Inconsistant Results: Workout/Activity/Exercise

The watch can account for elevation which is why they suggest that calibration be done on level ground. It also factors in your heart rate. I believe in your case Runkeeper is wrong about the calories a leisurely 4 mile walk is not going to burn 412 calories.

Every calculator I found on the web showed a calorie burn of at least the high 300s for that pace and and total distance. So I'm wondering if Apple's calculation is off or I just somehow have such a low HR that I'm burning fewer calories than one would normally expect. I doubt that it's the latter, as I'm not particularly fit.

What was your average heart rate during your walk?

I don't know how to find the average HR. Health has a record of the workout stats, and it has a separate record of my HR, but I don't know where to go to find the average HR for the workout.

Found it in Activity. 122 BPM

Check the Activity app on your iPhone.

Also when you complete a workout you can scroll down and it will give the average heart rate.

Yeah, I found it. I just couldn't post because the thread had reached some limit? HR was 122.

That should get you a bit higher than you are showing depending on your age and weight. Did you have your iPhone with you during this walk?

Yes. I'm 5'8" and 192 lbs. I used to run but I had several injuries and have been fairly sedentary in the last year (which is why I'd be surprised if my heart rate was particuarly low).

You might want to show your doctor your Activity results. My Doctor says most apps an suggested calculators are far too liberal in estimating calories burned.

I've heard that too. It doesn't really matter to me much, since I'm going to exercise at whatever level I can manage, anyway. I'm really only interested in HR in so far as we've got a lot of heart disease history in our family. Thanks, though.

You're missing the point. If you read Apple's published information about calibrating the watch, Apple says the purpose of calibrating the watch is so you can use the watch outside without bringing your iphone. That's the ONLY reason Apple states. So, calibrating the watch has NOTHING to do with using the watch indoors.

There is a problem with how the watch calculates total calorie burn. It's obvious from your posts that you don't understand the frustration of those of us who have Garmin/Polar watches with Heart Rate Monitors (HRMs, the straps we wear on our chests) and have results from these devices that are 50% to 100% higher from the results produced from the Apple Watch. Also, you can enter your age, weight, average heart rate during the exercise, and the time spent exercise on one of literally 100s of websites, like WebMD, and they all provide accurate results that are considerably higher than the Apple Watch.

If Apple can't produce correct results, then Apple shouldn't be marketing the watch as a fitness device, which they do on the Apple Watch home page. I don't understand why they even bother with an exercise app (yes, they made one, it's on the watch) with various aerobic exercises; most produce incorrect results.

The good news is I can use the stats from my Apple Watch, enter them into an online calorie burn calculator, then manually enter those results into MyFitnessPal. I just wish I could use reliable results from my Apple Watch.

100% Agree.

I contacted support, they sent me a box so I can send them my watch. I explained there's nothing wrong with the watch, the problem is with the Algorithm determining calories burned. I thanked the support person, but told him I didn't want ship my watch off somewhere for two weeks so they could do a software refresh that would do nothing more than erase my settings. I did ask him to escalate the issue. He told me he would; maybe he did. :-)

The following day, I went to a local Apple Store, they (it was mid afternoon and quiet, so there was a small group of Applites) told me that the Apple workers who have Apple Watches have the same problem. They have escalated to Apple Tech Support and they hope the issue will be resolved with a software update.

ChangedtoGSIII wrote:

You're missing the point. If you read Apple's published information about calibrating the watch, Apple says the purpose of calibrating the watch is so you can use the watch outside without bringing your iphone. That's the ONLY reason Apple states. So, calibrating the watch has NOTHING to do with using the watch indoors.

You may live in a better climate than I do, but if my treadmill was outdoors it would represent a hazard with rain and electricity.

Personally, I don't think Apple expect you to use a treadmill outdoors either, so I think it's you that might be missing the point and that calibration is intended to improve accuracy indoors too. 😉

It's obvious from your posts that you don't understand the frustration of those of us who have Garmin/Polar watches with Heart Rate Monitors (HRMs, the straps we wear on our chests) and have results from these devices that are 50% to 100% higher from the results produced from the Apple Watch. Also, you can enter your age, weight, average heart rate during the exercise, and the time spent exercise on one of literally 100s of websites, like WebMD, and they all provide accurate results that are considerably higher than the Apple Watch.

If Apple can't produce correct results, then Apple shouldn't be marketing the watch as a fitness device, which they do on the Apple Watch home page. I don't understand why they even bother with an exercise app (yes, they made one, it's on the watch) with various aerobic exercises; most produce incorrect results.

The good news is I can use the stats from my Apple Watch, enter them into an online calorie burn calculator, then manually enter those results into MyFitnessPal. I just wish I could use reliable results from my Apple Watch.

Just want to echo what ChangedtoGSIII said above, I wholeheartedly agree. Winston Churchill and Apple themselves "don't understand the frustration of those of us who have Garmin/Polar watches with chest-strap HRMs." I am not a casual exerciser, I do intense activity several times a week, sometimes for several hours at a time for distance road cycling. Sometimes I burn up to 4000 calories a day from exercise, so it's important I have an accurate understanding of my output so I don't overeat or undereat. Chest-strap HRMs are the most accurate heart-rate measures, and combined with your age/weight/height metrics can give pretty accurate caloric output data in the Garmin or Fitibit or Polar platforms. The Apple watch does not do this the way those brands do.

Those folks above who keep commenting that "the heart rate on the apple watch is the same as my treadmill right now" or who compare the Apple Watch HR reading to their fitness equipment sensors readings don't get it. When you put your hands on the sensor of exercise equipment it is probably telling you the correct HR at that exact moment, sure. But only for the 10 seconds you have your hands there. Serious athletes don't use the sensors on equipment because they don't provide accurate OVERALL picture of your workouts. And the treadmill at the gym is designed for an average person of the weight you enter. It doesn't factor height or sex to determine caloric output... nor does it track every second of your HR like a chest-strap HRM would.

4 weeks into owning my Apple Watch and the fitness tracking is still unreliable. The overall workout data is wildly inaccurate. The HR stops tracking halfway through workouts. My total resting calories are measured at 2988 daily on the Apple Watch when they should be 1600 according to my basal-metabolic rate (BMR) as agreed upon by physiologists everywhere. Apple Watch is useless as a fitness data tracker and it should be EASY for them to fix the algorithm to make it right.