ive had watch for a few weeks, I've noticed the past few days in the morning While working which I do some walking around in a few stores I'm a sales rep my exercise ring was like 43mins. Today I decided to Calibrate watch for the 1st time went on a 10min run then a 10min walk I'll do the same tomorrow to hit those 20min minumum to calibrate. So I hit outdoor run ran for 10mins, then I hit outdoor walk for 10 mins. So when I go into house I noticed my excerise ring only says 11 mins? Where's the other 9.
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- Thread starter Teddysjam
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You must meet a minimum of a "brisk walk" to get Exercise credit.
Typical walking doesn't tend to count as "exercise" minutes. I think it uses heart rate to determine if you've met some "threshold" to count. So fast walking or walk/jog is usually required for me. For that reason - when I'm specifically walking for exercise - I tend to use the Other category which counts all the minutes so I get credit. But it's REALLY frustrating as I'd love to see the maps and speeds from my walk. But I don't want to walk for 2-3 miles for nothing...
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I don't think they are inaccurate. I just don't think they are designed to count "exercise activity" like we would like....
I do, it records an exercise when I didn't do any, and other times it shorted my activity level. Other times, while exercising (running), it says I wasn't standing during that hour to hour and half long run
The standing one happened a lot (we'll see if it disappears with OS3), and I easily make the full circle, but its funny, it shows that I was not standing from 12:00pm to 1:00pm, even though I was running 5 miles during that time frame.
But you weren't standing...you were running. LOL. J/k.
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I get what you're saying. But according to apple, "exercise minutes" isn't just literally exercise (apparently). It's when we do any activity that gets our heart rate up, and that qualifies as exercise. I was moving boxes up stairs for 30 minutes and earned a lot of exercise minutes. I wasn't specifically "exercising" - but I thought that was fair because it certainly felt like exercise and got my heart rate up.
Granted - if we want to use it to literally track our specific "exercising" activity - then that messes things up.
Not sure what to say about the standing issue. Maybe that's an issue - I've never noticed that problem.
You can use the outdoor walk during the walk to get your map, and then just run Other for the amount of time you want to get exercise credit. With Other, you'll get exercise credit even if you are just sitting in your chair reading.
2 things:
1) To calibrate it has to be one 20 minute outdoor walking workout in an open, flat surface area. Multiple 10 minutes does not calibrate it. Your best bet is to reset calibration data and do the one 20 minute outdoor walk workout. You can delete the calibration data under Settings -> Privacy -> Motion and Fitness on your iPhone's Apple Watch App.
2) In order to get credit for exercise, you must maintain a 3.3mph pace for the entire minute. If you walk at 3.3mph for 55 seconds, then drop below 3.3mph, you will lose credit for that minute. So you need to make sure you maintain the pace for the entire 60 seconds. Also make sure your arm is swinging properly, if you are holding something it will screw up both calibration and your 3.3mph pace.
From the apple website under number 5, it says if you don't finish the workout you can complete over multiple workout sessions until you meet 20 mins. No need for 20 mins straight.
You can calibrate your Apple Watch to improve the accuracy of your distance, pace, and calorie measurements. Calibrating your watch can also help it learn your fitness level and stride, which improves accuracy when GPS is limited or unavailable.
Calibrate your Apple Watch
Before you try to calibrate your Apple Watch, check these settings on your iPhone:
- Tap Settings > Privacy > Location Services and make sure that Location Services is turned on.
- Tap Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services and make sure that Motion Calibration & Distance is turned on.
- While wearing your Apple Watch, go to a flat, open outdoor area that offers good GPS reception and clear skies.
- If you don’t have an Apple Watch Series 2, bring your iPhone for GPS. Hold your iPhone in your hand, or wear it on an armband or waistband.
- Open the Workout app and choose an Outdoor Walk or Outdoor Run.
- Choose your goal or select Open. Tap Start.
- Walk or run at your normal pace for about 20 minutes.
Whenever you walk or run outside using the above steps, your Apple Watch continues to calibrate the accelerometer by learning your stride length at different speeds. Calibration can also improve the accuracy of your calorie calculations in the Workout app, and the calorie, distance, Move, and Exercise calculations in the Activity app.
The Apple Watch page says that, but talking to Apple directly, they advise otherwise. Doing it in one 20 minute workout makes the calibration more consistent. Also because you are doing it in one area, the watch can learn the elevation of the surrounding area. Changing areas to recalibrate will make it harder to be consistent. But you weren't just doing a walking workout. You did a 10 minute walk, then a 10 minute run. So it completely changed the way it was being calibrated. Over time multiple walking workouts will continue to help calibrate the watch, but the initial should really be done in one go.
I know nothing will be perfect just trying to get as close as I can, I usually run on a treadmill in gym and walk to cool down before I jump off and go to weights, I don't run outside so for better option I should reset calibration setting and run 20 mins straight outside for better accuracy on treadmill? Thanks.
You could do the 20 minute walk. Once it learns your stride once, it will figure out the rest. I've never done a running calibration, but its usually pretty close on when it comes to a treadmill. Within .03 miles per mile.