the iwatch workout total calorie count and active calorie count is incorrect

the watch workout total calorie count and active calorie count is incorrect. Is there a patch or update to correct the problem?

Apple Watch, iOS 9.2.1

Posted on Jan 23, 2016 11:00 AM

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4 replies

Jan 23, 2016 12:10 PM in response to wecksmom

Hi


Apple Watch displays Active Energy (calories) on the watch, rather than total calories.


To help improve the accuracy of estimations for calories and other results:


Check that your iPhone and watch are updated with the latest software:


Check that your personal information is accurate:

  • On your iPhone, in the Watch app, go to: My Watch (tab) > Health > check and, if necessary, edit your birthdate, gender, height and weight.


During workouts, for the best performance from the heart rate sensor (data from which is used when estimating calories), ensure that you wear your watch snugly on the top of your wrist.

  • Apple suggests that you consider tightening the band before starting a workout and loosening it again afterwards.


Calibrate your watch, which will improve the accuracy of health and activity-related estimations including:


More information:

Use the Activity app on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Use the Workout app on your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Apr 19, 2016 8:10 AM in response to wecksmom

There's definitely a serious bug and my most recent post about it has been deleted because it was "speculative".


My Basal Metabolic Rate is about 1,750 calories. This has been calculated a number of ways - I'm 6'2" and weigh about 180 lbs. My average daily activity is about 650 calories according to the Watch, for a total of 2,400. That's a combination of strength training (good for old lady bones) and cardio (good for everyone's ticker).


During a recent workout, the Watch recorded 435 active calories and 555 total calories, over a period of 68 minutes. Based on that, the resting calories were 120, or 1.765 resting calories per minute. If I multiply 1.765 by 1,440 (number of minutes in a day) the total daily resting calories would be 2,541. I went all the way back to January and reviewed a number of workouts and they show the same pattern -- if I calculate the resting calories (total - active), divide by the duration of the workout in minutes, then multiply by 1,440, I get a daily total resting calorie value well in excess of what the Health App says is my average daily resting calories. It's usually much closer to the daily total, or even higher.


<Edited by Host>

Apr 20, 2016 10:22 AM in response to julie78787

Greetings -


I wanted to see what other activities also had issues, since I'd only checked the "Indoor Walk" activity in the above post. Last night was an upper body strength training make-up day -- sometimes I neglect things 😉


It was a 33 minute "Other" workout, and the Watch recorded 143 active and 201 total calories. The difference is the "resting" calories, or 58 calories in 33 minutes. That translates to 1.7254 calories per minute, or 2,484 "resting" calories per day.


I followed that up with a nice 43 minute stint of cardio on the treadmill, which the Watch recorded as 295 active and 371 total calories. The difference for that "Indoor Walking" activity is 76 "resting" calories. That is 1.7674 calories per minute (which is within rounding error for whole minutes to the previous example), or 2,545 "resting" calories per day.


The Health App reported 1,736 "resting" calories for yesterday and 643 "active" calories, for a total of 2,379 "total" calories. Calculating "resting calories per minute" from what the Health App reported is 1736 / 1440 = 1.2055. The "total calories per minute" value for the prior day is 1787 + 632 = 2419, 2419 / 1440 = 1.6798. I wasn't able to find any combination of values which produces a "resting calories per minute" value in the range 1.72 to 1.76.


That makes two different activities where the difference between "active" and "total" is inconsistent with what is reported for the daily resting energy.

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the iwatch workout total calorie count and active calorie count is incorrect

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