How accurate is the calories/movement

[scribble79]

I am wondering how accurate the movement/calorie counting is. I have a somewhat desk job as a Service adviser at a dealership. I do walk through the shop probably 20-30 times a day talking to techs and updating jobs. The reason I questing is that I am tracking food and work outs through myfitnesspal and want to input that if it is correct.

 

[keysofanxiety]

It's pretty accurate I'd say. I wouldn't actively open the Workout app unless I'm doing a workout though. If it's just walking, the watch will figure it out.

I'd also recommend setting up MyFitnessPal to read/write from your Apple Watch. That way any workouts or burned calories can automatically add to MFP without you having to do it manually.

You can do this by opening MyFitnessPal and selecting More> Steps, then select your Apple Watch. From there, open the "Health" app on your phone and press "Sources". Tap MyFitnessPal and ensure that it's set to read & write all data.

Following that, it'll do the work for you... most of the time. Sometimes it doesn't work.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I do not think it is accurate. It just uses Apple's algorithm and figures it based on your activity and possibly your weight. There are so many other factors but I would use it as a reference for what you are doing.

 

[user1234]

I do not think it is accurate. It just uses Apple's algorithm and figures it based on your activity and possibly your weight. There are so many other factors but I would use it as a reference for what you are doing.

It uses heartrate, weight, height and it would seem average pace and total distance as factors when calculating the value. I thinks it's fairly accurate.

The one thing I find weird though is that no calories is awarded when not wearing the watch. I think it's safe for Apple to assume that their users are alive even if they have to take the watch off for some time, so they should be able to award a base amount of calories per hours based on resting heart rate and the other data.

 

[gilb55]

I don’t think it’s very accurate - and from my experience it reads high.
I train with a powermeter (cycling) which is a more accurate measure/ estimate and the Apple Watch consistently overstates the calorie burn compared to the numbers based of a powermeter

 

[millerj123]

On the exact same 10k run, my top 5 fastest times give me anything from 542 to 763 calories. I wouldn't rely on it other than to count that you were active. The time spent and distances are pretty good, though.

 

[Newtons Apple]

It uses heartrate, weight, height and it would seem average pace and total distance as factors when calculating the value. I thinks it's fairly accurate.

The one thing I find weird though is that no calories is awarded when not wearing the watch. I think it's safe for Apple to assume that their users are alive even if they have to take the watch off for some time, so they should be able to award a base amount of calories per hours based on resting heart rate and the other data.

At best it is a good number for reference but it is not accurate. “Fairly accurate” is a very grey area.

 

[user1234]

At best it is a good number for reference but it is not accurate. “Fairly accurate” is a very grey area.

I wouldn’t trust it if my life depended on it, but it’s very consistent day to day for me

 

[Newtons Apple]

I wouldn’t trust it if my life depended on it, but it’s very consistent day to day for me

That is why it is a good number for reference to compare day to day, but accurate, it is not.

 

[kytiger]

For 2 years I've been using MyFitnessPal to track all calories I eat, and use my Apple Watch to track all calories burned. When I look at the calculation over a week or month, the calorie change is close to my actual weight when you assume 3,500 calories is a pound. If anything, mine would show that the Apple Watch is under calculating my calories burned as I lose a little more weight than the calculation would yield.

 

[Cyclegirl13]

I don’t think it’s very accurate - and from my experience it reads high.
I train with a powermeter (cycling) which is a more accurate measure/ estimate and the Apple Watch consistently overstates the calorie burn compared to the numbers based of a powermeter

[doublepost=1554844746][/doublepost]I find my Apple Watch to very accurate with caloric expenditure, based on activity using heartrate. As a trainer, I monitor workouts through a number of devises, including a powertap, and a Wahoo Ticker X. Remember power taps display in “joules”. The calculation is 1 calorie = 4.2 kilojoules.