For seamless health and fitness tracking, it’s hard to look beyond the Apple Watch. Powered by a faster watchOS along with a host of health-focused features like hearing health, ECG, and accurate exercise tracking, the smartwatch is a great asset for fitness enthusiasts. Speaking of exercise tracking, the Apple Watch is on point most of the time—except for the few rare occasions when it fails to track workouts accurately. But don’t bother; With a few pro tips, you can always calibrate your Apple Watch for advanced exercise tracking. So, if your smartwatch isn’t getting the Maths right, or you want to improve accuracy to get a better idea of your progress, these seven tips and tricks can add the missing boost to your goal just in time!
7 Best Tips and Tricks to Calibrate Your Apple Watch
As always, I’ll clear up the confusion beforehand so we’re both on the same page.
So What Is The Way To Get The Most Accurate Measurements?
For starters, we’ll fine-tune every aspect that plays a crucial role in fitness tracking. In addition to introducing a new stance for the accelerometer, we will also restart the fitness calibration if needed. Along the way, we’d tackle various roughnesses (often considered too minor to make little difference) making sure they stayed away. Above all, we will ensure that the chance to earn credits is not missed. Now that everything looks ready, let’s get started!
Make Sure Your Personal Information Is Updated
First of all, make sure your personal information is updated. Apple Watch uses your personal information, such as height, weight, age, gender, to calculate the number of calories you burn. Therefore, make sure that all information is correct and up to date. To do this, start Watch the app on your iPhone -> My Watch tab -> Health -> Health Profile. Now, tap on To organise and then update the information.
Make Sure You Have Motion Calibration and Distance Enabled on Your iPhone
Another important thing you need to do to ideally calibrate the watchOS device is to make sure that the motion calibration and distance feature is turned on. It helps the smart watch to get the necessary information. To do this, Settings app on your iPhone -> Privacy -> Location Services. Now make sure location service effective. Next, tap on System services and make sure you have the transition Motion Calibration and Distance opens.
Make Sure Wrist Detection Is On
Wrist Detection must be enabled for Apple Watch to track your stand progress. Also, background heart rate readings are based on this feature. So make sure you keep it on. Start watch app on you iPhone -> My Watch tab > Password. Now, open the toggle Wrist Detection.
Wear the Watch Perfectly
Another little piece of advice I would like to give is to wear the smartwatch correctly. By the right cut I mean neither too loose nor too tight – to allow the skin to breathe. Not only will it make you feel more comfortable while exercising, it will also help the sensors work properly.
Start from scratch
Now that you’ve got the basics covered, start from scratch to see how well Apple Watch can track your workout. And the best way to do that is to go for a walk or run outdoors. The smartwatch tracks stride length at different speeds and calibrates the accelerometer accordingly to provide accurate measurements.
Before you start your workout, set a goal (tap the three dots and then fine-tune everything) and then walk/run normally for about 20 minutes.
Note: If you’re running at different speeds, be sure to calibrate 20 minutes at each speed to help watchOS learn your stride length.
Never Fail To Move And Earn Exercise Credits
While it may seem a little strange to some people, earning movement and exercise credits makes a big difference. Apple Watch counts every full minute of movement (quick pushes for wheelchair users) that matches or exceeds a brisk walk toward daily exercise and movement goals. So every time you walk, make sure you gain exercise credit by letting your wrist swing naturally with your smartwatch.
It’s worth repeating that the Activity app relies on arm movement and an accelerometer to track movement, while the Workout app is designed to use an accelerometer, heart rate sensor, and GPS to track movement.
Reset Fitness Calibration Data
If your Apple Watch isn’t doing the best for you yet, try resetting its fitness calibration data to factory defaults. In many cases, it can get rid of hidden snags and enable the smartwatch to track workouts with enhanced accuracy. To do this, go to: watch app on your iPhone -> My Watch tab -> Privacy -> Reset Fitness Calibration Data.
Calibrate Your Apple Watch for the Most Accurate Measurements
Hopefully, your Apple Watch will now offer the best for you – when it comes to exercise tracking. In many cases, these tips can help you get a more accurate result. Just in case, if things don’t get better even after trying these tricks, update the software on your Apple Watch (Settings app -> General -> Software Update) because the error could also be caused by the old version of watchOS. By the way, did you find this post helpful? Feel free to share your thoughts on new Apple Watch features like cycle tracking, hearing health, and “Confirm” coming to watchOS 6.
