple to hear your opinion, you need to go to the link below - Apple doesn't participate here - it's user to user.

I expect Apple to improve the software over time, but it would do no harm for you to tell them your experience

http://www.apple.com/feedback

There's a mix of things here.

- Heart rate: In WatchOS 1.01 (the current release), heart rate is measured roughly once an hour if there isn't an active Workout in progress, but the measurement only takes place if your wrist is still. So the actual frequency can vary quite a bit. In the previous WatchOS release, the measurement was every 10 minutes; Apple hasn't explained why the frequency was changed, but it's assumed to be a way of saving battery life. 't there's a Workout in progress, heart rate is measured every few seconds, but that also can vary depending how sing the watch is against your wrist. This may change again in WatchOS2, which is due out in September or October (date not yet finalised), but there's been no confirmation of that

- Resting calories: 1800/day sounds like a bug. A reset (hold the digital crown and the side button together for around 10 seconds until the Apple logo appears) may knock some sense into it. If it doesn't, I suggest a full reset to factory settings, to calibrate all over agin. That's a somewhat painful process, but it has had good results for some people. To do the reset safely, and retain your Activity and Health data, connect to iTunes, do a full encrypted backup of your iPhone (if it's not encrypted, Health data is not backed up), rest the watch to factory settings (from the Settings app in the watch or the Watch app on the phone), re=pair with the phone and you'll be asked if you want to restore from a watch backup. You'll have to recalibrate the watch distance measurement after all this as well.

- Active calorie usage - again, a reset might help, but there are inconsistencies in how the software works. It seems to work quite well for some people (I have found it quite reliable), but not for others.

All this stuff is work in progress for Apple (which doesn't make it less annoying). If you have time and the inclination, please report your experience at http://www.apple.com/feedback - the more information Apple gets, the more opportunity there is to get this working properly.

nick101 wrote:

There's a mix of things here.

- Heart rate: In WatchOS 1.01 (the current release), heart rate is measured roughly once an hour if there isn't an active Workout in progress, but the measurement only takes place if your wrist is still. So the actual frequency can vary quite a bit. In the previous WatchOS release, the measurement was every 10 minutes; Apple hasn't explained why the frequency was changed, but it's assumed to be a way of saving battery life. 't there's a Workout in progress, heart rate is measured every few seconds, but that also can vary depending how sing the watch is against your wrist.

This is incorrect.

In the current version of watchOS, Apple Watch measures your heart rate:

- Every 10 minutes as long as neither you nor your arm are moving (a resting heart rate).

- Continuously during workouts (via the Workout app), by flashing green LEDs hundreds of times per second.

All heart rate measurements are stored in the Health app on your Apple Watch, where you can view the data points (Health Data tab > Vitals > Heart Rate > Show all Data).

More info here: Your heart rate. What it means, and where on Apple Watch you’ll find it. - Apple Support

To help improve the accuracy of calorie estimations:

Check that your personal information is accurate:

On your iPhone > Apple Watch app > My Watch > Health > check and, if necessary, edit your birthdate, gender, height and weight.

Calibrate your Apple Watch:

Calibration will improve the accuracy of health and activity related estimations including:

- Calorie estimations for workouts when using the Workout app.

- Calorie, distance, Move and Exercise estimations in the Activity App.

More info here: Calibrating your Apple Watch for improved Workout and Activity accuracy - Apple Support

Jonathan UK wrote:

nick101 wrote:

There's a mix of things here.

- Heart rate: In WatchOS 1.01 (the current release), heart rate is measured roughly once an hour if there isn't an active Workout in progress, but the measurement only takes place if your wrist is still. So the actual frequency can vary quite a bit. In the previous WatchOS release, the measurement was every 10 minutes; Apple hasn't explained why the frequency was changed, but it's assumed to be a way of saving battery life. 't there's a Workout in progress, heart rate is measured every few seconds, but that also can vary depending how sing the watch is against your wrist.

This is incorrect.

