Hi! I previously purchased the Galaxy Active 2 but quickly returned it when I learned that it doesn't accurately calculate calories burned. I was excited to see the launch of the Galaxy Watch 4 but cannot find any information on how it calculates calories burned. Can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks in advance!
Yeah, I have the original Fitbit Versa, and it's a great watch. But it's a few years old now, and it's time for an upgrade. I want something with more of the smartwatch features, as well as the fitness tracker. I would stick with Fitbit, but I'm really not crazy about the square shape. I'd really like something round. I'm probably going to go ahead and order the Galaxy Watch 4, and then just return it if it's the same as the others. I'll check back here with an update. 😁
I have the Samsung Galaxy watch 4. Coming from Fitbit versa 2 and sense. The sense never worked and I had a horrible experience with Fitbit. They really are an awful company to deal with and don’t care if their product doesn’t work.
My only complaint with the Samsung Galaxy watch 4 is the calories burned.
Which isn’t too much of a big deal for me as I know how many calories I burn per day and how many I burn per activity.
Of course it would be nice to have this functionality of using the BMR and the heart rate.
So here’s the deal. BMR and heart rate is used to calculate calories burned when choosing the walking or running activity. I primarily cycle, for this, it always shows my calories burned as half of what my Fitbit would show.
Yesterday I thought I would be clever, so I chose running when I was doing my cycling activity. The watch wouldn’t pick up the GPS signal and showed only a third of the calories burnt of what it should 🤣
Either this is as per design to prevent “cheating” or it was a blip on my end. I will try it again today and see how it goes.
When it syncs I to Strava, Strava will prompt me “this looks like a cycle, do you want to update?”. So that works nicely.
Other than this, this watch is fantastic. After all the stuff I had to deal with Fitbit over the past two years, it’s great to have a watch that just works!
Well, I ended up buying the Galaxy Watch 4, and have been testing it out for about a week. What I have discovered is that the problem is not the watch, but the software. The sensors on the watch work just fine. It's the developers of the fitness software that need to get a clue.
It's definitely still true that Samsung Health only takes your heart rate into consideration during the walking and running activities. I tested it with the aerobic activity twice and burned the same number of calories when I worked out for 40 minutes, and when I sat down on the couch for 40 minutes doing absolutely nothing. Which a joke.
Then I decided to try the Google Fit app on the watch, and it's worse. Even the walking activity duplicates itself, whether you're actually walking or sitting still.
When I disable the GPS and select the walking activity in Samsung Health and then do aerobics instead, I get pretty close to the same result I get with my Fitbit. But that wouldn't work, of course, for people that need the GPS for their workout.
I'm going to keep the watch, because it's a great Smartwatch. But as for using it for a fitness tracker, I'm just going to stick with my Fitbit. Now that Google owns Fitbit, if they ever come out with a round watch, I'll be buying it. 😁
PS: The design of the watch is a little bit different than the Active 2 watch. The band is thicker and sits up higher on your wrist. I think it's because they were trying to improve the accuracy of the sensors on the back of the watch. The new design forces it to sit more flat on your wrist. I find the new band a bit uncomfortable. But if you don't care about the accuracy of the sensors, you can always swap it out for the old style band, because it's still the same size, from what I've read.
Thank you for the information. I will buy the Fitbit. I have had a fitbit for many years and loved it. I was gifted the Active 2 watch and am very disappointed in the fitness functions. I workout 5 times a week and my workouts are different every time. I have no clue how many calories I am burning since the calories burned should not be the same with each workout.
FYI, you can connect a heart rate monitor to Samsung Health time record a better accuracy of calories burned for activity, just tell the app what activity you are performing.
My daily walk used to be 500 calories round trip now all of a sudden its like 1100 calories round trip. Its been 500 for like two years. I just want it to be consistent. Was it an update that messed it up last week? The active calories was right on the little rainbow heart but the walking calorie target completed the goal in like before I was even halfway done. Makes me not want to workout.
The comment about turning off the GPS and using walking is spot on. I can get that combination to match my other fitness devices pretty well. This is a ridiculous workaround. This is not a fitness watch. Same wrong, lazy calorie estimation as my previous 4 Samsung watches. Amazing how devices 1/10th the price of this can do this. I wear an armband and a separate app on my phone for calorie burn. When people ask me why I am wearing both, I say the Samsung watch doesn't use HR for calories. Usually gets an open mouth stare...
Upon more testing, I have to walk back the comment about getting walking/no GPS to match my other devices (that I trust). So... There is nothing about the calorie burn on this watch that is believable and it has been that way on every Samsung watch. This will be last one. I might try a fitbit.
