The Calorie Counter

[Fabienne]

I just went for a long walk on uneven surfaces, which is my usual route for exercise. When I am wearing my bluetooth chest strap and connected to my iPhone using Digifit, I clock up about 500 calories (the same with a variety of other fitness monitors). It is consistent, and when I am using the chest strap and the Polar Loop, I get about the same results.

However, when I use the Apple Watch and its Exercise App, I only got 250 calories!

Have any of you found a big discrepancy between what the Apple Watch gives you with just wrist measurements vs. bluetooth chest strap on other devices? I have yet to try out the bluetooth chest strap and Apple Watch combination. Is there any way to adjust the calorie count?

BTW, the distance and time duration were consistent with what I have measured in the past, just the calories were really different.

 

[Cory Bauer]

Is it your "total" calories burned that only reads 250? The Activity app tallies your active and resting calories burned for a larger sum.

 

[Fabienne]

It's the calorie burn when I engaged the Exercise app. I set it for 500 calories, which I had easily achieved with that same walk. The Activity app was separate.

 

[Fabienne]

After a lot of looking around, I found that if you scroll down on the last screen showing after you finish your exercises (on the Exercise App) you will see the calories broken down by those you burned in your exercise vs. those you burn just to stay alive in that amount of time. So, Apple is separating out what you burned extra and what you burn just by living and not moving.

At first I felt cheated, now I am very used to that way of thinking about it all. It all comes out the same, look at your Health App charts and you will see (if you keep your exercise levels the same) the results will be consistent.

I really love the accuracy of the heart rate monitor. Just as good as my Bluetooth chest strap without all the extra gear, pairing, and wetting down.

 

[akm3]

After a lot of looking around, I found that if you scroll down on the last screen showing after you finish your exercises (on the Exercise App) you will see the calories broken down by those you burned in your exercise vs. those you burn just to stay alive in that amount of time. So, Apple is separating out what you burned extra and what you burn just by living and not moving.

At first I felt cheated, now I am very used to that way of thinking about it all. It all comes out the same, look at your Health App charts and you will see (if you keep your exercise levels the same) the results will be consistent.

I really love the accuracy of the heart rate monitor. Just as good as my Bluetooth chest strap without all the extra gear, pairing, and wetting down.

That's what Cory was trying to tell you above.

I feel cheated by the other way where calories I would have burned watching tv get counted as exercise calories. It's a total lie.

 

[Mathletics]

last weekend at Orange Theory Fitness I found that my Watch and Chest Strap were basically the same until about 30 minutes into my workout when I noticed the Watch showing significantly lower HB numbers than the Chest Strap. Up until that point the calorie counts were the same and after that they finished about 150 calories apart. I thought about taking off the watch and wiping off my wrist and the watch of water/sweat but didn't have the chance during my HIIT workout.

 

[Dhonk]

I'd question your other methods. A 500 calorie walk, even rigorous, has to be like 10 miles (unless you're extremely obese)

 

[GeorgiaPower]

I'd question your other methods. A 500 calorie walk, even rigorous, has to be like 10 miles (unless you're extremely obese)

It varies person to person somewhat, but I've hit 500kcal walking less than 5 miles and I'm far from obese

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After a lot of looking around, I found that if you scroll down on the last screen showing after you finish your exercises (on the Exercise App) you will see the calories broken down by those you burned in your exercise vs. those you burn just to stay alive in that amount of time. So, Apple is separating out what you burned extra and what you burn just by living and not moving.

At first I felt cheated, now I am very used to that way of thinking about it all. It all comes out the same, look at your Health App charts and you will see (if you keep your exercise levels the same) the results will be consistent.

I really love the accuracy of the heart rate monitor. Just as good as my Bluetooth chest strap without all the extra gear, pairing, and wetting down.

Thanks for the heads up, I had no idea about the resting calories data. That makes adjusting daily calories a little more convenient

 

[Fabienne]

A 500 calorie walk is pretty normal with the Digifit and cheststrap, but Digifit does not subtract out the resting calories, so you might be expending 250 calories on walking but still expend 250 calories just breathing and pumping blood and metabolizing. The Apple Exercise app is only going to show you your exercise calories on the screen as you perform them. If you want the total calories you have to finish your exercises and then scroll down to the bottom of the screen to get the breakout and total. It's pretty ingenious but it does take some different thinking.

Also, once the exercise is finished, you can see how you did on the Health App which breaks things down in many different ways.