Google Pixel Watch overestimating calories

[ArdenRuns]

The pixel watch is massively overestimating my calorie burn.  I've changed from a charge 4 to the pixel watch and my Kj burned due to exercise has tripled for the same amount of steps.  A 5 km run at a ~30min pace with the charge 4 was about 400kj and with the pixel watch is over 900. Yesterday the watch said I burnt 5900 cal, despite walking only 7000 steps and not doing a workout.  Compared to last week using the charge 4 I had a day with over 25000 steps and 3 hours of workouts, and the calorie calculation was 4900.  I know from counting calories and seeing my weight change that the charge 4 was close to accurate.  So far today i've taken less that 600 steps and done absolutly no excercise, but according to the watch i've burned an additional 2297kj due to excercise.  

Moderator edit: Subject for clarity.

[Gforce100]

Do you mean on your phone? Because mine in already switched off and I don't have google fit installed on the watch.

[jst1986]

I did a Live Chat earlier and was told to restart the watch which seems to have fixed it. Not sure if the agent tinkered with something or if the restart alone fixed whatever the problem was. Will keep an eye on it! 

[robneville73]

Interesting. I did a live chat too and was told they were escalating my case 🤷🏼‍:male_sign:

[Halo1979]

Interesting you mentioned that..I found that walking extremely overestimated my calorie counting to ridiculous amounts whilst I was testing it against my galaxy watch 4 and my Apple watch series 7 .. Both the galaxy watch 4 and Apple watch were nearly neck and neck with calorie estimation of 6km walk around 500 calories. the pixel watch told me I burnt 1200 calories..

But here's an interesting find I later reset the watch and tried it with a HIIT workout.. its calorie calculation I found after 30 minutes of HIIT workouts was in the ball park of the Apple watch which I think is best in class. So makes me wonder a software issue on the walking is reading The calorie expenditure as double with a walking workout.. has anyone tried using Google Fit and see if it's just Fitbit related with the watch and just a calorie expenditure calculation?

[Gforce100]

Agree.... I just did a gym workout and tracked calories using Pixel Watch and Polar H10. The watch was way off as expected (550 pixel watch vs 835 Polar H10).

Wrist devices are notorious for poor heart rate tracking during weight training - especially if you are doing an arm/chest/back routine. This doesn't concern as I don't rely on the Pixel Watch to track my gym sessions, however, I don't want to have to wear my chest strap during a 30min/45min walk - and that's where I have a problem. It over estimates the cals burned by 50% to 100%.

No solution for this so far unforunately.

[Halo1979]

That's why I think it's not actually a pixel watch issue itself the issue seems to lie in the software algorithm. It seems to blow out the calorie counting by double on certain activities.. I would rather it undercount a little then overcount by double.. People will think actually I've burnt this much I can eat this much and lose weight.. so far if I'm going to be honest the only watches that do an amazing job that's nearly in line with the Polar strap is the Apple Watch and the Huawei Watch GT 3 pro.

Theres a guy on YouTube who does scientific studies on wearables called the Quantified Scientist and he tests all wearables for biking running and weight training.. they are the only two watches that have a .99 accuracy to the 1 of of the Polar H10 strap..

[Gforce100]

I agree. Seems to be a calculation issue when selecting "Walk" as the exercise type because the heart rate is correct throughout. Very frustrating given that the main purpose for me purchasing the pixel watch is to track my walks without the need for the Polar H10 strap!

[Halo1979]

Totally agree.. I'm thinking seeing it's a wear os watch maybe trying to utilise it with Strava.. it's available and I do love in many ways the watch.. Maybe not utilise the Fitbit aspects for exercises like walking or running and use a 3rd party application till maybe they sort it out.. might be the best option

Then use health sync to write the data to Fitbit.. Might be the temporary workaround.. I did see that there was a Fitbit update on the watch..I have just updated it maybe that could fix the problem. I'll test it out later 

[jst1986]

@robneville73 have you tried a restart from your watch? Not a full reset, just a restart? My calorie values were spot on last night and still are after a walk this morning. 

[Pelmichr]

I've found another thing - it's a bit hard to find (look at the weight measure) but there is a body fat % and if it's entered it'll influence the calculation. BMR calculation is really sensitive to BF - and mine was in too low. I've updated it to what it actually is and I'm getting much more realistic results.

[Halo1979]

Where do I find that?

[robneville73]

I had already done that but I did again last night before going to bed so we'll see if it makes any difference 

Doesn't look good. I'm almost at 2000 calories burned at 10am. I did a CrossFit workout this morning and it was easily 200 to 300 calories too high. Other than a short walk with the dog, I've sat on my butt all day. Yesterday the thing said I burned 5k+ which is absurd and it looks on track to do so again today. Restarting did nothing for me.

[whilke]

It's not just a workout issue, so trying to use another workout app and sync it won't fix it. If you look at your calorie burn while sleeping it'll be about 2x what it should be for your BMR.

I restarted my watch yesterday evening (this was a day after I updated all the apps on the watch), and my overnight calorie usage was actually back to normal.. So far, everything is tracking today. I'll see how the day plays out, or if it reverts back to doubling calorie burn.

There is a bug somewhere that needs to get fixed

[Glade82]

I seem to have the opposite problem. The calories in Fitbit phone app, and on the website are much higher than the calories displayed on the watch face.

1595 burned so far today on the watch

2426 burned so far today on the app & website

I have not logged any activities, but I did have google assistant, witbit on wear OS and my fitness pal authorised as 3rd party apps.

I wonder if MFP or google assistant are double counting calories, so I have revoked access to see if that changes anything.

[neoscaler]

Fitbit support sent me a long list of instructions how to fix this, but it
does not work. They said uninstalling all apps (Pixel watch app, Fitbit
app), and deleting Bluetooth pairing and reset watch and restart all
devices would do it, but even after a fresh start the tracking is
overestimated again.

[whilke]

Interesting. Right now watch and app are same for me, but also today the app calories look inline... after restarting my watch yesterday (who knows if that did anything).

[Pelmichr]

Omg I think I figured it out.

So you know how your HR is feeding into the formula. I wondered if it calculated calories based on how close your HR is to your 'max HR', which is estimated by your age.  

I then looked at my estimated max HR in the app and the estimation from my calculation was 10bpm lower than what I know my HR hits during peak exercise (186 vs 196). So I set a manual max HR of 196 and instantly my basic at-rest calorie burn calc has dropped 30%, and is sitting at about 22 cal/15min which is what I'd expect for my TDEE before exercise.

Maybe try this and see if it helps? As l

[robneville73]

Where did you find your estimated max HR in the app and where did you set a new one?

[whilke]

If you go into the resting HR tile on the app, and hit the gear, you can override your max HR. Max HR is calculated by your age.

I tried adjusting that early on and it didn't change my calorie burn. Max HR will affect your zones, which does affect your calorie burn when your HR is elevated...

It shouldn't change your BMR, or at rest HR. 

[robneville73]

OK, I think I see it now. If you click on your profile pic and then go to Activity & Wellness -> Heart Settings -> Heart Rate Zones (on Android), under Custom Max heart rate is says "Maximum heart rate calculated as follows: 220 - <your age>". For me, that puts the calculated value at 171. But, just looking at the last two days of CrossFit I was hitting 177 to 180...so clearly, that's not right. You'd think it could look at past workouts to adjust what is clearly just a guess via that calculation. I can forgive it for doing that out of the box but when confronted with evidence to the contrary, you'd think it'd adjust itself - very disappointing and misleading to those that aren't willing to dig. I will make what appears to be an almost identical adjustment to mine and report back what I find.