Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Look, not everybody has as much free time as you to read through pages of bickering. I just looked it up myself and I stand corrected, but I absolutely don't appreciate your self-righteous posting style.

There is not self-righteous posting style. I am merely correcting those that keep stating false information. The thread is now 2 full pages. So its not like its pages of bickering.
 
It's 3 now thanks to you. :)

Sigh. I think you know what I mean tho. But in all seriousness, post 14 I first posted that the heart rate is inaccurate, and then multiple other people have continued to post that exercised is measure by heart rate. Thats the issue. I'm sorry if you don't like my posting style, but I'm just trying to keep things factual, and its turning out to be an actual challenge.
 
Sigh. I think you know what I mean tho. But in all seriousness, post 14 I first posted that the heart rate is inaccurate, and then multiple other people have continued to post that exercise is measure by heart rate. Thats the issue. I'm sorry if you don't like my posting style, but I'm just trying to keep things factual, and its turning out to be an actual challenge.
I thought that exercise was measured by heart rate because my exercise shot up yesterday as I was shovelling, and I figured there's no way I was shovelling at more than 3.3mph. I suppose the repetitive motion of lifting the shovel may have counted as running or something.

Which makes more sense IMO - the heart rate sensor isn't great when there's a lot of motion going on.
 
I thought that exercise was measured by heart rate because my exercise shot up yesterday as I was shovelling, and I figured there's no way I was shovelling at more than 3.3mph. I suppose the repetitive motion of lifting the shovel may have counted as running or something.

Which makes more sense IMO - the heart rate sensor isn't great when there's a lot of motion going on.

Yep you got it. The constant movement for 1 minute is enough. It might not seem like you are moving at 3.3mph but surprising you are. As I posted above, folding napkins at a restaurant was enough to trigger it. Its because your wrist is moving quite a bit more than you think it is. Driving on bumpy roads or through the canyons with sharp corners are enough to trigger exercise because my wrist is constantly moving up and down.

Heart rate is fantastic for workouts, but when its grabbing your heart rate every 5 minutes it has no way what you are doing. I could have tripped during the one reading and my heart rate could be 150, but if it gave me an entire minute of exercise off a 5 second reading, that wouldn't work well at all. Everyone would have 300 minutes of exercise!
 
Yep you got it. The constant movement for 1 minute is enough. It might not seem like you are moving at 3.3mph but surprising you are. As I posted above, folding napkins at a restaurant was enough to trigger it. Its because your wrist is moving quite a bit more than you think it is. Driving on bumpy roads or through the canyons with sharp corners are enough to trigger exercise because my wrist is constantly moving up and down.

Heart rate is fantastic for workouts, but when its grabbing your heart rate every 5 minutes it has no way what you are doing. I could have tripped during the one reading and my heart rate could be 150, but if it gave me an entire minute of exercise off a 5 second reading, that wouldn't work well at all. Everyone would have 300 minutes of exercise!
When I'm doing weight-lifting, I find that the reading stops occasionally if I had just finished a set. I wonder - is it recommended to keep the watch strapped as tight as possible, or do they recommend a little bit of slack?

I'm not complaining about the HR monitor - it still does a good job overall. I'd just like to know if there's any way to improve its consistency.

Ditto on the driving thing - some of the highways here have lines that go horizontally along the road, resulting in a bouncing of sorts. Pretty amusing seeing my Exercise at 600% after a long trip.
 
When I'm doing weight-lifting, I find that the reading stops occasionally if I had just finished a set. I wonder - is it recommended to keep the watch strapped as tight as possible, or do they recommend a little bit of slack?

I'm not complaining about the HR monitor - it still does a good job overall. I'd just like to know if there's any way to improve its consistency.

Here is the article on that:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204666

They say to have it "tight" but not too tight. When I am not exercising (not running a workout), I keep it lose enough so I can slide my pinky between the band and my wrist (tight fit). When I am exercising (running a workout) I tighten it up one more notch on my sports band. Its a little tight but once I start sweating, it loosens up a tad. It seems to hold my heart rate for the most part.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Suckfest 9001
Here is the article on that:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204666

They say to have it "tight" but not too tight. When I am not exercising (not running a workout), I keep it lose enough so I can slide my pinky between the band and my wrist (tight fit). When I am exercising (running a workout) I tighten it up one more notch on my sports band. Its a little tight but once I start sweating, it loosens up a tad. It seems to hold my heart rate for the most part.
That might be it, then. I usually have it stupidly tight, but I'll try loosening it up a bit next time. Thanks!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mlrollin91
Yep good luck! If possible, please let me know how it works for you.

