How accurate has Apple Watch been for you? Anybody test it?

Losingthedamnweight
Losingthedamnweight Posts: 535 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm always curious how accurate the total daily calorie burn is. Mine says through my normal daily activities I burn around 2700ish a day.

Has anybody that loves numbers tested this through out their weight loss journey? Looked at their calorie deficit, what the numbers say on their Apple Watch and matched them up to see how accurate the watch was?

Replies

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,225 Member
    Think about this: The answer will be individual.

    Even the very best fitness trackers don't measure calorie burn. They measure other things that correlate to some extent with calorie burn, such as heart rate, GPS coordinates (for speed, distance, etc.), etc. Then they apply statistical estimating methods to estimate calorie burn.

    If you're a person who's close to statistical averages, they'll be pretty close, probably (though they're better at estimating some kinds of movement/activity vs. others). If you're not quite so average - for reasons that might not be obvious - the device will be off a little (high or low), and in some rare cases quite surprisingly high or low. That's the nature of statistical estimates.

    My fitness tracker - good brand/model that others here have said was pretty close with calorie estimates for them - is 25-30% off for me. It's not that the device is bad, it's that I'm non-average. (I have a decent idea about some of the reasons, but not the whole picture.)

    What you can do is follow your Apple watch's estimate for around 4-6 weeks (if you were a premenopausal adult female, it'd be whole menstrual cycles). After that, compare your body weight results to your target. That'll tell you how close you are to the statistical averages of your watch that you are, in context of your personal calorie logging habits. Then you can adjust your calorie goal, if needed.

    P.S. Apple watch, last I knew, hadn't correctly implemented the interface to MFP for calorie adjustments. If you have your watch synched to MFP, that could be another issue.
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,226 Member
    Don’t rely on it for accuracy. Adjust your calories based on what your weight is doing over time and not what the device says you should be doing
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    I have an Apple Watch 7 series. It’s my third brand of fitness tracker. It’s accurate for me. Numbers are consistent with my Garmin and Fitbit. I’m using the data and staying in maintenance.
  • Losingthedamnweight
    Losingthedamnweight Posts: 535 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Think about this: The answer will be individual.

    Even the very best fitness trackers don't measure calorie burn. They measure other things that correlate to some extent with calorie burn, such as heart rate, GPS coordinates (for speed, distance, etc.), etc. Then they apply statistical estimating methods to estimate calorie burn.

    If you're a person who's close to statistical averages, they'll be pretty close, probably (though they're better at estimating some kinds of movement/activity vs. others). If you're not quite so average - for reasons that might not be obvious - the device will be off a little (high or low), and in some rare cases quite surprisingly high or low. That's the nature of statistical estimates.

    My fitness tracker - good brand/model that others here have said was pretty close with calorie estimates for them - is 25-30% off for me. It's not that the device is bad, it's that I'm non-average. (I have a decent idea about some of the reasons, but not the whole picture.)

    What you can do is follow your Apple watch's estimate for around 4-6 weeks (if you were a premenopausal adult female, it'd be whole menstrual cycles). After that, compare your body weight results to your target. That'll tell you how close you are to the statistical averages of your watch that you are, in context of your personal calorie logging habits. Then you can adjust your calorie goal, if needed.

    P.S. Apple watch, last I knew, hadn't correctly implemented the interface to MFP for calorie adjustments. If you have your watch synched to MFP, that could be another issue.

    The entire reason i posted this question was because of this https://medium.com/@practical_app/a-12-week-study-of-the-accuracy-of-the-apple-watchs-calorie-tracking-ed672cb5c333

    And the fact that everybody I’ve talked to individually has said their Apple Watch has surprisingly been dead on. So i wanted to get individual opinions. Not a general “studies say” kinda thing. Real people looking at the numbers and their weight and figuring out how well it worked for them
  • crb426
    crb426 Posts: 661 Member
    I love numbers and here's my data:

    First number is the apple watch estimated weekly weight loss (my own calculations based on 3500 cal per pound), Second number is the actual amount lost that week.

    Week 1: Predicted= -1.59 lbs, Actual= -3 lbs (water weight)
    Week 2: Predicted= -1.60 lbs, Actual= -3.4 lbs (water weight)
    Week 3: Predicted= -1.45 lbs, Actual= -1.6 lbs
    Week 4: Predicted= -1.05 lbs, Actual= +0.8 lbs
    Week 5: Predicted= -0.36 lbs, Actual= -0.6 lbs
    Week 6: Predicted= -1.59 lbs, Actual= -3.6 lbs
    Week 7: Predicted= -1.58 lbs, Actual= -1.6 lbs (Spot on this week)
    Week 8: Predicted= -0.47 lbs, Actual= +1 lb
    Week 9: Predicted= -1.28 lbs, Actual= -1.4 lbs

    Total predicted loss: -10.97 lbs; Actual loss: -13.4 lbs

    My body scale only weighs in .2 increments so it's not exact, but pretty close. Also, those first two weeks reflect a lot of water weight lost (I started at a high weight after a glutenous vacation).

    If you only look at the numbers after the first two weeks of water weight...
    Total predicted loss for weeks 3-9: -7.78 lbs; Actual loss during weeks 3-9: -7 lbs

    So yeah, pretty close.
  • crb426
    crb426 Posts: 661 Member
    edited January 2023
    I should add that my numbers were not MFP's calculations for weight loss. It did not calculate as much daily calorie burn even though the apple watch is linked to it. I put these numbers into a spreadsheet and did my own calculations based on the number on the apple watch.

    Oh, and I think it's important to note that I am very consistent in the weighing and logging of all my food, no matter how much I want to deny eating that late night indulgence.
  • Losingthedamnweight
    Losingthedamnweight Posts: 535 Member
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    Doing this right now! I’ve lightly tested it before and it was surprisingly accurate. It actually seemed in many instances Apple Watch UNDER reported my calorie burn many times. I predicted today i would be 242.8. I was 242.8 on the dot. Which…i dont usually expect it to be dead on accurate like that. Was just a funny coincidence. Will be interesting to see how this goes
  • r7krms7ntn
    r7krms7ntn Posts: 3 Member
    My Apple Watch has been very accurate. I use it all the time.
  • onyxgirl17
    onyxgirl17 Posts: 1,722 Member
    Mine is very accurate.
  • mrmota70
    mrmota70 Posts: 533 Member
    Accurate enough that I’ve used it for 3 years and it’s definitely been a tool that’s helped me get very good results. It’s a guesstimate. Your body knows what your doing with exercise as well as what you are feeding it.
  • panda4153
    panda4153 Posts: 418 Member
    Mine is super accurate, I have spreadsheets I keep logging my total calories in vs out based on my watch, and I gain or lose also exactly as the math says I should. I’ve had one for years and found it to be spot in for me.

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