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coffeemadmanUK

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 30, 2012
575
212
United Kingdom
Having a real issue with my exercise ring, and at this point I don't really understand what's happening, so perhaps some internet help might be good.

My exercise ring set on a walking exercise just never seems to increase. For example I've done this walk yesterday:

IMG_1632.jpeg


Which gave me just 9 minutes exercise.

I did a similar one today:

IMG_1634.jpeg


Which gave me just 4 minutes.

Now I know it's related to your heartbeat, but what is the algorithm? I have a resting heart rate average of 64bpm, so surely if I'm walking for nearly 3 hours with average heart rate of 102bpm I should be gaining more than a few minutes exercise.

Both walks were done with someone else with an Apple Watch. Different people. On the first walk my friend had 93 minutes exercise (vs my 9) and on the second my partner had 51 mins exercise (vs my 4).

Their resting heart rates were similar to mine (in fact my partner's is higher) and their average heart rate was similar to mine on the walks.

Apple chat have been useless, just saying "the watch works it out based on your heart rate" but didn't really know HOW it works it out or what I need to be aiming for to get it to count.

I took my old watch to the Apple Store and the guy there said it could just be it's an older Series 4 watch and might have started not to look at my heart rate enough (I've been having this issue for a while now) so I actually bought a Series 6 (which is what these walks used) but it's not fixed the problem at all.

So: IS this an issue? Is my heart just really weird? Is there something in the iPhone software that's the issue here, rather than the watch? I just refuse to believe that a fairly brisk 11km walk is only 4 minutes of exercise.
 
I think it might be a bug. I’ve had this happen before. I had a couple times where an hours bike ride going at pace, would register about 4 mins exercise. Yesterday a 45 min walk registered just 8. It happens very rarely for me but it’s very annoying when it does. I also notice when it does, the heart rate chart in also unavailable for the workout.
 
You can calibrate the watch. I'm not quite sure what the procedure was, but there is an official support document on this.

Also, is your band tight enough? Does your watch often prompt for the pin? If it loses skin contact, it's not measuring correctly. And what about location services? Are they enabled for motion calibration?
 
You can calibrate the watch. I'm not quite sure what the procedure was, but there is an official support document on this.
When Apple mentioned this they said to do a minimum of 20 mins outdoor walk to calibrate it, which obviously didn't work.

The band is fit well, it can't move about at all, never prompts for the PIN when it's on my wrist. Location services are enabled for motion calibration yeah.

Sigh. It's just frustrating at this point.
 
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Seems to be reading your heart rate ok and the calorie count seems accurate, exercise minutes are based on continuous exertion though. I discovered for a while that my watch strap was too loose and whilst the calories shown on the movement ring were accounted for, the workout minutes were off. Say I did 1h walking, it would show an hour on the elapsed time but only give me 20 minutes on the exercise ring. Give the strap a tighten and see if that makes a difference at all
 
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My exercise minutes don’t count unless I’m doing a fairly good jog and doing 120+bpm. Brisk walking does nothing for my exercise ring. It has to be a jog. Meanwhile my wife - no problem with exercise minutes during a walk. Shrug.
 
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When Apple mentioned this they said to do a minimum of 20 mins outdoor walk to calibrate it, which obviously didn't work.

The band is fit well, it can't move about at all, never prompts for the PIN when it's on my wrist. Location services are enabled for motion calibration yeah.

Sigh. It's just frustrating at this point.
Seems like you already ruled out everything I can think of.
 
Maybe it's too tight, so there isn't any heart rate left to measure? Do you still feel your fingers? 😜
Yeah it's not too tight either, I can move it around if I wanted to, and finger can go under the strap. The fit can't be the issue.

I just went for a 20 min walk without setting any workout and I managed to get 13 mins exercise so it seems to be an issue when I set a walk workout.
 
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Yeah it's not too tight either, I can move it around if I wanted to, and finger can go under the strap. The fit can't be the issue.

I just went for a 20 min walk without setting any workout and I managed to get 13 mins exercise so it seems to be an issue when I set a walk workout.
Don't know enough about the internal logic of the watch, but maybe your general fitness level is such that it won't count a "normal" walk as exercise if you state that you're going to "work out"?
 
My Watch would almost never give me exercise minutes for my outdoor walks unless my heart was at a rate I did NOT want to sustain. (I'm in my 70's, with a low resting heart rate). I finally gave up and just do my outdoor walks as "Other". That way I get credit for my total time. I do the same thing for deep water jogging in the pool. I know when my exertion level is where I want it to be; using "Other" I get exercise credit for the time I spend (which is what I want to track).
 
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My Watch would almost never give me exercise minutes for my outdoor walks unless my heart was at a rate I did NOT want to sustain. (I'm in my 70's, with a low resting heart rate). I finally gave up and just do my outdoor walks as "Other". That way I get credit for my total time. I do the same thing for deep water jogging in the pool. I know when my exertion level is where I want it to be; using "Other" I get exercise credit for the time I spend (which is what I want to track).
This is what I will have to do but it's frustrating as I want to see my map.

If you need to be practically jogging to get exercise on an outdoor walk then I'd use the outdoor run instead 😂
 
This is what I will have to do but it's frustrating as I want to see my map.

If you need to be practically jogging to get exercise on an outdoor walk then I'd use the outdoor run instead 😂
Many of us have the same issue. If I’m running hard solo, I’ll use run. If I’m running with slower family, I’ll use walk. If I’m walking with slower family, I’ll either use other, or add jumping jacks or other additional exercises to keep my heart rate up around 130 bpm.
 
