apple watch workout is way off on calories

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

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.

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.)

In response to your comment, "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'm an Apple Watch convert. Before converting I was using a polar fitness watch with the chest strap heart rate monitor and I tell you, I was very disappointed to see how hard I worked for so little calories burned. and yes my HR stayed well above 150 and still only burned a little over 200 calories. Everything with my equipment was legit, good working order battery good, all good. And when I finished I was like. All this hard work for a measly 240 calories.

I sometimes get discouraged because I'm working so hard and it seems the calories are no moving. Lol

I'm glad I have some exercises I really enjoy doing and the calories are lagniappe!

Less

I will be utilizing a chest strap for a little more accurate reading. So far I find the chest strap to be very helpful. I use three different work out apps and the sources of data are all the same but they don't provide the same info. My step count, active calories and resting calories are all different. Not sure how to untangle that mess. I Used 3 different apps for comparison purposes to, I guess gauge an average. Kinda confusing now!

Same as you. I have just completed a high intensity session, 43 minutes with an average heart beat of 149; 213 calories. I can walk for the same time, with a heart beat of 110 and burn more? But two weeks ago, the same session would burn 522 calories or so.

The app attempts to calculate calories from your weight and heart rate, so check that their right.

What kind of exercise are you doing, an what did you tell the app you were doing?

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.

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.

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

Yeah I think this is the catch. The apple watch reports active calories and resting calories seperately. So for example, when I went for a bike ride, it reported about ~700 active calories which is way less than my cycling app reported. But then when I look at the total calories that includes resting burn, it comes out as ~1000 calories which matches my cycling app. So these seem to be consistent.

Then when I look at my move calories it includes both the workout and the calories I've accumulated from random walking, etc. So this also appears to be consistent. The one thing I wonder about though is that the move calories seem to be higher than I'd expect. This may ultimately be more accurate than what I was tracking previously without heart rate monitoring, etc. But it just seems generous.

What's a little frustrating is that I've apparently been counting my calories incorrectly all this time. My cycle app was reporting both kinds of calories as a total, and I thought that just meant my active calories. Effectively I was double-counting which is now being corrected for.

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.. 🙂

Did you see the comments that (for one poster at least), active *plus* resting calories came to about the same as measured elsewhere?

I too have inaccurate calorie burned during workout. As a prior posted suggested that there aren't enough pre-loaded workouts to chose. I too do a very high intensity resistance /plyo / crossfit and when choosing "Other" estimates calories at a brisk walk...which is a total joke. I primarily purchased for workouts, rather than a Polar, but I really want accuracy.

Watch fits close to wrist and I believe heart rate is accurate but calories burned is so not.