In this brief guide, we are going to answer the question, “ How does Samsung Health measure calories?”, and provide you with more tips on how to keep a check on your calories.
How does Samsung Health measure calories?
Samsung smartphone comes with a preinstalled app Samsung Health. The app comes with a feature that measures calories burned throughout the day. The app logs daily activities and makes an estimate of the calories burnt with daily step count, exercise activity and sleep time calculation. In this article we will ask more questions regarding how Samsung Health measures calories burnt.
What are calories?
According to an 1863 article in the Journal of Nutrition, titled “History of the Calorie in Nutrition,” a Calorie was defined as “the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water from 0 to 1 degree Celsius”. In 1925, calories were scientifically defined in terms of joules in which 1 joule is the amount of energy needed to force 1 Newton through 1 metre.
In terms of calories, one calorie is the equivalent of 4.18 joules. The term Calorie is often used to represent kilocalorie and is shortened to kcal which is widely seen at the back of food products to represent their nutritional values.
How the Samsung health measures calories burned?
When we talk about burning calories, what we are essentially saying that the body burns calories to perform respiration, digestion or temperature regulation etc. The body burns calories while in a completely restful state as well.
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) is the number of calories your body needs to function at rest. The BMR is identified through age, gender, height, weight and daily physical activity. The Samsung Health app calculates the calories burnt during rest, walking and exercise by initially calculating the BMR and using it as a reference.
How accurate are the calorie burnt measurements?
All smart accessories compute calorie burnt by extrapolating information from exercise activity, daily step count, heart rate and general time at rest. None of these methods are very accurate.
It is easily arguable that even if the tracker is inaccurate, it still logs daily progress. The inaccuracy would be by the same number of points, each day.
Hence, if you sit around most days, the app will clearly show an you burnt more calories on the day you have decided to go for a walk.
Someone willing to log their activity level and maintain a good healthy routine can benefit from this information by knowing where the person spends most of their hours. It would also be useful to someone who is willing to add an exercise regime in their daily routine.
Viewing the calories burned from daily step count
Samsung Health tracks your daily step count. It provides you with details regarding your daily walking schedule. Samsung Health is easily accessible in all Samsung phones as it is a preinstalled application. To view the step count and calories burnt during walking
1. Navigate to and open the Samsung Health app
2. Select the ‘Home’ tab, the app opens up a list of health activities
3. Click on ‘Steps’. This shows the detail of step count, distance measured, calories burnt and activity timeline which shows at what time the maximum steps were recorded.
To measure calories burned during exercise
Samsung Health also offers to log your exercise routine. Samsung Health comes loaded with an extensive variety of exercises that can be tracked to calculate the amount of calories you’ve burnt.
The health app however, only provides an estimate of calories burnt based on the time you have been exercising. If your exercise is not listed, then please select an exercise that closely matches the one you are performing. Following are the instruction Samsung mentions to help you track your exercise routine [2]
Step 1: Navigate to and open the Samsung Health app
Step 2: Tap the Exercise section. Select the exercise you would like to do
Step 3: Tap the exercise you would like to do. If you can’t see your exercise listed, tap ‘Add workouts’ to select from the full list of exercises.
Step 4: Set a target for your exercise by tapping the down arrow next to Basic workout. If you don’t want a target, select Basic workout
Step 5: To start recording your workout, tap the Start button
Step 6: Tap the Start button
Step 7: Tap the lock icon to save power and prevent accidental touches of your device
Step 8: Slide the lock icon left or right to unlock your device
Step 9: To end your workout tap Finish
To pause or end your workout tap Pause
After you tap Finish, a breakdown of your workout will be displayed. Tap Images or Notes to add more details about your workout.
Another way to track your calories
The Samsung Health app also offers to track your food intake. The app allows you to keep a food diary, showing you the calorie and nutritional breakdown. It can also help you set calorie intake goals to keep up with a diet plan.
To use the feature
1. Navigate to and open the Samsung Health app
2. Tap the Add on the ‘Food’ section.
3. Select the type of meal you are recording
4. Enter your food into the Search bar (or select Frequent or My Food to choose something you have recorded before), then select the correct item from the drop down list.
5. Check that the item is correct, or select one of the other items on the list, then tap Next. Repeat until all food items have been added.
6. You will now see your total calorie and nutritional breakdown for the day so far. Tap Trends at the top of the screen to see your food intake statistics over time.
To set a daily healthy eating goal
1. Tap the ⋮ sign in the Food screen section
2. Tap “Set daily calorie target”
3. Use the slider to select your daily calorie goal
Conclusion
In this brief guide, we discussed about “How does Samsung calculate calories?”, and provided you with more tips on how to keep check of your calories.