Sorry about earlier, you and I seem to like to have these online matches.
Nah, I understand that it gets irritating when somebody waltzes in stating false information after a full thread's worth of discussion on the subject. I should have read first, but I have a (bad) habit of replying to early posts without reading further. Apologies!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mlrollin91
Nah, I understand that it gets irritating when somebody waltzes in stating false information after a full thread's worth of discussion on the subject. I should have read first, but I have a (bad) habit of replying to early posts without reading further. Apologies!

All good. I have the same habit too. I've been working on that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Suckfest 9001
When I'm doing weight-lifting, I find that the reading stops occasionally if I had just finished a set.

I read somewhere in this forum that when weight lifting, the arteries in the wrists do something or other that makes it difficult to get accurate heart rate readings from a wrist-worn sensor. Don't have time right now to do a search, but perhaps look for "weight lifting" in this forum. It has been discussed several times before.
 
I read somewhere in this forum that when weight lifting, the arteries in the wrists do something or other that makes it difficult to get accurate heart rate readings from a wrist-worn sensor. Don't have time right now to do a search, but perhaps look for "weight lifting" in this forum. It has been discussed several times before.
That might be true - perhaps a lot of blood escapes the limbs in order to feed the muscles being targeted? I'll look into it. Thanks.
 
I read somewhere in this forum that when weight lifting, the arteries in the wrists do something or other that makes it difficult to get accurate heart rate readings from a wrist-worn sensor. Don't have time right now to do a search, but perhaps look for "weight lifting" in this forum. It has been discussed several times before.
Constricted tissue and arteries (arteries and veins are a type of smooth muscle that also constricts) inhibits blood flow and makes it difficult for optical to 'see' a pulse and blood flow.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Night Spring
I just got an Apple Watch and I'm finding that it gives me exercise credit for activity that is clearly not exercise, such as walking around the house. Apple's support page says that "every full minute of movement that equals or exceeds the intensity of a brisk walk counts toward your daily Exercise goal." I wonder why Apple uses the one minute threshold to start counting exercise. The CDC and other organizations say that moderate to intense activity should be sustained for at least 10 minutes to be counted as exercise. The Fitbit doesn't award active minutes/exercise credit until you hit 10 minutes.
 
I just got an Apple Watch and I'm finding that it gives me exercise credit for activity that is clearly not exercise, such as walking around the house. Apple's support page says that "every full minute of movement that equals or exceeds the intensity of a brisk walk counts toward your daily Exercise goal." I wonder why Apple uses the one minute threshold to start counting exercise. The CDC and other organizations say that moderate to intense activity should be sustained for at least 10 minutes to be counted as exercise. The Fitbit doesn't award active minutes/exercise credit until you hit 10 minutes.

Because the Apple Watch is using a brisk walk as the threshold. If you do not maintain 3.3mph for the entire minute, it is not counted. If it were to only count exercise after maintaining 3.3mph for 10 minutes, no one would ever get credit unless you never came to a standstill. Any time you drop below 3.3mph with the Apple Watch that minute is never counted. So you could be moving for 50 seconds and then stop for 3 seconds, but because you did not reach the full 60 seconds, you do not get the credit. So imagine going 9 minutes 58 seconds then coming to a stop. The entire 10 minutes would never be counted.
 
Because the Apple Watch is using a brisk walk as the threshold. If you do not maintain 3.3mph for the entire minute, it is not counted. If it were to only count exercise after maintaining 3.3mph for 10 minutes, no one would ever get credit unless you never came to a standstill. Any time you drop below 3.3mph with the Apple Watch that minute is never counted. So you could be moving for 50 seconds and then stop for 3 seconds, but because you did not reach the full 60 seconds, you do not get the credit. So imagine going 9 minutes 58 seconds then coming to a stop. The entire 10 minutes would never be counted.

I get what you're saying, but I still think the bar should be higher for exercise credit. I have filled half of my Exercise ring (15 minutes) today and I wouldn't classify any of it (walking to/from car, walking around house, etc.) as actual exercise, even if it was at the intensity of a brisk watch - which seems like a stretch. I just switched over from a Fitbit - they also use the "brisk walk" threshold, but activity must be sustained for at least 10 minutes:

"To stay in line with the Center for Disease Control's (CDC’s) “10 minutes at a time is fine” concept, minutes are only awarded after 10 minutes of continuous moderate-to-intense activity."

Just seems like a better way to gauge true exercise.
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.