{"id":103393,"date":"2022-10-21T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/the-pixel-watch-has-a-calorie-problem\/"},"modified":"2022-10-21T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T04:00:00","slug":"the-pixel-watch-has-a-calorie-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/the-pixel-watch-has-a-calorie-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pixel Watch has a calorie problem"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fitbit calorie estimations are appearing wildly inflated<\/p>\n

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With the Pixel Watch, Google is understandably leaning really hard into its Fitbit ownership, making that service a prominent part of the wearable and its health features. Fitbit instantly brings the smartwatch some valuable brand recognition, but it’s also a name that carries with it certain expectations, occupying such a premium spot in the market. Unfortunately, it seems that the Pixel Watch isn’t quite living up to Fitbit’s reputation, and often reports wildly inflated caloric estimates.<\/p>\n

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ANDROIDPOLICE VIDEO OF THE DAY<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As new Pixel Watch owners started using their hardware, they were quick to notice that the wearable’s Fitbit software shows caloric counts significantly higher than their expectations. Multiple members of the Android Police team observed similar behavior. Personally, for certain activities I’m seeing Fitbit on the Pixel Watch give me caloric estimates that are a solid 50% higher than what I get with Samsung Health and the Watch 4 \u2014 I’ve even worn one on each wrist to compare directly, and find the same gulf between what they report.<\/p>\n

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Calorie reports from Pixel Watch + Fitbit (left), Galaxy Watch 4 + Samsung Health (right)<\/em><\/p>\n

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One critical detail to remember here is that no smartwatch or fitness tracker measures calories directly. Instead, they gather data like steps taken, your heart rate, and maybe distance traveled via GPS, and combine that with information you provide about your physical makeup: height, weight, gender, age. Turning that into a convenient number like \u201ccalories burned\u201d requires a little bit of algorithmic magic, so it’s understandable that there would be a certain amount of disagreement across platforms. But even that said, the scope of what we’re seeing with the Pixel Watch, and the scale of its deviation, seems solidly outside the norm.<\/p>\n

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We’ve been in contact with Google about our observations, and the Watch team is aware of this bug. Earlier this week we were advised that a reboot should help resolve the issue. Repeating earlier tests, though, we’re still seeing almost exactly the same discrepancy as we did when we first started using the smartwatch. Users in Fitbit’s support forum were given the same reboot advice, and similarly report the situation being largely unchanged for them, post-reboot.<\/p>\n

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Since this problem is almost certainly in software, we’re optimistic that a fix is \u200b\u200bobtainable, but the question is how long do we have to wait to get it? Until it arrives, Pixel Watch users risk making health decisions based on inaccurate data, and anyone dieting or otherwise tracking calories should probably think twice about what the Fitbit app is reporting.<\/p>\n

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Fitbit calorie estimations are appearing wildly inflated With the Pixel Watch, Google is understandably leaning really hard into its Fitbit ownership, making that service a prominent part of the wearable and its health features. Fitbit instantly brings the smartwatch some valuable brand recognition, but it’s also a name that carries with it certain expectations, occupying …<\/p>\n

The Pixel Watch has a calorie problem<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46480,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/pixel-watch-battery-life-could-be-shorter-than-galaxy-watch-5s\/","url_meta":{"origin":103393,"position":0},"title":"Pixel Watch Battery Life Could Be Shorter Than Galaxy Watch 5’s","date":"August 16, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Google's Pixel Watch may only have 24 hours of promised battery life. 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So far with Pixel The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86289,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/googles-pixel-watch-just-got-an-early-unboxing\/","url_meta":{"origin":103393,"position":4},"title":"Google’s Pixel Watch just got an early unboxing","date":"October 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"TL;DR Somebody managed to get their hands on a Pixel Watch early. The Redditor shows the watch off from every angle without the screen on. Since Google I\/O earlier this year, we've gotten our fill of Pixel Watch renders. 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