Higher calorie burn when running in WatchOS 5

[jhfenton]

I installed the WatchOS 5.1 beta on Sunday evening, and my calorie burn seemed closer to the old normal yesterday. I lifted weights with Gymaholic instead of doing any cardio, so I don't have an apples to apples comparison, but my overall burn for the day seemed lower than the previous several weeks on Watch OS 5.0. I need to give it a few more days to be sure.

 

[ftaok]

I installed the WatchOS 5.1 beta on Sunday evening, and my calorie burn seemed closer to the old normal yesterday. I lifted weights with Gymaholic instead of doing any cardio, so I don't have an apples to apples comparison, but my overall burn for the day seemed lower than the previous several weeks on Watch OS 5.0. I need to give it a few more days to be sure.

Good to know. Yesterday was my first full day with wOS5 and I got too much credit. Kinda hoping they fix it back to what it used to be as I don't want to raise the goal.

It's 9AM right now and I've already gotten 15% of my Move ring. Should be way less than that.

 

[gsucyclist]

I have been using the watch extensively for my runs and have not really noticed any difference in calorie burn from before

 

[jess222]

Mine are way up as well, I've closed my exercise ring the last 2 days at work (I'm on my feet for 8 hours but never did enough for it to ever be considered exercise before.....). It's fun to close all the rings but I would rather have an accurate count....

 

[Akrapovic]

Mine are way up as well, I've closed my exercise ring the last 2 days at work (I'm on my feet for 8 hours but never did enough for it to ever be considered exercise before.....). It's fun to close all the rings but I would rather have an accurate count....

Whilst I also want an accurate count, we are assuming that the old count was accurate and the new count is too generous. It's possible that the old count was too harsh, and the new count is accurate.

When compared to Strava, Nike and MyFitnessPal, the Apple Workout app already grants fewer calories per exercise than these apps. MyFitnessPal app (somewhat ironically I guess, for a calory counter) is by far the most generous of the apps. Nike is somewhere in the middle, and Strava isn't particularly generous or harsh in its count, but it is by far the most simplistic of them all - an average sized male of an average height and weight burns almost exactly 100 calories per km of running.

So if Apple has revised upwards, then they are just trending towards what everyone else has. Of course, calory counters, especially off of a heartbeat sensor on the wrist, are generally inaccurate anyway and you should only use this as a guide.

 

[gsucyclist]

When it comes to calorie burn and accuracy there is no such thing. Its nearly impossible to accurate calculate calories apart from a calorimeter so its all a guess. It appears that Apple did make some algorithm adjustments that bring it more in like with other platforms such as strava, garmin, etc

 

[big samm]

For me it's the opposite , on my series 3 with wos4 i would burn about 200 cal total in 17 min on the elliptical (warm up) and it would always be close to what the machine was showing me... Now with the series 4 on wos5 I get about 157cal total burn for the same amount of exercise... I checked in the workout app and can see that it's pretty consistent , about 200 cal before the new watch, and now 2 days in a row with the new watch I got 159 total yesterday and 157 total today... And that's with using a chest strap heart monitor on both watches... Dont know if it's the new gyroscope not doing is job or they changed something in wos5

 

[jess222]

Whilst I also want an accurate count, we are assuming that the old count was accurate and the new count is too generous. It's possible that the old count was too harsh, and the new count is accurate.

When compared to Strava, Nike and MyFitnessPal, the Apple Workout app already grants fewer calories per exercise than these apps. MyFitnessPal app (somewhat ironically I guess, for a calory counter) is by far the most generous of the apps. Nike is somewhere in the middle, and Strava isn't particularly generous or harsh in its count, but it is by far the most simplistic of them all - an average sized male of an average height and weight burns almost exactly 100 calories per km of running.

So if Apple has revised upwards, then they are just trending towards what everyone else has. Of course, calory counters, especially off of a heartbeat sensor on the wrist, are generally inaccurate anyway and you should only use this as a guide.

Sounds about right, I use MyFitnessPal too (and mapmyrun, their running app) they give me about 800 calories per run while Nike only gives me 600. Never tried the apple workout app...oh well guess all that really matters is that you are out there doing something and are somewhat able to track it. Just curious as to whether it's more accurate now then before and if it's going to revert back to the old way lol

 

[Deguello]

This is the right way to approach it. Frankly I don't care what the actual number is, I use the activity tracking for relative purposes. That means if I hit 800 one day, I don't care if it's actually 800, just that it's an uptick from a non work out day.

Exactly. It doesn't need to be accurate. It needs to be precise.

 

[ftaok]

While it's sorta OK if an algorithm change bumps up the Move ring, I'd hate to change my Move goal up, only to have Apple "fix" the algorithm later and then I'm not hitting my goal, at least until I drop it back down.

Just wondering if it's a bug or a feature at this point. Someone mentioned that the wOS 5.1 beta seemingly has the old burn rate. I'll just leave my Move goal alone at this point and mentally shoot for 850 instead of 700.

 

[pvq]

Same Here . I do a 30 Min recumbant bike ride every morning. I'm burning 20-30% more calories since WatchOS5. Tomorrow will be my first ride with my new S4. I woulder if the more accurate sensors will moderate the increase a bit?

 

[MacBird]

I agree with the consensus that WatchOS 5 is more generous on calorie burn all around. I noticed it throughout the beta. My daily minimum is set at 800, and I barely have to do any organized exercise to get there. Under WatchOS 4, it would take a 3 mile run to get me comfortably over 800 by bedtime.

Interesting, I have the opposite experience. The HIIT activity counts about 33% fewer calories for the same activity than before. The registered heart rate is also consistently lower while doing HIIT, 80-110, which is fairly unrealistic . This started with watchOS 5, with both Apple Watch Series 3 and 4.

 

[Antr7]

Interesting, I have the opposite experience. The HIIT activity counts about 33% fewer calories for the same activity than before. The registered heart rate is also consistently lower while doing HIIT, 80-110, which is fairly unrealistic . This started with watchOS 5, with both Apple Watch Series 3 and 4.

Have you noticed your exercise ring filling faster too?

 

[MacBird]

Have you noticed your exercise ring filling faster too?

Not when doing HIIT since it counts fewer calories. When moving the rest of the day, it seems to count more calories, but that is a bit anecdotal at this point.

 

[imagineadam]

Have you noticed your exercise ring filling faster too?

My exercise minutes have skyrocketed as well as my step count.. I haven't been doing anything different but watch os 5 seems to think I'm working out a lot more than I really am.

 

[friednoodles]

You could try resetting your fitness calibration data (Watch app > Privacy > Reset Fitness Calibration Data) and then doing a 20+ minute Workout like an outdoor walk/run to start with a fresh calibration:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204516

Obviously for those who do regular outdoor Workouts this shouldn't be needed, but for those who only do indoor Workouts, or for those who rarely use the Workouts app and who are just looking at Activity, this may be something to try.

Some people are talking about workouts, and others are talking about the general background Activity tracking, but for either to be accurate they rely on the calibration data. If you've re-paired or set up your watch from scratch, it'll need to be recalibrated as per the instructions in the above Apple support document.