Please use heart rate to estimate calories burned!

I think I'm having the same sort of problem as you are?

Today I did an hour HIIT workout and calories burnt were 190, my heart rate was maxed at 165 bpm at one point. 
And when I checked my watch 30 mins into the workout it said I burnt 3 calories, does your watch do the same thing? I was shocked by that. I mean 3 calories in 30 minutes? How is that even possible? 
Maybe they need to rework their watches or something, just seems so wrong to me

The calories tracked on the watch during exercise are always very low for me, but I am not too worried about that. All that matters to me is that once they are synced to the phone you get an accurate estimate. In that sense, you are definitely having the same problem as I am, because there is no way an hour long HIIT only burned 190 calories.

I am also having an issue with calorie count using my steel hr. I did a 1 hour class last week and it said I burned nearly 500 calories. I did the same class this week and pushed myself more (heart rate was higher) and in the app it shows I burned 184 calories! I’m not calorie counting but I would like a more accurate reading after a workout.

Same issue here. I just did a fairly strenuous 2-hour backpacking trip with full (40 pound) pack and 2,000 feet of elevation gain over 4 miles and my watch and the HealthMate app both give me a count of 754 calories burned... I could burn that walking unloaded on level ground in two hours. Something doesn't make sense here.

Same issue here. I did two very similar bike rides, one apparently burning 900 calories and the other 230. Why hasn’t Withings responded?

I did a the following test :

35 minutes of intensive bicycle and "health mate" calculated : 290 Kcal

35 minute of nice internet browsing after diner seating on my sofa and "health mate" calculated : 290 Kcal

Hearth Rate is not taken into account by the algorithm in "Health Mate".

That's a shame cause it knows the Heart Rate and could tell my effort was mainly intense on my bike whereas it was really moderated on my sofa.

That's a big disapointment to discover that "Health mate" is too lazy to use HR data to calculate my effort.

If someone from withings reads me, as you have the amount of time spend by HR intensity zones, it would not be a big deal to adjust the calories burned during our workout depending on our efforts, so please do it!!!

Disapointed customer.

Yes, please Withings, give us an update! Clearly this is an issue for many users.

I've owned a Steel HR for around 2 weeks now and I've found the same issue.

I ran to the gym this morning did an intensive 45 min hiit session and then ran home, total workout was just about an hour (I don't live far from the gym).

The Health Mate app shows my heart rate averaged 129bpm, max 163, yet it's only calculated 297 calories!

I have another monitor which I was wearing this does show my average heart rate was 139bpm and max 172, so a little different but that has calculated 803 calories burned which is clearly a huge difference.

Does Health Mate really not use heart rate in calculating calories burned?

Seriously considering returning my watch.

All,

I just received my 40mm Steel HR yesterday and was so excited to start using it. I did my first "Weights" sports session this morning and after ~1hr, my calories burned was only nearing 20+ calories according to the watch display. 

I actually called support earlier this afternoon and the support agent clarified that calories burned is calculated by how many steps you take + body metrics (height, weight, etc) according to your profile in the Health Mate App. It does not incorporate your heart rate into the equation. After hearing this, it made so much more sense after reading everyone's challenges with burned calorie accuracy. This might explain why some workouts burn more calories than others, given the type of sport session a user chooses.

To echo what others have mentioned, once your sport session syncs with your Health Mate App, the total calories burned does look a bit more accurate, but it would still be a huge value to see a more accurate total of calories burned through the watch display.

I admit I tried to do as much research on  this device as possible before voting with my dollar and purchasing, but after reading all of the comments on this page and my personal experience, I might just return it, but my inner monologue tells me to hold on the watch a little while longer in the hopes that a firmware update is pushed that incorporates HR into the equation to measure total calories burned no matter what sport session a user chooses.

I hope my experience helps others! Thanks for reading.

My guess is that calories are computed at random. I go to work by foot. The distance is the same in both directions, but the way is not flat: going up to work and going down back home. Today, I went to work in 44 minutes. Distance is 3,07 km and speed is 14:19 per km. Computed calories: 95 (remember, in this direction, I go uphill.)

