apple watch workout is way off on calories

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.

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.

RealFitTrainer wrote:

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.

I have found the watch to be quite accurate in many areas, in other areas initially not so much. However overtime I've come to the conclusion that it isn't that the watch is inaccurate in these areas but rather that Apple haven't done a very good job of explaining how it works and what to expect and that we are possibly interpreting the results incorrectly. I'm not blaming the victim here (although I'm sure some will think I am), I'm just suggesting we need to look a little deeper or perhaps even not so deep at all (perhaps we are just overthinking simplicity)

I Think the resting calories calculation needs to be made public for us to understand. My resting calories during all sorts of workouts is calculated by Apple watch at 1.2 cal/minute, which is resting calories about 1700 cal/day.

I am female, about 62 in and weigh 120 pounds. My calculated BMR is around 1200 cal/day, which is roughly equivalent to "resting calories".

THis is a big differerence -- have you looked at this for yourself? I am interested if others are having this issue. If Apple is using the HarrisBenedict equation to calculate resting calories and then adding active calories on top of that , that doesn't sound accurate to me.

Beyond the obvious which is deserving accurate data, why does it matter? If you know your resting calories -- which is a static number mostly (obviously it changes slowly as you lose/gain weight) - you are relying on the watch to calculate active calories anyway. So if its starting from a higher number (500 too high as you say), it will be so consistently. I agree it would be nice to understand what they are doing, but even if we did and didnt agree and they dont change, you would just have to make any adjustment to total calories manually (i.e. if you were inputting into some other app).

When you pay almost twice as much for a device. It should be accurate. My resting calories are 1000 calories too much.

Mine have been measured by various professional methods. Yes a 5 or 10% variation would be acceptable. 50% is not.

Apple should fix this issue pronto!! We should be able to go in manually at least to fix it. Cause if it is on this forum you can bet that Fitbit is jumping up and down with glee!

I have fully "calibrated" my Apple Watch by walking over 5 miles (over the span of a few days) in an "Outdoor Walk" exercise with my iPhone 6 (GPS enabled) on me. Yesterday I pedaled for 48 minutes on an "Indoor Cycle" exercise (recumbent lifecycle) and the result was 3 Active Cal (yes - 3!) with a resting of 60 and total of 63. That's absurd. I should have burned more than that sleeping for 48 minutes let alone pedaling at a reported average of 133bpm. This was my 3rd "Indoor Cycle" routine of similar length and with similar reported results. Even a 22 minute "Outdoor Walk" for 1.11miles resulted in only 46cal total (still way more than 48 minutes on the indoor cycle). Something just isn't right here.

Heys guys wondering if anyone can help.

my girlfriend and I both have an apple watch sport And have both been reading our calories burned each day. She is extremely active, goes to the gym and I can be active but tend to be a lot lazier than her and I burn double the calories she does!?

As you can imagine this is driving her mad! Haha

We think it might be because I am bigger than her maybe?

I am 6.1 tall 82kg and she is a lot less lets just say..

is the watch just being inaccurate or is there some science behind this?

Today was my first 'workout' with the watch. I have weight and age set, and an elliptical workout selected (for the gym cross-training machine). For a 30 minute continuous exercise, my calorie reading was about 50 percent off due to the heart rate monitor occasionally reading 65 to 80 bpm instead of my typical 135 to 140 bpm. I attribute this to sweat under the sensor (I do have the watch band set snug), and, since I cannot move at my desired rate without sweating (doesn't everyone sweat?), I do not understand how I will ever get an accurate calorie or heart reading. Any suggestions?

itsolutionz wrote:

Today was my first 'workout' with the watch. I have weight and age set, and an elliptical workout selected (for the gym cross-training machine). For a 30 minute continuous exercise, my calorie reading was about 50 percent off due to the heart rate monitor occasionally reading 65 to 80 bpm instead of my typical 135 to 140 bpm. I attribute this to sweat under the sensor (I do have the watch band set snug), and, since I cannot move at my desired rate without sweating, I do not understand how I will ever get an accurate calorie or heart reading. Any suggestions?

Surely it would need to read your heart rate as 65-80 all the time in order to be 50% out, not just occasionally.

I think it did read a rate of 65 to 80 bpm for the majority of the exercise (or as soon as I started to sweat--the watch sensor area was dripping with moisture when I temporarily removed the watch after exiting the elliptical machine). And in answer to dhy8386, I wear the watch on my left arm just above the wrist bone. If it helps, I am light boned with virtually no fat, have very tan skin from gardening; and as I am approaching 70 years old, I do have relatively thin and freckled skin as most do at my age. As I mentioned, this was my first 'test' of the watch (having just received it), so perhaps I was premature in raising the issue and I may need to experiment more. (But thanks for the replies!)

There are two numbers it gives you: the move calories and the total calories. I've tried calibrating them against another activity watch, which I've worn for 1.5 years and which is pretty accurate (i.e., over a period where I neither gain and lose weight, and where I've counted food calories carefully, the total calories used my old activity watch gives me is approximately equal to the food calories.)

I find the Apple Watch tends to give slightly less credit for exercise, but much more credit for resting calories, with the result that it reads 250 - 500 cal/day higher, or in other words probably too high.

Contrary to what I've read elsewhere, the resting calorie number is uses for me is absolutely constant, and way too high for my height, weight and age.

I definitely think whatever numbers Apple has programmed into its calorie counter should be tweaked.

No, I have to disagree - the app is way off and I have watched the videos and I can't find any way to tell the watch what my weight or age is so it can get better. Apple could substantially improve the app if it let us enter basic setup info and if we could tell it what we are doing. When I am on my leg press machine it has no idea what I am doing so there is not a way it can be accurate. When it summed my resting and working calories the total was still only 1/3 of the real total. I am 58 and weigh 195 and my workout is 1 hour up a 12% incline on a Woodway treadmill at 4.4 mph. That definitely burns more than the 140 calories that the app shows. The pulse rate is right and it matched the woodway at 150-160 throughout the workout. I am looking for a much better app.

I too have to weigh in here. The not only the active calories calculated from activities but also the resting calories are WAYYYY off.

I am a personal trainer at a gym. My gym's primary focus is on body composition and driving biometric data and comosition results. I regularly measure not only my weight, but also my lean muscle mass and body fat percentage using Valhalla scales. The workout app calculates my caloric burn at about 50% of what actual is. It appears to give no credit for intensity level of the workout. Here is an exact example: today I did a brisk walk outside with my husband for 36 minutes at 4 Mph. I then did another 30 minutes on a treadmill at 15% incline for 30 minutes at 3.2 Mph. The watch's total calculations for the outdoor walk were 297 with average heart rate of 97. The watch's calculations for the indoor "hike" was 229 with an average heart rate of 134. My actual calorie burn for my indoor walk was 338. It cannot calculate certain activities correctly. Furthermore, you cannot edit or adjust the workouts to teach it the correct burn. This needs adjustments.

Meanwhile, most days it says I am burning a total of 3500-4500 calories and I just barely hit my move goal of 750. That is ridiculous and I am not burning anywhere near that number of total calories. If that was the case, my 1500 calorie deficit would either have lost me 5-10 lbs or put me in the hospital from mal nourishment. Until then, at minimum, this thing could allow me to adjust my move goal on the fly because expecting me to run a 10K everyday in addition to my weight lifting is unreasonable and unhealthy.