Calories Strava vs Health

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Level 1

11 points

Calories Strava vs Health

Hello everyone,

I just bought the Apple Watch Series 2, paired it with my iPhone and made sure that my health data was set properly. I went for a outdoor run launching Strava. After the workout (42mins, 7,8kms) Strava gives me 550 cals burned vs 322 in Apple Health, any idea why such a huge difference?

After checking on this site http://keisan.casio.com/exec/system/1350959101 it seems that Strava is much closer to the truth and that the calories burned displayed by Health are widely underestimated.

Best,

Bastien

Apple Watch Series 2, watchOS 3.1, null

Posted on Nov 16, 2016 7:48 AM

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Answer 1

Jonathan UK

Level 10

164,101 points

Nov 16, 2016 7:52 AM in response to bastman

Hi

When comparing calorie estimations, keep in mind that some apps report total calories, whereas Apple Watch focuses on reporting active calories.

For assistance with Strava, you may find it helpful to consult the developer's support resources and/or to contact the developer:

Strava:

For example:

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/211049748-Strava-Over-Estima tes-Calores-by-a-LOT

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Answer 2

bastman Author

Level 1

11 points

Nov 16, 2016 8:40 AM in response to Jonathan UK

Hi Jonathan,

Thank you for this clear answer.

I can understand that Strava could over estimate the calories of an exercise session. But this doesn't work here.

Here is the data of the run : 27yo, 1.70m height, 7.8kms, 42 minutes 14 seconds.

Apple Exercise app reports 255 active calories, and 322 total calories.

Strava reports 677 calories for the same session.

I used 4 different online calories calculator using the previous data. You will find the links below so you can repeat the simulation:

566 cals estimated by http://www.runnersworld.com/tools/calories-burned-calculator

1149 cals estimated by http://www.mapmyrun.com/improve/calorie_calculator/

606 cals estimated by http://keisan.casio.com/exec/system/1350959101

591 cals estimated by http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/4/4_1/94.shtml

No matter how I try to read this it seems that the most conservative estimation from those calculators based on the same values reports to the minimum 56% less calories burned that any other estimation.

How can we explain that?

Kind regards,

Bastien

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