apple watch workout is way off on calories

I've another week to decide if to return it to the Apple Store or to wait fall updates or third party applications.

The fact is that I'm not very interested in the no fitness features of the watch. Maybe for me the Fitbit is better...

Thanks for sharing your opinions and knowledge.

I am having the same problem with using the elliptical and apple watch. I bought this watch to replace the Fitbit surge watch. The surge was very accurate in calories and heart rate but I love apple products and wanted the watch. My wrist does sweat and my surge still worked. If sweat is a problem then I would not have bought the sport watch lol. I have used this watch to workout twice now and when I choose elliptical it is half off and when I choose other to use weights it is spot on. The elliptical is the piece of equipment I use for cardio because it feels the best for my bad knees. I mostly look at calories burned and my heart rate to make sure I am in the right workout range. Please find a way to fix this problem I to bought this for working out.

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

Done. Good suggestion! Thanks

Confused by the calorie counted by the Apple Watch, I used the Apple Watch and Fitbit Charge HR (which I used almost exclusively prior to the Apple Watch purchase) to measure one full day of activity, including a series of fairly intensive gym circuit training including treadmill, spinning and elliptical. I should mention that all personal statistics are correctly entered into the Watch (as well as fitbit) so there is no room for error on that front. Key conclusions:

- Apple Watch total calorie burn was higher than Fitbit by about 250 calories. 3200 cals in the case of the Watch and a (much more realistic) 2925 in Fitbit's case. This is very significant.

- I have long suspected (and a number of people have commented on this in these forums) that Apple's definition of Resting Calories is non-standard i.e. they don't count only the MMR calories as Resting calories. My formula based MMR calculation is 1650 which is very close to what the Fitbit estimates as Resting Calories (i.e. one it assigns to me if I don't wear it at all). However, the Watch's Resting Calories in my case is 2458 which cannot be MMR calories alone. I suspect they include MMR + moderate activity calories in this (see next point) but Apple should clarify this point.

- The difference in Resting Calories is somewhat made up in Activity calories where for almost every workout, Watch would have a lower total calorie (and active calorie count) than the Fitbit's calorie count. For example, a 22 min indoor run showed 285 calories on the Fitbit and 234 Total (and 195 Active) on the Watch.

- The step count is pretty consistent and both measured very similar steps. 10,040 in the Watch's case and 10,232 in Fitbit's case.

Net net, the active/resting definitions need to be addressed by Apple but I am worried about the total calorie measurement. If the Watch is over-stating calorie burn by 8%-10%, that is a very significant error.

Some interesting points there, thanks - especially the question of how Apple calculates resting calories. In my case, the Apple number (average 1440/day) is lower than the calculated BMR (1660/day), which supports the view that Apple calculates differently, but not that some activity energy is added in.

Active calculation is reasonable (100-110 calories per outdoor running mile, varying a bit with speed and terrain). I don't really place much faith in what's recorded for weight training - I don't believe the watch handles that well at all.

Thank you so much I just reported my problem

While I do not understand much about how Apple appears to be separating the calories that it calculates, I do see that there is no way they are accurate. My wife has had the watch for about 3 weeks now. She is extremely active and splits her time between spin (teaching), CrossFit, Olympic Lifting, and doing HIIT training. She immediately wanted to see how well the watch would calculate not only heart rate but also calories burned. While wearing the watch she continued to use her Polar H7 bluetooth strap that transmitted to both her Polar watch and also to her Endomondo app on her iPhone. The heart rate was close....when it actually calculated it, but the active calories were way off base. We took the watch to the Genius Bar (they ran diagnostics and re-paired the watch and phone), and basically we were told that they are hoping with the new update that things will work better. Not really the answer that I was looking to get. She recently decided to join a friend while we were out of town at Orange Theory Fitness. From what I can tell, this place uses their own proprietary software and their own bluetooth heart rate straps that communicates with only their equipment/systems. On both days, the calories burned based on the Orange Theory email showed that during her active 53 minute workout that her calories burned were on average just over 2 times more than what the watch showed. Her friend also had just purchased a new watch the day before their first workout last week and it showed a large deficiency in calories burned (actually even slightly more than my wife's watch) for the 53 minute workout. After talking with Apple reps, Genius Bar (again), and even the salespeople at Apple Retail...if you are doing anything other than casual working out then you need to use an external heart rate strap and sync it to your Health App on your phone.

"if you are doing anything other than casual working out then you need to use an external heart rate strap and sync it to your Health App on your phone."

It is my impression (and experience) that the AW heart-rate monitor is accurate. Consumer Reports did some testing and found it to be accurate. The problem, I think, is in the calorie burn calculations. I expect that this will be fixed soon, hopefully OS 2 in the next month or so.

George

I to have noticed the heart rate is correct. I wore a chest strap and the monitor on the watch has the right heart rate for me. The calculation of calories burned are way off with the watch so i to hope this gets fixed with an update.

I have been using it with a lot of varied exercise etc for 3+ months now

Done hiking, biking, running....and compared to results from other measuring devices. The Apple Watch is WAY OFF!

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I have felt that my calorie burn is incorrect, so I went out for a 24km mountainous walk with my husband, who also has the sport watch,and we disabled the heart rate monitors on both watches,and I entered my sex, weight, height etc. as if I was him. Our distance, steps and active time results were almost identical, but my calories burnt were a third of what he burnt 😟 . Since then, on the advice of Apple, I have rebooted my watch, but it has made no difference. Upsetting as we are competitive!

Okay so I updated to watch OS2. I have been somewhat inactive and not doing more than 2000 steps this week... Thus far my calorie count has gone from over 3000 calories to about 17 to 1800 calories.

I would be curious to know what others have experienced. It is still over 200 calories more than my fitbit calories (with about the same steps). I had the fitbit over 3 years and can still check on my history.

I would really like to know everyone else's experience so far.

As reported by a few other users, calorie counting seems to have dramatical improved with OS2. My calorie burn on a slow-moderate activity day (with about 500 Move calories) is now in the 2200-2300 range whereas previously it was 2800+. This is in line with my experience with Fitbit.

However, I've experienced some weird HR measurements with the AW measuring in mid 50s in the middle of a power yoga session.

Overall still, much improved.

I agree that the calorie count is way off. I went for a 2 hour, very strenuous hike in the mountains today and I only got credit for 2 minutes of exercise and 58 calories, I get more credit when I walk around Target for 20 minutes. Makes no sense and makes me frustrated. I have calibrated the phone and my height/weight is correct. I'm starting to think getting the watch was a mistake.