To go back home, it took me 50 minutes (downhill), 3,06 km at 16:21 min/km. Going slower downhill, it should be less calories. But the application computed 241 calories. Obviously, it is totally unreliable.

I received my watch yesterday and today I’ve been mostly sat down with one brief walk around the supermarket it’s saying I’ve burnt over 1000 calories which seems impossible to me - thinking of returning it due to lack of information provided by the company on how to fix it. It’s a shame as otherwise it is a nice watch.

Any updates here Withings?

I also have the same problem. When my other sport smart watch computes around 310kcal my fitness machine indicates 295 kcal, my Whithings Steel HR SPORT shows 118 kcal. Are seriously just taking in consideration the duration of the activity to calculate the burned calories? When I bought this watch, I was expecting having a more or less accurate sport watch when practicing sport. This watch does clearly not the job for now. Any updates for the app soon? When you name a watch with a SPORT version, you can expect this type of customer. Disappointed for now, but it just a software matters. The HR is pretty accurate, so the rest is just mathematics. Please make a update of the app & firmware for this beautiful watch. Otherwise... It will be useless for sports tracking for me. 

I just got mine for Christmas, was super surprised see the step tracker and calorie calculator way off. I wore my old fit bit in tandem and it tells a much different story. I also hope Withings hears these comments and makes a change. I love the hybrid look, but with out a semi accurate metrics tracking this is just a nice piece of jewelry. Also keep in mind, my workplace wellness program counts on steps for some of the health challenges, With the step counter being so far off it is hard to make my goals as I did with the Fitbit.

Also got this watch recently and hope to see an update that brings in heart rate to the formula soon!

I'm not sure if Withings has changed how they calculate calories burned, however i still want to explain that heart rate cannot be used to estimate burned calories correctly. Even though many activity and fitness trackers give an estimate on how many calories you burned in a certain workout, most of then are very inaccurate, the formulas they use are very unreliable, especially when you don't take in account VO2max.

For example a well trained athlete runs a mile with an average of 100bpm, while another person, of the same weight, runs it with an average of 160; they both burned the same amount of calories, aka did the same amount of work (W=F*d). So using only the amount of steps you take, and your weight actually gives you a better estimate that using heart rate.

The best way you can track your calories would be, either using a machine that measures wattage (stationary bicycle, rowing machine, elliptical) or just multiplying the distance you ran by your weight, adjusting for any inclination.

Even without watch, the Healt Mate App is making a mess on calorie count.

Scenario 1, this morning.a stroll at the market:
1:44:00, 5.63 Km, 18:28 min/km, 519 calories.

Scenario 2, this evening: I locked myself out, waked to my daughter and back - fast:
1:35:00, 9,12 Km, 10:25 min/km, 293 Calories.

Something is seriously wrong here.

At least in my healthmate version i could edit the workouts an set an intensitylevel which will alter the kcal count. The problem is that this is highly subjective but it helps a little to adjust e.g. if you were walking in deep snow or uphill.

At least in my healthmate version i could edit the workouts an set an intensitylevel which will alter the kcal count. The problem is that this is highly subjective but it helps a little to adjust e.g. if you were walking in deep snow or uphill.

Hello.
When I use Health mate app I have some problems with the measurement of calories burlesque. Example: once time 30 minuts of horse riding are 90 calories, another time 2 Hours are 55 calories

I take it this has never been resolved. I did a crossfit WOD today and my calories count showed as 51 for that on the app even though bpm was high The downhill cycle for 15 mins to get there shows 5 times as much calories used. I am using the option in the app to log food intake but to be honest I don’t see what the point is if what I burn isn’t calculated accurately. Not happy.

Same here in their german Health Mate version.
I really like my Steel HR. But this is also a big issue for me. At first I thought they will fix it soon so I kept my watch. But seems like nothing will happen here?!

Hi All, as withings is not responding to us, can anyone advice which alternative watch would do the trick ?

I went back to my old watch - Amazfit - pick your model.