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I know the Apple Watch can be very inaccurate in measuring energy expenditure, but I weigh about 175-180lb and my ~6k runs almost always register at 450-600kcal

I know the Apple Watch can be very inaccurate in measuring energy expenditure, but I weigh about 175-180lb and my ~6k runs almost always register at 450-600kcal.

version_five 3y ago
I have a simple gps watch that uses my weight to estimate calories and doesn't measure heart rate. It gives me the same as you, just under 100kcal/km for the same weight. But I'm convinced this is a dramatic overestimation, I run a lot and have for years, and I'd be eating way more if I really burned that much. I think with regular exercise we become extremely efficient and the calorie burn goes way down. I don't know if heart rate accounts for that or not, but overall I'm sceptical about calorie counts.
- civilitty 3y ago
  It definitely depends a lot on metabolic adaption which already varies significantly person to person but I think for beginners just moving from a sedentary lifestyle it's a good estimate for a while (six months to a year is the number I've heard, depending on training intensity). The last few months I've gone from a sedentary lifestyle to calorie counting and using an Apple Watch to track exercise with an intense 7-10 mile walk/run/hike 5-7x a week. With the weightloss I've experienced it seems relatively accurate (within 20%) but that's with 2-3 hours of exercise (not including weight lifting) per session.
015a 3y ago
When playing beat saber, I always assumed the Apple Watch over-estimates calorie burn if only because the watch is on the part of your body that's the most mobile (your wrist). So, getting 300kcal for a 30 minute session felt like cheating. But, there's at least "more legit than an Apple Watch" evidence that the calorie burn is that high; 6-8kcal per minute on Expert difficult [1], and some of the Expert+ tracks could easily burn more than that (and, I weigh much more than their Standard Reference Person). I'm not the most fit person, but I've seen surprisingly little hard evidence that the Apple Watch grossly under or over-estimates calories burned. I imagine it starts getting worse at the extremes, and nothing is perfect, and everyone is different; its an area where more research would have unbelievably high leverage (Apple has sold, hundreds, of millions, of watches) (in fact: I'm sure they've done some of this research themselves). [1] http://vrhealth.institute/portfolio/beat-saber/ http://vrhealth.institute/portfolio/beat-saber/

I know the Apple Watch can be very inaccurate in measuring energy expenditure, but I weigh about 175-180lb and my ~6k runs almost always register at 450-600kcal.

version_five 3y ago

I have a simple gps watch that uses my weight to estimate calories and doesn't measure heart rate. It gives me the same as you, just under 100kcal/km for the same weight. But I'm convinced this is a dramatic overestimation, I run a lot and have for years, and I'd be eating way more if I really burned that much. I think with regular exercise we become extremely efficient and the calorie burn goes way down. I don't know if heart rate accounts for that or not, but overall I'm sceptical about calorie counts.

civilitty 3y ago
It definitely depends a lot on metabolic adaption which already varies significantly person to person but I think for beginners just moving from a sedentary lifestyle it's a good estimate for a while (six months to a year is the number I've heard, depending on training intensity). The last few months I've gone from a sedentary lifestyle to calorie counting and using an Apple Watch to track exercise with an intense 7-10 mile walk/run/hike 5-7x a week. With the weightloss I've experienced it seems relatively accurate (within 20%) but that's with 2-3 hours of exercise (not including weight lifting) per session.

015a 3y ago

When playing beat saber, I always assumed the Apple Watch over-estimates calorie burn if only because the watch is on the part of your body that's the most mobile (your wrist). So, getting 300kcal for a 30 minute session felt like cheating. But, there's at least "more legit than an Apple Watch" evidence that the calorie burn is that high; 6-8kcal per minute on Expert difficult [1], and some of the Expert+ tracks could easily burn more than that (and, I weigh much more than their Standard Reference Person). I'm not the most fit person, but I've seen surprisingly little hard evidence that the Apple Watch grossly under or over-estimates calories burned. I imagine it starts getting worse at the extremes, and nothing is perfect, and everyone is different; its an area where more research would have unbelievably high leverage (Apple has sold, hundreds, of millions, of watches) (in fact: I'm sure they've done some of this research themselves). [1] http://vrhealth.institute/portfolio/beat-saber/ http://vrhealth.institute/portfolio/beat-saber/