One of the most popular functions of the Apple Watch is its ability to track your health and fitness goals, including the number of calories that you’re burning. It’s a great way to stay fit and active, especially when you’re required to manage your health due to age and other factors. However, some Apple Watch users have asked how to track calories on Apple Watch.
The best way to track your calories on your Apple Watch is by pairing it to your iPhone’s Fitness app. This guide will show you some methods to track your Apple Watch calories burned and the best health app Apple Watch. Read on to know more.
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How to Track Calories Burned on Apple Watch
An effective way to manage your overall fitness is by tracking your burned calories. It gives you an idea if you’re deciding to plan a strict diet or if you’re lacking daily physical activities to keep your body active. It’s ideal for tracking your active (burned from movement), passive (burned from metabolism), and total calories burned.
To check your active calories on your Apple Watch, follow these steps:
- Open your Apple Watch and go to the Activity app.
- Scroll down using the Digital Crown on the watch and find your active calories burned under the Move goal.
To access the Apple Watch calorie tracker via the Watch Face on your Apple Watch, proceed to these steps:
- Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and go to the My Faces section.
- Choose the Watch Face that you want and select Complications.
- Set the Top Left option to Activity and tap Set as current Watch Face.
- You can now track your calorie data by tapping on the Activity icon on the Watch Face of your Apple Watch.
Track Total Calories via the Health or Fitness App
Another effective way to track your overall calorie data is by viewing it through the Health app (for iOS 14 or lower) or the Fitness app (for iOS 15 or greater). If you’re using an iPhone with an updated software version, follow these steps:
- Switch on your iPhone and launch the Fitness app.
- Tap the Move group to view your overall calorie data.
- You can sort the data by tapping on the day (D), week (W), month (M), and year (Y) tabs.
If your iPhone still has the Health app in place of the Fitness app, do the following to track your calorie data:
- Open the Health app on your iPhone. On the dashboard, you’ll see your Resting Energy (calories burned due to physical activity) and Active Energy (calories burned due to metabolism).
- To get a more comprehensive view of each calorie data, tap your desired energy data and select Show All Data.
How Does Apple Watch Calculate Calories Burned?
The Apple Watch tracks your calories burned and other health data via the Wrist Detection feature. It allows your Watch to track your movement data, converted to your burned calories. It also lets your device follow your heart rate via the Heart Rate Monitor function.
To ensure that the Watch Detection is enabled via the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, follow these steps:
- Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone and tap My Watch.
- Choose Passcode and toggle the Wrist Detection option to On.
Ensure that your Apple Watch is tightly attached to your wrist for accurate health data results. Avoid setting it on Power Save mode during physical activities since it might disable some crucial health tracking features.
It’s also important to calibrate your Apple Watch via the Outdoor Walk activity on the Workout app. To do this, proceed to these steps:
- Before starting your walk, ensure that you have great GPS signals in your area.
- Go to the Workout app on your Apple Watch and choose Outdoor Walk.
- Walk at your average pace for at least 20 minutes. This allows the watch to adjust its pace, strides, and acceleration when calculating your active calorie data.
Finally, you’ll need to ensure that the saved health details on your Apple Watch are updated. This allows the Fitness app to track your passive calorie and other health data accurately. To update your physical data via the Watch app on your iPhone, do the following:
- Launch the Watch app and go to My Watch.
- Select Health > Health Details. You will now see the personal information saved on your Apple Watch and used on the Fitness app.
- To edit data, tap Edit on the top-right corner of the screen and choose the items you want to update.
If you have any trouble with tracking calories, please read our articles on what to do if your Apple Watch is Not Tracking Activity or your battery is dying quickly.
We hope you found this article useful. We have another guide which explains how to reset your apple watch after too many password attempts.
Final Thoughts
Tracking your health data via your Apple Watch is a great way to check if you’re active enough and have a healthy lifestyle. One of the best health data you can track is your total calories. Hopefully, this guide helps you with tracking your calories on your Apple Watch and keeping your health data accurate.