How does the watch measure exercise?

[jkel777]

It seems like it's hit or miss for me. When I choose "other" for a workout, it records every minute of that workout as exercise. When I choose "indoor walk" or even "outdoor walk," it sometimes only counts about 80% of that towards the exercise goal. In addition, I walked around the mall today for about 30 minutes at a fairly brisk pace (not all at once, went into a few stores), and it only counted that as about 5 minutes of exercise. I'm just really confused how this thing records everyday movements as exercise. I know it's anything above a brisk walk, but how fast do you have to be moving?!

 

[leenak]

It is more about your heart rate than your speed. I don't know how to figure out the threshold though.

 

[devobail]

I've noticed on my last few gym trips that anything less then 3.2-3.3 on the treadmill speed setting isn't counted. That comes out to about a 16-17 minute mile pace approx. At least that's been my experience so far

 

[grenhall]

I think it depends on your age and then sets exercise based on your bpm during a continuous activity. Something like this:

 

[jkel777]

Very interesting. Thanks for the responses everyone!

I'm more curious about how it measures everyday movements as exercise, though. All of your comments probably hold true for a manual workout, but I just don't get how a brisk walk around the mall or anywhere else for around 30 minutes can only count as 5 minutes of exercise....

 

[Fabienne]

It has a pedometer (tells you how many steps you took), it knows your age and sex and weight, and it takes your heart rate every so often even when you are not technically exercising and I think it balances those things out to come to the magic number. They probably have some algorithm to figure out all that stuff.