How Accurate is the Calorie Tracker... Can it be used when Punching?

[marcwagz]

I just did a session of a martial arts class and wore my band and its left me wondering how accurate it is.
How does it calculate calories burned?

I did an hour class...
In which I ran 500m, did 30 pushups, 90 crunches, 30 dip kicks, three 1min30sec rounds of pad work, three same rounds on the heavy bag, 6 rounds of 1min30sec shadow boxing, 25 minutes of form practice, and 6 minutes of just practising kicking.

By the end it said I had burned a whopping 920 calories!

Is this accurate, it seems hefty.
I am wondering if the band thinks I am running forward and taking a step every time I throw a punch.
Is this the case (is it using some kind of accelerometer?)

Or does that number seem reasonable?

 

[gwinegarden]

A 200 pound man, running at 6 mph, for 60 minutes burns around 940 calories. BTW, you would never have worn a Band in any of my classes.

 

[DroidUser42]

How does it calculate calories burned?

I believe it's primarily the heart rate. I've found movement can confuse the HR sensor. So you might want to see if your HR is reasonable during the exercise.

 

[teemulehtinen]

Yeah, well, I believe your numbers more than mine: 66 minutes of golf on the range (50-60 or so chips and pitches, 20-30 long range shots and drives), average heart rate 118 with top of 148 and 1076 calories burnt. As I have said, I don't know what to make of this. I am in good physical shape, 46 years and 99 kg with less than 12% fat.

 

[indiW]

Well how accurate is anything with Band 2.
I know with GPS on, distance is accurate but everything else....???

Step count.. Is it accurate..?
View attachment 120057

View attachment 120058

Rewarding most calories burnt.. Mine is stuck with just one number
View attachment 120060

I did my jogging on treadmill this am, and my starting speed on the machine was 9 (what ever that is)
My ending speed was 10.5, so with any stretch of the imagination 10.5 is faster than 9. Honest to God this is how band recorded it


According to this I was slowing down.

So what function on this band is accurate???

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[cj-m]

@indiW
If your starting speed on the treadmill is 9 and your finishing speed on the treadmill is 10.5 and the band shows you as slowing down, then that sounds possibly correct.

The band is not measuring the speed of the treadmill, but your running speed, so there is the possibility of you slowing down somewhat towards the end of your work out - hence the slower pace.

Unless of course I have missed the plot somewhere.

 

[etphoto]

Well how accurate is anything with Band 2.
I know with GPS on, distance is accurate but everything else....???

Step count.. Is it accurate..?


[

I think the step count is fairly accurate. At the start of my workout I do a 20 minute elliptical which is about 3,000 strides. The band keeps pace and gives me 3,000 steps (or around there). Even though it might not be accurate to the calorie. I think its consistent. If you do enough activity to burn lets say 300 calories and do roughly the same activity the next day its going to display the same amount of calories burned.

 

[indiW]

Cj-m

Thanks for the reply, I jogged my heart out.. I was going fast, on the other hand with the treadmill spinning at that speed if I don't keep it up I will eventually land on the floor with a bump.. And I was not holding on to anything.
I think band by birth has some problems in catching up with treadmill speed, in outdoors it's fine because of his GPS friend.

Did you notice differences with step counts.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[cj-m]

indiW, my apologies if my comment was too harsh/ignorant.

Yes, I have noticed that there is a step variance/discrepancy.

I ran a 13.80km distance yesterday and in comparison to my accompanying Ambit2 R, the Band 2 was spot on - so no issues with the GPS there.

In terms of HR - there was a 10 beat difference between the two. My Band 2 measuring 10 beats too high against my Ambit when I was running at a relaxed pace and then 10 beats too low when my pace had increased - but at the end of the run, the hi/lo and average HR was almost identical to the Ambit (1 to 2 beat difference). Is this a biggie? I suppose it could be if doing LTHR training or similar HR zone training. If running to pace, then it might not be such a concern especially if the end HR result is similar for recording purposes. I will be doing ongoing tests as I do more runs with my Band and Ambit. I don't think MS has really looked into the HR aspect of the Band with regards to zone training, etc

In terms of steps - I have walked around and counted my steps and compared my count to the Band 2 step count and noticed that the Band's count is, on average, 10 steps more. I am happy with this variance as it is in line with the Fitbit One I used to own. I noticed that the Vivofit I was using a while back was 98% accurate due to the fact that we can input our stride length (something I wish possible with the Band).

I have noticed that the Band does not seem to count the little steps I take between my office desk and other areas of my (very tiny) office and cabin. So I rationalise that the 10 steps variance I can recover while fiddling around my office/cabin. I have also yet to see any false steps measured because of my arm movement while in my office/cabin.

 

[indiW]

Thanks for the reply,
Sure I agree with you, Band 2 is generally good or if not better than some other step trackers, the attached pictures in relation to steps.. When was I was in a Xmas party and on the dance floor, so I am sure my arms were either half fold or up in the air lol.. But my phone was in the pocket. So the phone may have counted most of the steps and band may have counted steps when the hands were down and moving.
I have turned on the facility for band to communicate with the phone and fill up the missing steps it seems that also "not working"
The other step related picture is during my normal work hours where I went out of the office few times however had something in my "band hand" plus I had a long sleeve jacket coz it is winter here in the UK with out side temp around 1c on some days.
Hopefully ms team might do something with this problem during their next update.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[TennisGuy45]

I play competitive tennis and found that the calories and step counter function are fairly accurate.
The calorie counter is based off a combination of steps, heart rate, and body weight.

During one of my singles matches which lasted 2:15 it had me at over 5 miles of movement and 1300 calories burnt.
During one of my doubles matches which lasted 1:15 it had me at 2.37 miles of movement and 640 calories burnt.

These are consistent with what published calorie counts should be for tennis matches. Tennis players can burn up to 800 calories per hour when playing singles at very high levels.

For contrast I did a 6 mile run with my band (as for accuracy I was wearing an android phone with mapmyrun that had me at 6.2 miles). Runs are constant pacing with no start/stop like tennis.
My pace was 50:29 total time which is about 8:23/mile and my band put me at 857 calories burnt.
There are many publications which put running around ~100-150/calories per mile burn rate.
This would indicate that the band cannot be very far off in terms of accuracy.