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Many of us have the same issue. If I’m running hard solo, I’ll use run. If I’m running with slower family, I’ll use walk. If I’m walking with slower family, I’ll either use other, or add jumping jacks or other additional exercises to keep my heart rate up around 130 bpm.
I'll use "core workout" for walks where I know it'll never register time due to heart rate. I've got a resting rate in the high 40's to low 50's. Unless I'm walking up a steep incline for an extended period of time, I never get full time spent on a walk. Sounds like a cheat, but if I go on a 3.5 mile walk with my wife (who somehow always get the full time), I want credit for the whole duration, darn it.

But it's only walks that do this for me. Running and biking (stationary exercise bike) don't exhibit the same behavior.
 
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just a thought, is your height and weight set correctly in the heath app? Maybe it thinks you are not working as hard as you are based on your weight and hight? I have never had this problem but I can imagine your frustration, especially due to the lengths of those walks.
 
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My workout activities are always outdoor walks and I have always received full credit for my exercise minutes. I do 2 workouts per day of 90 minutes each. i’ve had my S6 for about 4 months and have never experienced this issue.

One thing I do notice is that my pace is much faster than yours. My pace is typically between 10.5 and 11 minutes per kilometer, whereas yours is 14+. Don’t know if that is significant or not.
 
My workout activities are always outdoor walks and I have always received full credit for my exercise minutes. I do 2 workouts per day of 90 minutes each. i’ve had my S6 for about 4 months and have never experienced this issue.

One thing I do notice is that my pace is much faster than yours. My pace is typically between 10.5 and 11 minutes per kilometer, whereas yours is 14+. Don’t know if that is significant or not.
Interesting observation. My normal pace is between 11 and 12 minutes per kilometer, and I get the full credit, too.
 
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just a thought, is your height and weight set correctly in the heath app? Maybe it thinks you are not working as hard as you are based on your weight and hight? I have never had this problem but I can imagine your frustration, especially due to the lengths of those walks.
Height and weight are fine in the app too.

I did consider my pace, but then my partner is of similar build/height to me and our pace was the same but they had far more exercise minutes registered.

I’m trying to avoid a situation where I have to completely start fresh both iPhone and Watch as I have built up my health data over the years.
 
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I do a lot of walking, the average pace is around 9.5 mins if I am alone or 11 mins if my wife is with me. We both always get the full exercise minutes each time, no later than 30 mins into the walk we get the 'exercise ring closed' message.

I know that does not help but it's further proof it should be counting them.

The only thing aside from a fault in the device is whether it is recording enough time above resting for it to be considered as exercise. I say that as your pace seems quite slow comparing that to being out with my wife.

At an average pace of 14.5 mins per KM, you may not be consistently achieving a high enough heart rate for it to count. Although it looks that way on your screenshot the higher levels may be so short that is causing the lack of count.

As an example, my wife occasionally walks to a local shopping centre with a friend who has a disability so is very slow. My wife in that 5km walk records only a few minutes of exercise as a result.

May be worth trying to disprove whether this is the case by doing 5 minutes of something at a more intense level and see if that records more or less the full 5 minutes.
 
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I do a lot of walking, the average pace is around 9.5 mins if I am alone or 11 mins if my wife is with me. We both always get the full exercise minutes each time, no later than 30 mins into the walk we get the 'exercise ring closed' message.

I know that does not help but it's further proof it should be counting them.

The only thing aside from a fault in the device is whether it is recording enough time above resting for it to be considered as exercise. I say that as your pace seems quite slow comparing that to being out with my wife.

At an average pace of 14.5 mins per KM, you may not be consistently achieving a high enough heart rate for it to count. Although it looks that way on your screenshot the higher levels may be so short that is causing the lack of count.

As an example, my wife occasionally walks to a local shopping centre with a friend who has a disability so is very slow. My wife in that 5km walk records only a few minutes of exercise as a result.

May be worth trying to disprove whether this is the case by doing 5 minutes of something at a more intense level and see if that records more or less the full 5 minutes.
True, and I’m sure a walk on my own might have a better pace than one with a friend.

I suppose my concern is when the person with me gets 91 minutes at the same pace, and our stats match up.

Well I even got a new series 6 for this issue which turns out didn’t address it, so I was then wondering if it’s the iPhone processing the data that’s the issue.
 
C0F44295-E675-423A-9667-273E05443A88.jpeg

Did this walk today - lower heart rate and similar pace and I got 20 mins exercise for it.

Even walked the same route… was just getting my International Women’s Day badge.

Sigh.
 
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I think I may have caused this. In the early days of my first Apple Watch I’d jog with the walk exercise option. I still do when I want to do sprints or have a walk/jog. This may have affected my ability to get exercise minutes when actually walking. That said my walking rate is slow - 18 mins a mile. My jogging pace is not great 12 mins a mile. Walking at top speed I can’t seem to break 15 mins a mile. But I’m not a thin guy.

I know people who walk faster than I jog. So maybe it’s me. But walking at 16-18 mins a mile my heart rate is under 120bpm.

I’ll try the core workout for when I want minutes but I’ve always accepted the fact that I’ll be lucky to get 10-15 mins of exercise minutes for a walk exercise. If I swing my arms while walking that helps a lot too.
 
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Did this walk today - lower heart rate and similar pace and I got 20 mins exercise for it.

Even walked the same route… was just getting my International Women’s Day badge.

Sigh.
Yeah my watch doesn’t want to count exercise minutes for anything under 120bpm. My heart rate falls when walking for some reason. Muscles helping move blood? Dunno.
 
I've been recording outdoor walks as Other for awhile now because I had the same issue. Mine started happening after an update, so I think there's a glitch somewhere. I just updated my watch to the newest OS last night so I might try using outdoor walk again today when I go.
 
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