To those of you questioning if the fitness rings on the iPhone app updated at different speeds depending on whether you have the fitness app running on the watch or not I can confirm the following….
I have just competed a 10 minute elliptical exercise wearing 2 identical Apple Sports watches. One on each wrist and straps both tightened to the same fitting. Both watches are running V1.01. During the workout I reached a heart rate of approximately 140 on both watches.
At the end of the 10 minute exercise the following data was noted:
Watch running the elliptical activity app: 85 total calories and 10 minutes of exercise.
Watch not running any workout: 48 total calories and 6 minutes of exercise.
So you can see by doing exactly the same exercise at the same time on the same person you get 2 totally different results depending if you are running the watch’s activity app or not.
Further more, the actual watch activity app itself recorded 93 total calories. So why does that differ from the 85 total calories the SAME watch sends its paired iPhone fitness app? So now we have 3 different calorie burns for the same exercise: 93, 85 and 48!
While I agree I was wearing a friend’s watch as my second testing device, we are of similar build and fitness. Based on our daily resting calorie comparison we burn a difference of 3.5 calories every 10 minutes. In this exercise the difference was 37 calories over 10 minutes. Imagine how inaccurate it would be if I exercised for a couple of hours, then multiply that up into days, weeks and months.
Personally, I think the watch data is fundamentally broken and any data it produces should be taken with a pinch of salt.
I'll copy this post to Apple feedback.
Personally, for me, I think my AW does a good job and is "accurate". Perfect? No of course not. But then I don't think any other non-professional system is.
Since last summer (I've done consistent workouts for several years, but I changed things up a bit last summer), I've been in a steady routine with working out. This includes running 4 days of running and 2-3 days of gym workouts which include stretching, walking w/hills (treadmill) or elliptical and weight lifting.
Since last summer I have "measured" my calories burned/HR/steps/pace/distance in a variety of ways. This includes Nike Fuelband, iPhone (which I have run w/for years), the tracking on gym machines when running on a treadmill, the tracking on the elliptical machine (very inaccurate), using a GPS watch, a stop watch, looking up on on-line charts, using apps that tell what you have burned and even dedicated chest HR strap with wrist display.
When I first got AW, the calories burned for non-running seemed off. But after the first week or two, it seems much more accurate. I'm still unsure why they include the "resting" calories burned during your exercise, but I essentially ignore that (which by the way those calories seem accurate as well). My best "educated" guess is that it is accurate, as a whole. At least the way I've been doing it. For the gym, I select "Other" for the entire workout. Then I might stretch for 5 min, walk w/hills on a treadmill for 15 min, do 30 min of weights and then 10 of elliptical and 5 min of cool down. And the results I get, seem within reason.
As for running, I use the Nike+ GPS app on the phone/watch. So the watch is essentially just a display. However, the exercise ring does move. No, it won't match EXACTLY my run, but it totally makes sense. For example if I run for 45 min and then look at the ring, it may only give me 42 min of "Exercise". I'm assuming it took a couple min for my HR to raise to the effort of exercise. If I think continue to walk to cool down for 5 min, it might give me 2-3 more min of exercise. I assume this is the first few min my HR was still high enough to register as exercise. So far, I've run as long as 90 min w/AW and it seems as accurate as my Nike+ App and items Ive used before AW.
Personally, I find the Exercise ring to be the least useful of the three. I already exercise more than 30 min a day so I'd like to change that. But you can't. But you can change the Move to increase calories. And this is what I have done. Having my watch now a month, I have it set at a challenging, but achievable goal.
Yes, I look forward to updates and improvements. But I'm very pleased with AW on the fitness front. I've thrown my Fuelband in the trash. No longer have my old/cheap (but reliable) GPS watch in my gym back and even have given my cheap "sport watch" to my son. I'm comfortable using AW for all. And look forward to the new apps (and updates to current one's) after next weeks announcement.
