Question About Fitness Calibration Usefulness

[Newtons Apple]

Based on my workouts, I don't think its too far off. I don't think its accurate to the calorie, but I think when I workout and communicates that I did 500 calories in my workout, I'd say that's in the ballpark.

I found my results to be as much as 20% above or below when walking the exact same distance. I do not know how many calories I used but it should not fluctuate 20% for the same 30 minute walk covering the exact same trail in the same amount of time. There were times that it did match a previous walk quite closely.

I am back to wearing my AW and look forward to the AW2 in March!

 

[exxxviii]

I am back to wearing my AW and look forward to the AW2 in March!

Few of these issues are hardware related. This is all Apple software, and software is Apple's mega weakness. My expectation is that the AW 2 will look a little prettier and boast faster innards, but it will be plagued by all the same deficiencies we have today.

 

[Newtons Apple]

Few of these issues are hardware related. This is all Apple software, and software is Apple's mega weakness. My expectation is that the AW 2 will look a little prettier and boast faster innards, but it will be plagued by all the same deficiencies we have today.

That will be a big dissapointment as the other "wearable" makers are making giant leaps in progress and Apple will only fall farther behind. Both FitBit and Garmin are getting better and better and offer more and more for the money.

 

[zhenya]

Calorie counts are always a very rough estimate no matter what device you are using. Take your same data set and transfer it to 3 different services and you'll get 3 different calorie counts and a 20% difference would actually be pretty close!

 

[exxxviii]

That will be a big dissapointment as the other "wearable" makers are making giant leaps in progress and Apple will only fall farther behind. Both FitBit and Garmin are getting better and better and offer more and more for the money.

Yeppers. Apple omitted many activity and fitness features from the AW that FB, Microsoft, Garmin, Nike, etc., have had in their products for years. Apple needs to catch up before it can even think about getting ahead. Remember in OS 1 that the Workout app could not show splits for a run? How moronic was that? Apple's giant leap forward to OS 2 was to give people splits. But it still does not show avg. HR by split. And Apple broke distance calibration.

 

[zhenya]

Yeppers. Apple omitted many activity and fitness features from the AW that FB, Microsoft, Garmin, Nike, etc., have had in their products for years. Apple needs to catch up before it can even think about getting ahead. Remember in OS 1 that the Workout app could not show splits for a run? How moronic was that? Apple's giant leap forward to OS 2 was to give people splits. But it still does not show avg. HR by split. And Apple broke distance calibration.

Apple doesn't need to expend a great deal of energy building a native app that has every feature that any given individual might want because what they provide that none of those alternatives do is a platform on which anyone can build an app tailored to a specific need. The Apple fitness apps should be wide ranging with a low barrier to entry. Just enough to get people started. As people grow out of Apple's own offerings they have an entire app store where they can find something that fits them better.

 

[exxxviii]

I lot of folks have the same defense and hope for the AW. I hope that it it works out too. But I do not have high hopes for the AW's activity tracker potential, due to the economics and user fragmentation.

I am seeing some credible fitness apps emerging from the strong incumbents in that space, so those have potential. However, that is a place where the AW hardware is holding it back-- without GPS the watch is merely a UI extension to the app on the phone.

 

[maflynn]

I found my results to be as much as 20% above or below when walking the exact same distance. I do not know how many calories I used but it should not fluctuate 20% for the same 30 minute walk covering the exact same trail in the same amount of time. There were times that it did match a previous walk quite closely.

I am back to wearing my AW and look forward to the AW2 in March!

I've not really noticed such a wide discrepancy. In fact comparing the AWS with other fitness watches (Fitbit Surge) and equipment, such as treadmills, I find them all fairly close. Perhaps I'll google how to compute calories consumed and see if there's some sort of formula to then compare against the AW.

 

[Traverse]

You would have to be a big "believer" to put a lot of stock in the Aw's calorie count.

Based on my workouts, I don't think its too far off. I don't think its accurate to the calorie, but I think when I workout and communicates that I did 500 calories in my workout, I'd say that's in the ballpark.

Actually, I find that it is within 10 calories of what other fitness apps (such as MyFitnessPal) claim. I'm not an expert, but I lost a lot of weight replying on MFP's data, so I trust the watch enough for me.

I've also notified that, after outside calibration, it's distance is within 0.038 of the treadmill's reported distance, which is close enough to me. Even uncalibrated it was close (0.1-0.3)

 

[Newtons Apple]

Actually, I find that it is within 10 calories of what other fitness apps (such as MyFitnessPal) claim. I'm not an expert, but I lost a lot of weight replying on MFP's data, so I trust the watch enough for me.

I've also notified that, after outside calibration, it's distance is within 0.038 of the treadmill's reported distance, which is close enough to me. Even uncalibrated it was close (0.1-0.3)

10 calories?

Really?

 

[Traverse]

10 calories?

Really?

It's odd. Here's some of the data.

Before calibration:
Apple Watch: 138 calories
MyFitnessPal: 141

After calibration
Apple Watch: 145
MyFitnessPal: 141

Apple Watch: 183
MyFitnessPal: 174

However, I just did a 30 minute 4mph walk and the results vary significantly:
Apple Watch: 346
MyFitnessPal: 201


Since getting my Apple Watch, I've only done steady 4 mph walks to test it's accuracy. It's been mostly pretty good, but it will have random workouts where it's wildly off. I don't know how much swinging my arms vs holding the rail affects it or it's a software glitch.
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I've not really noticed such a wide discrepancy. In fact comparing the AWS with other fitness watches (Fitbit Surge) and equipment, such as treadmills, I find them all fairly close. Perhaps I'll google how to compute calories consumed and see if there's some sort of formula to then compare against the AW.

Treadmills are always off for me. For instance, my treadmill will say I burned 350 calories when MyFitnessPal (which I trust more) says 200. Most often, the Apple Watch agrees with MFP, but (in my post above) my most recent workout had something random happen where both the treadmill and AW said 350-ish and other services said around 200.

 

[Traverse]

Is there a reason the Health app has no "Active Calorie" section for me? Only dietary calories.

 

[Julien]

Is there a reason the Health app has no "Active Calorie" section for me? Only dietary calories.

It is called Active Energy.

 

[Traverse]

It is called Active Energy.

Ahh, they're renamed it since some of the articles I've read (from June)