We had good weather yesterday (clear skies, 70 degrees, 15 mph wind), so we went for an afternoon hike in the mountains. It was lovely. The ground was still covered with several types of yellow flowers and a scattering of blue flowers. The shady corners had pale bell-shaped, lavender flowers. But the best was a water course on the west side of the hills (Lost Arrow Trail) with golden poppies (photo below).
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| Golden Poppies on Lost Arrow Trail |
When we hike, I carry my iPhone and use an app, Runtastic Pro, to track our effort and route. Last week I noticed that there was a large discrepancy between the results the Oura app and the Runtastic Pro app gave me for estimates of calories burned and distance walked. So yesterday, I ran a more systematic test. The photos below show the Runtastic Pro data on pace and distance.
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| GPS Map of Route and Pace |
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| Pace and Elevation Tracking |
The Runtastic Pro app, which uses the accelerometer and GPS on my phone, said I had burned 378 calories and walked 2.8 miles. The trailhead map says the loop is 2.6 miles. When you add the distance from the car to the trailhead and back, you get 2.8 miles, confirming the Runtastic Pro app’s accuracy for distance. Like the Oura app, the Runtastic Pro app adjusts calorie burn for height, weight, gender, and age.
Because the Runtastic Pro app measures distance precisely, it does not report steps. However, it does report stride (step length). Using that measure, I walked 8,213 steps. It also reports average steps per minute. Using that measure, I walked 10,001 steps. If you take the average of these two estimates, I walked 9107 steps.
Before the hike, the Oura app said I had burned 39 active calories and had walked 1,507 steps, the equivalent of 0.5 miles. After the hike, it said I had burned 225 active calories and had walked 9,692 steps, 3.7 miles. So, I calculated that during the hike I burned 186 calories and walked 8,185 steps, 3.2 miles. The shift from sedentary to active movement is clearly shown on the activity graph.
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| Activity Graph |
Once again, it seems that the Oura app substantially underestimates effort when it calculates active calories. Users can override the Oura calculations by entering an Activity and adjusting its effort and duration to achieve specific results on the Oura app, if (a) they have some other way of measuring effort accurately and (b) they make the entry soon after the Activity ends. Hopefully, the Oura app will improve its algorithms for monitoring daytime activity in the future and manual adjustments won’t be necessary.
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| From Lost Arrow Trail looking East |
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