In the current version of watchOS, Apple Watch measures your heart rate:

- Every 10 minutes as long as neither you nor your arm are moving (a resting heart rate).

- Continuously during workouts (via the Workout app), by flashing green LEDs hundreds of times per second.

All heart rate measurements are stored in the Health app on your Apple Watch, where you can view the data points (Health Data tab > Vitals > Heart Rate > Show all Data).

More info here: Your heart rate. What it means, and where on Apple Watch you’ll find it. - Apple Support

Thanks for the correction.

Can you report this to Apple at http://www.apple.com/feedback - these are user forums and there's no Apple presence here usually. The more data Apple gets on this kind of issue, the more likely there is to be a fix. Thanks

So here's a couple workouts that I've done:

• Cycling 1 - 278 active calories, 79 resting calories, duration 38:41
• Cycling 2 - 590 active calories, 149 resting calories, duration 1:13:48
• Cycling 3 - 782 active calories, 225 resting calories, duration 1:50:28

So now to compare those numbers against calculators that estimate calories:

• Cycling 1 - Apple: 357. Calculator: 368 (3% difference)
• Cycling 2 - Apple: 739. Calculator: 698 (6% difference)
• Cycling 3 - Apple: 1007. Calculator: 1038 (3% difference)

So that seems pretty consistent. Apple tends to return a little lower overall total calorie burn but it's within a few percent of the totals I get elsewhere. Also the app I'd previously used for calculating calorie burn when cycling is consistent with the online calculators (i.e. it's combining active and resting calories).

The calculation seems to have me burning about 2.05 calories per minute at rest which would mean I'd burn 2952 calories/day. Looking at the move section of the activity app, I see it's showing an average resting burn rate of around 2900 calories/day. When I go online to find a calorie burn calculator that incorporates an estimation of activity level, it matches quite well. So here you can see your BMR if you don't move at all, and how it is affected by your level of activity: http://www.bmrcalculator.org/

So for me, the base BMR came back as 1862/day. That number means what my calorie burn would be if I literally stayed in bed all day and didn't move. But the watch is assuming I have some moderate exercise (which is true). So based on that the number comes back as 2886, which is right in the ballpark of what the watch is estimating.

The reality is that this is all a pretty complicated interplay of how our bodies work. If you don't move at all, the number is simple. When you exercise regularly, not only do you have the calories burned from exercising, but you also have the calories burned from maintaining your body being increased. So if you are moderately active, even if on a given day you sat on the couch all day, you'd still burn more than your BMR suggests because your body is still keeping all that muscle mass, etc. It would shift over time. Also, this is why weight lifting can be beneficial to weight loss (it ups your maintenance calorie burn).

The question in my mind is how the watch adjust this over time. Does it detect my activity level and adjust my resting calorie burn accordingly. If I become more active does the number go up? If I become less active does it go down? Not sure...

On the phone, in the Watch app, under Health, you can enter your height, weight etc. That gets propagated to Wathc apps like Activity and Workouts and becomes part of the calculations.

Factors which seem to affect accuracy in this area (since this is all so new, there's not much hard data to work with):

- Watch has to be snug against the skin

- Some suggestion that tattoo ink under the sensors may make a difference (not proven, but a possibility)

- There's a lot of interaction between arm movement (watch accelerometer), steps (phone accelerometer), heart rate, but it's not clear exactly how

I suspect that it takes a while for the watch to calibrate to you.

One thing worth trying is a reset and restart on both phone and watch - that's fixing a lot of stuff

Don't know if any of that helps.

The watch should be accurate. with your weight/age and height as well as heart rate it should be one of the most accurate devices you can use right now.

(unless your wrist get's very sweaty, then the heart rate monitor can be impacted.)

Most gym equipment like a treadmill cal count is a ball park average. Don't rely on it.

Also Elliptical won't read right if you hold the handles. It won't read well for any sports band, it needs a greater range of motion to register as "running/jogging".

I have the same issue on my Nike Fuel band as well. (and again, the gym equipment is a ball park average, don't rely to heavily on it.)