Inconsistant Results: Workout/Activity/Exercise

I'm not really sure why you posted that, you didn't say whether it was from agreement or disagreement with me.

But in summary it says that calorie burn is calculated from weight and intensity and then explains intensity and provides and example for a treadmill which involves a speed of 3 mph, but also states that heart rate is irrelevant.

Then since speed is a product of time and distance, the importance of calibrating the watch for distance is seemingly to me quite obvious, which is what I was trying to explain to the previous poster, who didn't see why they should have to bother calibrating it for indoor workouts were you can't rely on GPS to obtain a value for distance.

My point was that both methods of calculation have their merits and because of the variability in something like an elliptical-like machine vs say a treadmill, you are not going to be able to do a true correlation. And thus, probably better to go with heart rate but after you have calibrated as you say,

Once calibrated I would imagine it should be able to be reasonably accurate for a treadmill, I'm not so sure how accurate it would be for something like a cycle machine where you can change the resistance and the watch wouldn't know anything about it.

The reason I said I did not think calibration would help is when I read the instructions it says: You can calibrate your Apple Watch to improve the accuracy of your distance and pace measurements during walking or running workouts when GPS isn't available (such as when you walk or run outdoors without your iPhone, or use a treadmill).

I was not questioning the distance or pace, nor was I questioning the heart rate. It is the calculation of the calorie burn based on the intensity of the workout with heart rate being the factor that determines intensity

It is the calculation of the calorie burn based on the intensity of the workout with heart rate being the factor that determines intensity

But that's what I'm saying, it isn't, it's distance. Which means it's just guessing if you aren't prepared to calibrate it.

Winston I guess we are going to have to agree to disagree as I believe intensity is a major factor in determining calories burned and not just distance. If I'm walking on the treadmill at 3mph on a flat surface and travel 2 miles I'm going to burn a lot less calories than if I'm walking on an elevated surface traveling the same speed and distance. My heart rate will be a lot higher on the elevated surface and I would expect the calorie burn to be higher.

What he is saying is that the AW doesn't use the HR for indoor workouts. It uses the accelerometer and acceleration to calculate calories burned (in addition to your other basic stats). So if it has a better calc of your stride rate, it can better assess your walk vs run and distance covered which would be then used to imply calorie burn.

According to the Apple site it does use HR to measure workouts.

Heart Rate Sensor. The custom heart rate sensor in Apple Watch detects your heart rate during workouts, which helps determine your intensity level, and improves the accuracy of your active calorie burn measurements.

You seem to think I simply want to argue whereas I'm trying to help, however this is my last attempt. Do you notice the word 'Helps' in your quote, intensity on a treadmill is mainly dictated by pace which needs a time and distance measurement, if you aren't going to help it calculate the distance as accurately as it was designed to, then you can't expect accurate results.

I think there are more than one factor involved. For movement-based activities, one would like to know the miles/km traveled. That is where the calibration process of running with the iPhone helps improve the distance traveled by optimizing the stride. Presumably once calibrated, one could run on a treadmill and AW would know the distance traveled.

However, for calories burned, there are many web sites that indicate it is strictly a function of gender, weight, age average heart rate during the exercise and the duration of the exercise. Here is one example: http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie- burn-calculator.aspx

AW has the capability of estimating the VO2Max using the resting pulse model which can make the burn rate a bit more accurate. (Same link as above plus many others.) The basic problem all are mentioning in this thread is the apparent gross inaccuracy of the burn rate. I don't think anyone is complaining about the distance traveled.

I have a similar problem. i walk on a treadmill with a multicounter, and adjust my workout to spend a given number of calories. I've done two indoor walking workouts and the calories are reading about one third the value of the treadmill's readings on my first two tries. could this be because i am on a beta blocker and my heart rate does not go up?

would there be any way around this?

I don't do spinning but when at the gym I do use the stationary bike (generally around 45 minutes and between 10 and 11 miles). The first time I had my Watch on - chose Indoor Cycling and had my iPhone in my pocket - and got credited for only about 5 minutes.

The other day I left the iPhone in the locker, again wore the Watch, chose Indoor Cycling, same amount of riding and got credited for the full 45 minutes.

So I am not so sure if you actually need to "move" as I was not swinging my arms around while on the cycle.

So perhaps if the iPhone is nearby the Watch does try to use the GPS on the iPhone - as if you were riding on an indoor track instead of a stationary bike. (I do know that while swiping through the Activity app screens, when the iPhone was nearby - first ride - there was a distance screen. On the second ride - iPhone in locker - there was only the Calories, Heart Rate and Time screens, no distance.)

There is another thread opened where some of us are looking at the data recorded in the Health application on the iPhone. I think that the reason that your overall burn rates are calculated lower is because the watch appears to make reading/sampling errors. I have found 50% swings in my BPM readings while cycling. BPM drops from 140+ to 72 or so for periods of minutes, then it returns to 140+.

The same kind of thing appears to happen during periods when I'm not working out.

Here's the other thread.

Heart rate data inconsistent over course of workout

I'm having the same problem. But my i watch has an even LOWER ratio of calories compared with the treadmills at the YMCA. I called apple care who suggested I "calibrate" the watch. I did this, but it did not fix the problem. this happens whether i am walking indoors or a treadmill or outdoor on a golf course. the watch reads 1/3 to 1/6 the calories of the other devices. i think it is a bug

I just went on an outdoor walk that Runkeeper recorded as 3.91 miles and 412 calories burned. Apple Watch (with connected iPhone) recorded 3.94 miles and 279 calories burned. I realize that Runkeeper cannot access the HR data. However, I find it hard to believe that, given my distance and time (and same weight and height as entered on the iPhone), the Runkeeper app would be that far off even without HR data. I still had to cover a set amount of ground in a set amount of time. I doubt Runkeeper's calculations would assume my fairly leisurely walk (which it knows was leisurely because of the pace) would assume that my HR was especially high. So where's the difference coming from? (Runkeeper includes elevation in its calculation, but this wasn't much of a factor and I have no idea if the Watch can account for that when it is connected to the phone's GPS.)